welcome back loyal listeners of the stacking slabs podcast network to season five episode twelve of the wnba card podcast my name is caitlin i go by cold lunch cards mostly on the instagram machine but you can find me other places as well and i am so excited to continue to deliver collector driven and community focused content to wherever you're listening to us today and i say us because i'm joined by none other than jenny she goes by at w sports collector on instagram and she is here to represent the seattle storm i am so so excited about this episode i had the opportunity to meet jenny last year at the national she's got one of the best storm collections i've seen and has some real grails tucked away a few that i'm sure people here will be very very envious of and i'm excited to kind of get into that get into your storm fandom get into your pc the approach to how you collect and then we've got a special spotlight for this episode to talk all about the player of the day promotion which as we get into that segment jenny was a a big winner in a giveaway of some kind and we're gonna get into kinda what that experience was like and how community means a lot especially to wnba collectors but without further ado for people that maybe don't know who you are jenny do you mind introducing yourself and saying a few words about who you are yeah so my name is jenny like you said i go by w source collector mostly on ig and i've been collecting kinda like storms since twenty twenty when i moved to the city so it's been a long journey it hasn't been always been storm but but like throughout the years i've narrowed it down to kind of the teams i support and think we might get into a little bit but i collect like not only wnba but other sports so i think it's gone down to mostly local teams yeah we're gonna get into it we're gonna get into kinda like where the storm rank in your prioritization how funds kind of compete across leagues and sports but i kind of want to start here and take me back to the beginning jenny of kind of like how cards first entered your life you mentioned twenty twenty collecting the storm but was that like the first time that you were introduced to cards it actually wasn't and it was funny because with the world cup kind of like brought out like some memories i feel like the first beginnings of me collecting i feel was with the world cup stickers back then i grew up in south america so it was big part of the culture every four years collecting the world cup stickers so i've been still doing that every four years so i used to just buy packs and kind of like same as now it's like buying and selling i used to go to school and like sell stickers to buy more packs and kinda try to complete the album so it was like kind of for a solo moment this year just looking back at kind of like the trajectory but after that i moved to the us in twenty ten and i believe that was when the big three the miami heat was like pretty big on salvage so i kinda got into it a little bit of like nba collecting but i kinda stopped after going to college so after that i didn't collect as much but after after graduating i think i got a little bit more into kind of the us women's national team for soccer that was kind of what got me back into collecting and then kind of discover kind of the wnba and collecting through that that's awesome i just wanna kinda like cover our bases here to kinda give the audience a little bit of an understanding of of who you are as a collector so i kinda have a twofold question for you the first is how would you kind of identify in the hobby we have a lot of labels that we put on people we say you're a collector you're an investor you're just like all these different things yeah alright guys sorry for that interruption my dog happy was not too happy somebody walked by but i'm gonna re ask jenny this question about just there's a lot of lanes going on in your collection whether it be leagues sports different avenues i know that you buy sell trade when you think of your identity as a collector what kind of categories of the card ecosystem do you identify with would you call yourself a collector first an investor like what kind of i guess labels do you put on your yourself in collecting yeah i feel like i consider myself more of a collector first i didn't when i got into it it was like kind of like mostly collecting i think throughout the years the hobby has become now a little bit more expensive yeah like i've had to shift towards like deliver more buying to kind of like buy more cards because yeah sometimes kind of like especially after the caitlin clark effect everything became so expensive so i think it's like a mix of both but i would say collector first but then i do sell a good amount of cards now i think that yeah i think that most people fall into that kind of like hybrid bucket it's like we all wish we could keep every card that comes through but at some point especially as you mentioned with arlene with the boom after caitlin clark it's just not financially responsible to do that so i completely understand i guess could you give us the the thirty thousand foot view of where your pc stands today and just like really broad level maybe like the teams or clubs that you support before we get into like the storm specifically yeah so i think most of if it's a storm lately but i also i used to try to collect everything but i've over the years especially the last two years i've been trying to kinda narrow down my pc just because like you said it's like not sustainable to collect everything i wish i could collect everything but back then it was much easier to collect everything but for now i think i'm still working through it but what i've narrowed down is to kind of the teams i support so the storm kind of the rain the soccer local team here and then for like soccer also arsenal women's so those are the big three right now and just a little bit of tennis too just because i grew up playing tennis so that's like kind of the ties and always grew up like watching it and still watch to this day so it was kind of like yeah the big like three or big four that i collect but on top of a storm i also like to collect like maybe hall of famers like future hall of famers or players i like like right now it's been paige beckers and aj wilson like the big two that i kinda like collect a lot of that i've been picking up cards that i can but yeah i think overall that's where i'm at right now and it might be evolved at some point too yeah i think keeping that flexibility is really important and it sounds like along the way your collecting habits or strategy or intentions have kind of evolved and we'll get into that more but i guess high level do you think that moving between sports and leagues especially women's sports and women's leagues have kinda like taught you anything about the hobby that maybe you wouldn't have known if you were stuck in say just the wnba lane or just in the women's soccer lane i'm just curious i feel like yeah i guess it's just like kind of made me kind of think about which cards or players or teams that i truly wanna collect because like i said it's like becomes like too much so i think it's like taught me just kind of like narrow down of like my collection and which cards i truly care about and like which ones i liked on my pc i think one thing that i've been doing recently is like just going through my pc and just looking at the cards is do i feel like kind of enjoyment of like oh my god i like own this car and i'm so happy to own this car if not maybe it's something i can move on from so that's kind of like an exercise that i've been doing lately too yeah i like that exercise i try to apply like the marie kondo method of like is this giving me joy if the answer is not immediately no or immediately yes then i know there's another card out there that can and that's a lot easier said than done so when you talk about it as being an exercise i think that's a really good way of doing it because it does feel like you're kind of like stretching your brain or stretching your collecting habits and it's it's difficult to do so i completely understand that point and i i especially wanna kinda like echo what you said about how while you're collecting many different lanes and leagues and players and teams etcetera etcetera that can feel like you have a lot to choose from it almost actually limits like you were saying what to pick up because you have to operate within some sort of control environment so i find that despite the fact that it might seem like you're collecting a lot of stuff and that therefore it's easier to decide what comes in sometimes it actually has that opposite effect it gets tougher and tougher to decide what comes into the pc and we'll get into kind of what you think or what kind of makes something eligible to be in your pc but before we get there i i kinda wanna ask you a big question and this is a question that i wanna use to kinda set the tone of the episode one of the reasons why this podcast started was to create a space where women's sports can be celebrated and talked about on their own terms so as i've asked every guest this season i wanna present to you this big question what is kind of being a fan of women's sports and collecting women's sports card mean to you jenny yeah so i guess i started kinda going back to my childhood too i grew up in south america venezuela specifically and back then we didn't really have a lot of women's sports kind of like representation so i guess if it was for one word it's like representation i used to be a big or still am a big sports fan and it wasn't really common for girls especially to kind of like gravitate towards sports back then so it was just right now it's just representation of like i wanna support a league that i wish i had growing up it wasn't until i moved here when i discovered the mostly it was the women's women's national team when when they're fighting for equal pay and like the battle in twenty nineteen that kinda like brought in and kinda made me discover that there's a whole world out there of like women's sports i first it was the women's national team and then i discovered the nwsl then wnba but yeah i think growing up i also wanted to play sports but there was like not many leagues that i could join as a girl the only sports i could play was tennis and even then i was just playing with boys mostly so i think also just looking back i think tennis also is unique where you have tournaments where it's like both men and women's it's always televised so it's always visible so i think it was like one of the only sports that i saw like women play in like serena williams kinda growing up yeah it was like one of the only icons that i could on the women's side that i kinda knew about yeah i hear that so much has changed and yet we talk about equal pay we talk about you know the fight in twenty nineteen from the soccer side and this year was the year that we saw any sort of respect put on the basketball the women's basketball sign with the with the new cba agreement so there's still a lot of representation to go but the strides that we've made and the strides that we see in the card collecting in our hobby have really become just ten x what i think we used to have available so it's really exciting to hear that because i think as two women talking about cards here it does mean a lot it it does mean more than just saying it like being able to see women celebrated at the same level with the same kind of prestige of products and availability and accessibility it means so much like when you say i you know i didn't get to see these people growing up i didn't have this access if i would have had these cards when i was growing up like this would have been such a big deal to me so i i completely understand and i hope that the listeners you guys feel heard by jenny's story there because i think it's it really rings true to what this whole podcast is about is is really about that kind of feeling that cards bring so before we get into more cards and what we want to talk about i want to talk to you about the storm and that's kind of the focus of today's episode is the seattle storm for anyone that's kind of newer to the wnba or unfamiliar with the storm i did want to give a little one hundred and one for everybody so as a little bit of lore the storm arrived in the year two thousand as one of four expansion teams alongside none other than the indiana fever and two other franchises that each folded within three years their first season the seattle storm was a little rough they finished six and twenty six and last in the league but that record turned into a very good draft pick none other than you guessed it lauren jackson a year later they took sue bird first overall out of yukon and those two carried the franchise to its first title in two thousand four over the connecticut sun seattle has four rings total two thousand four two thousand ten two thousand eighteen and twenty twenty that ties them with the most in league history with the links and the comments and they're one of only two franchises that have never lost a finals there's eight players on the wnba twenty five team and two numbers hang in climate pledge of the arena that have been retired and right now things look a little bit different they're kind of in full rebuild mode they lost madam president and skyler diggins in free agency they've got a new head coach and the whole operation runs through a twenty year old french center so i guess let's kind of take it back what was your first moment of the storm where in that history is jenny's entrance to the seattle storm so it was back in twenty twenty actually when i moved to seattle it was actually kind of the bubble so like everyone can remember that so like it forced us i was watching a lot more women's sports too because there was also the bubble there was also the women's national league the nwsl league that were they were playing too so it's one of the sports that we could kind of like watch but yeah that was my intro twenty twenty when they were playing the bubble and they actually won so it was good feeling just kinda getting an intro to the city and getting just like a championship i was it drew me in right away yeah no kidding i think joining or you know becoming a fan of a team in your new town and they bring home a chip there's really no turning your back on the franchise that has to be just like alright i'm sold and i am a die hard fan now and forever when you think about kind of the history of the franchise because i know that you understand the history of the franchise is there a particular era that feels the most meaningful to you is it that twenty twenty bubble era is it today or is it maybe some of those previous years that you weren't really watching but you might have this like respect and nostalgia for yeah i feel like i have like respect to kind of that like two thousand and like kind of like how they build up i feel like and i think we'll get to it in a little bit it's like super and lauren jackson kind of like are kind of like the kind of like cornerstones also of the franchise but i think for me kind of connection it might be the twenty twenty kind of like season it's like not an era because that's when i started i wouldn't do it justice saying it's like kind of like before i came here just because i didn't get to experience it myself so maybe actually it might change hopefully in a couple years with the new young corps so for now i think it's twenty twenty but hopefully good years to come yeah for sure and we'll we'll kinda get into what it means to collect during a rebuild versus when you had like a very successful run but before we get there i wanna ask you you're in seattle you're a storm fan are you making it to climate pledge arena are you watching games in person and if so can you kinda describe the the atmosphere that makes it feel different yeah i try to go as many games as i can i actually live pretty close to the arena i think it's like a forty five minute walk oh that's nice pretty nice so yeah i try to make it when i can but just the environment it's just like amazing just like feels like you even on losses it feels like such joy to just go to a game there's been a couple games that i've been like the playoffs against the aces where it ended in heartbreak with the three i think it was jackie john that hit like the game winner was a couple years ago it was like i believe it was super last year maybe so that sticks kind of like the sad ones stick out too but there's been like so many amazing memories as well just going to the games here yeah i feel like climate pledge is one of those arenas or stadiums that sticks out when i think of just like different it just feels different i've never been but when people talk about it they talk about kinda how seattle is a women's forward city like they understand that women's sports are important and exciting and they win over there i guess do you feel that when you're in the stadium and do you think that reputation kinda makes sense i guess or am i just like no i think i think it is i feel like even just going around you think it's mostly storm you you see people wearing like kinda like storm merch out there it's not as prevalent as like some of the men's like mariners and seahawks but i feel like it's like pretty awesome to just see people just wearing a storm merch around so that's like pretty cool to see but i'll say it's a big women's sports town i feel like we have our hope i'm not missing any major ones but it's like the nwsl we have a team wmba and also the pwhl that we got a team pretty recently still haven't gotten into hockey but i think that's like the next word that i might get into there's always more coming it feels like especially in cards like when you speak about that and it sounds like you've got a lot of things to balance so i'm curious what kind of you think the storm give you as like a fan as opposed to maybe some of these other fandoms that you have whether it be women's soccer maybe women's hockey in the future but just kinda like what does the storm give you that you can't really find elsewhere i feel like i'm just like drawn to the team i don't know why and i guess like just that's just kind of like there's a history of winning history with the team so it just like kinda brings me back i also enjoy just watching basketball a lot too but i don't know i think that's a good question but it's just like i think the team the legacy of like kind of the history of the team that just keeps me coming back to and just like following yeah for sure you picked a good one i think that the storm are one of the most storied franchises in the league i would i mean from my vantage point and this is just anecdotally i feel like they're one of the most popular teams because of the names that you mentioned the likes of lauren jackson sue bird and then future stars that have international reach it feels like the storm are always on the cutting edge of international prospecting with australians like lauren jackson now with their new core of a frenchman and a spaniard it just feels like they have a big base so i i agree with the legacy the history just kind of the importance of the team it all makes sense before we get into your pc i have three kind of like rapid fire questions that i ask each guest so maybe we could get into those you've talked about the personality of the team and this is a hard question but i'd love if you could try to describe the identity of the storm franchise in three words or less and if you could kinda like explain why you picked those three words yeah so i think the first one i feel like i reset it just and now it's like legacy i feel like four championships i don't know what other i think there's a couple others but i don't know if there's any other teams that have that more i know we're tied probably for four yeah so it's just like that legacy what comes some of the greats that have played and for the storm it's like super lauren jackson and i think something unique it's that doesn't happen often it's both of them go drafted and they retire so it's kind of like the tide and they got their judge jerseys retired so that's like a pretty cool just like the history i guess like the other one it's like kinda culture i feel like it's been up and down but i feel like kinda with ownership it's like been a good culture i know it we were not the first but i think it was the second ones that build a facility specific for our training i think first ones were the ases i think we were second even that and then like you said climate pledge it's an amazing like arena and i still remember when they were on building kind of the locker rooms they looked so cool and yeah so like compared to like other teams hopefully all teams eventually end up in the same kind of like environment but it's just like a cool kind of like being like the team has been invested on so ownership like feels like they care about kind of keeping the culture but i understand like with the culture too it's like kind of the front office i feel like they've done a pretty good job good job it's like all our like kind of like winning teams have been come like came from like drafting so you have lauren jackson super they won a couple championships after that it was a down year i think i remember like super talking about maybe going into a rebuild phase but then they drafted stewie and then jewel lloyd and they won another two and then now it's like another down year but we have kind of the core which i feel like i don't know maybe in a couple years we'll know but we have yeah we have dom we have flage and then we have our fam which i don't know how we got flageo but i'm not complaining i just crazy news to wake up to getting flageo but happy she's with the storm now but yeah i think we got a core group and i guess like the third one would be optimistic which is kinda work for now so like pretty optimistic it hasn't been the best year but hopefully in a couple years once they kind of like play together and kind of develop with each other hopefully we'll see couple challenges but we'll see i i i would agree with all three of those especially the last one of optimistic the core that the storm is building with how young they are is very promising so i think you have a lot of good things to look forward to as a storm fan i wanna ask you if you had to build a storm mount rushmore and you could carve four faces into the mountain who are you putting up there i i'm sure lauren jackson and sue bird are up there right they have those are the first two that i was okay thinking about so those two for sure it's like they're like retired their years just are retired you have to put them up there and like just like what they accomplished i think the other two will be like stewie and then joe lloyd i know it's like kind of the more recent ones i don't wanna put some of the younger players just now just because i cannot just win championships it's like they have that under the belt they won with seattle so kinda feel like yeah the other two will be stewie and yul i agree i think each of these episodes where i ask people to do this some i like more than others that storm one is perfect i have no comments no complaints that is a core four that like i think you could look up at that mount rushmore and be a very proud fan and be like wow we are winners so i completely get it i'm pretty glad i thought i'm leaving but yeah i think they'll still go up there yeah they're still up there one hundred percent my last question before we get into the cards of it all is this concept of the disrespect index it's this idea that maybe players perform really well on the court but that doesn't translate into their prices that we see in the market i'm curious because you're buying and selling what storm player you think would score the highest as on the disrespect index i think for me it's not a current one i'll say it's it's like one of the players i put on the mount rushmore stewie i know it's like her cards are still like selling pretty decent but when you look at her career she won like four national championships i don't know if that's ever gonna happen again on either side for basketball at least i don't know if that's something and sometimes i just think about it and just stuff of like how do you win four in a row yeah how does does that happen they had a great team but stewie was like the forefront of that team for those four years so it's just like kinda crazy sometimes i just i don't keep up as much with her cards as much especially on liberty i use them but sometimes i just see sales pop up i'm like how is this so cheap compared to kind of like others just like regular autos too i feel like you can say that about asia too but i think she's getting a little bit of attraction i think with like the asia dominance stewie has like kind of taken a step back on kind of her market but i feel like so so cheap and she's won with delivery too she won the storm with delivery and she won in college too yeah just a all around winner who does not get the sales i endorse that message one hundred percent i think stewie is a player that if i had the funds and was looking to put like real money into wnba cards her rittenhouse stuff just feels so untapped right now like you said there are sales that are happening but it just doesn't translate to the record and the resume that she has so great pick on that jenny i guess let's let's we're twenty five minutes in i wanna talk about the cards that's what we're here to talk about and i wanna talk about what you pc how you do it and how you think about it so if you don't mind taking me back to the beginning of your storm pc let's say it's twenty twenty you're just finding out the storm getting to like really start to love the team fall in love with the team what did kind of the first evolution of your storm pc look like so when i first started it was more of like a broad kind of mentality like i said i wanted to collect everything but in terms of storm i kinda wanted to focus on kind of rookies so i tried to pick up some of the sue birds lauren jackson kinda rookie stuff like the like flir some of the those that you don't see pop up often some of like i know we'll talk about this later but the subaru rift card and then yeah just like kind of narrow it down into those looking back i wish i could like try to go for like some of the lower number like twenty nineteen twenty twenty i have never seen those pop up i know there's a goal that storm has like carson i don't think he'll ever let that one go is that's like kind of a card that i wish i could have like pursued but i guess that's like kind of like what you learn to it's like i wish i had like that more like narrowed down kind of like knew what i wanted to pc back then like i would have made a bigger push to pursue those cards instead of like kind of try to collect everything so i couldn't go for those like higher priced cards back then yeah i mean hindsight's twenty twenty right i think like we all go through that kind of learning phase and you only learn by making that mistake and i think every nobody comes in understanding how this hobby works like there's so many different ways to go about it there's no right way but i think a lot of us find ourselves looking back and being like damn it why didn't i do this you know and so like i completely understand that feeling especially as we see over the course of the last five years just prices continue to rise and rise and rise and rise so if you kinda were looking at your collection today and had to think about it from like big picture i'd be curious to hear if you think of your collection as like a curation if you think about it as storytelling or if it's just like i like this card i think it's cool and therefore it's coming into my collection what is kind of your approach to that look like yeah so i think lately i've been trying to focus on kind of like cool cards that i kinda like so more of like the eye appeal okay i've been shifting more towards that and also kinda like gregory if i don't see many pop up kind of like lower numbers of kind of goals black goals like for a panini products that's what i try to focus on because once you see one you probably won't see one later on so if i see one i'll try to pick it up some some of the low low number stuff more rare stuff right now that looks cool too yeah this is a topic that i don't think is talked about enough one in ultra modern collecting but two in the wnba space and that's this idea of i appeal so i guess when you speak about i appeal it's different than say what we commonly hear i appeal talked about which is usually most people associate it with like really old vintage baseball cards and the centering of it and the color because back in the day people didn't take good care of their cards therefore when you come across one that has quote unquote good eye appeal that's worth a lot more than one that say didn't have that said care and intention but when we think about our lane of collecting of what you're talking about eye appeal means something completely different what does it mean to you for a card to have good eye appeal i feel like couple things i feel like the first thing i think about it it's kind of like that goal i think like goal parallels are like so like where to find and they just like look great i feel like just like the goal it's like kind of always like the popular one but away from that it's like maybe some of those like color match where it's like a product that like kinda like perfectly matches with kind of like the team i know it's like not the wnba but i've been going through just like some of the arsenal it's like i've been trying to collect all the red carlos of like the first year in chrome it's been challenging it's like the same arsenal has like a big fan base so it's hard to find out those like early kind of stuff but that's like the stuff that i think about when i appeal it's just like stuff that pops when you like first look at it or kinda like perfectly fits the team colors and also like cool inserts as well yeah i think that that's something that we'll see at least i hope and i don't know but i hope that people will put more emphasis on that i feel like we talk about how we evolved as collectors over time and when i first joined the hobby i was really confused why golds out of ten or golds out of fifty were worth more than say a green out of five or some other one of those like parallels that might be lower numbered it's because of this concept of eye appeal and i think as we mature as collectors and as the market matures with it we'll see those hopefully explode in popularity and therefore price so i think that you're taking the right track and i'm i'm i operate in the same mindset so i'm glad that people are talking about it more even though it's historically been associated with more vintage cards i'd be kind of like curious to hear about you know we talk about iappeal we talk about some of these players that you're mentioning that you're pc ing about how you go about the less glamorous side of things which is paying for it we talk about funding we talk about how we kind of buy and sell are you ripping cards to pull these are you maybe engaging in like the prospecting side of things i know that you collect collegiate cards how do you kinda go about that strategy of saying hey i've got i've got good taste and this takes a little bit of cash to make happen what's that look like for you yeah so it's a mix of both back then not as much anymore i still rip a good amount but back then twenty twenty i used to rip that so much i still remember kind of like my first taste into wnba collecting was ripping a case of danvers it's like not possible now but that's one of the first products that i ripped and i know i think i've shown you the goldie that's one of the products that i pull still have to this day i don't wanna i know you picked one up so i feel as bad of like not moving it but still have it on my pc but yeah just like a combination of like ripping but also kind of like right place right time i had a couple of agents like the rittenhouse i don't know how it ended up with four autos offer room here and then three i had like at one point i had three seal twenty eighteen sets i think since then i've narrowed down to just one raw and then one auto but just like kind of those like kind of just like came about and like they appreciate it so much it's like hard not to move so those like kind of sales kind of just like cycles back into just buying kind of like more parts and not going to the pc yeah i think that sustainable cycle is something that we have to learn and some people obviously get a little bit luckier than others but like having that understanding of the market you know you have like on the ground experience of ripping you have product knowledge you can kinda have this toolkit and know how to fund without overextending yourself which has allowed you to get some really awesome pieces in your collection i kinda wanna talk about that what are some of the cards in your storm or wnba pc that you're like kind of most proud of you'd consider to be like maybe the best to you personally yeah so i think two the two of them they were on my mom i don't know if you want to show it to you i actually brought this in it's like all the origin stories i feel like they're pretty cool it's like kind of like the throwback like even the uniforms it's like the two kind of like major like players for the history of the storm both of them were one on ones i called this in a break so yeah on a this one and then i found this one by chance at a local car shop when i saw it i knew i had to have it but yeah those two kind of like are just like cool inserts like kind of that eye appeal i think they look pretty cool especially the super one i think that's one that i'm so happy that i just stumbled upon at a car show i think the next one it's like the dumb i know i'm big on dumb it's like the flawless out of ten woah that's a pretty cool one i think i feel like prices are still like i'm not complaining i feel like it's like so low right now for her potential but i think it gives me a window into buying her cards right now before they become unattainable and i guess like the other two people in the mount rushmore it's like stewie and then first year jolie gold so those are kinda like top ones on the pc for storm those are epic like genuinely epic each one of those as you pulled them up i was like okay these can't get better those are all sick and they all represent like those really really big names of the storm and i just like to see a distribution to have represented of the team is super cool and super difficult to get cards that like you said not only have great eye appeal but not everybody can own them and but you do which i think is just a testament to you know learning and to evolving your collection to reflect what you want it to be i guess to that end where are you looking forward to i guess in your collection what's next what are you kinda hunting for on the storm front right now i think on the storm front i feel like i'm pretty satisfied right now i feel like i got some great pieces i cannot complain right now but i guess for future releases so kind of like the new rookie class some our fam and flage i don't know i feel like that i don't think flage has any autos yet hopefully i'm hopeful like she signs at one point but just chasing some other cards i don't know which one exactly i feel like i'll decide once like kind of products come out just be more selective too of like what comes out in a couple months yeah i'm hoping they come out they keep they always say like donerous is gonna come out in july and then it's october and we don't have it so we'll see but as they come out i'm sure you'll get your hands on some and they'll be pretty sweet i guess i wanna talk about some of those names that you just mentioned alafam flage johnson dominique malonga these are names that are kind of defining the new era of the seattle storm and it's really fun to collect an era as it's unfolding and i'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the roster so my first question to you is what kinda makes today's group its own thing what do you like about the roster today i think just like main thing it's they're kind of your con group we have like three players that kinda really like and i feel like they mesh really well like sometimes it doesn't really happen right away but i feel like just on their first and second year together they just feel like they play well together and they enjoy each other i think it's like we're looking at it from the outside too like we don't know what goes on on like the locker room but feels like they have a great environment with the team and i know for natisha heidemann i think she also came in and has been a great addition to hopefully hopefully she stays for a couple years to be part of like kind of like google because she's been a great piece i know like side tangent but she started a run group locally i haven't been to i'm not a big runner but maybe i'll like join one of her run clubs that's like coming up pretty soon but just like that like group feel like it's has great vibes i feel like yeah i think that you know as as of this recording this hasn't aired yet so you haven't heard this but i talked to a washington mystics collector and he spoke to a lot of the same ideas that with a young core and a new coach you get this dynamic of playing for each other that you don't often see elsewhere and i think as we have this new cohort of young female athletes getting into the wnba joining a team with people of like the same age we're seeing this kind of excitement and passion for playing one with and for one another that maybe we just hadn't seen before it just feels like a different era and i can feel that kinda like oozing through the storm i had the opportunity to watch the storm when they came to target center they got their ass kicked but that's that's okay but what i was really impressed by was none other than alafam this is like an exciting exciting prospect who's coming up who is very young and she's being paired with somebody else who is just as is if not more exciting in dominique malonga i guess do you kinda have like a take on one them as players and where you think they're gonna go but two kind of the philosophy of collecting these rising stars as they're entering like the formative years of their professional i guess experience yeah so i think that one thing it's also let's say if it doesn't pan out right sometimes i think about one especially when i go for those like higher like price stuff yeah would i be okay if they just lose the value i feel like it'll be okay because kinda just enjoy watching them play on the court i think there's like so much talent and i feel like especially dawn i know she came in and she was like super young you can see sometimes kind of like she's still developing but i feel like you see like those flashes sometimes once she like kind of fully develops she could've been like unstoppable i think like for our farm i know she was playing on the european leagues i think she has a little bit more experience but it was amazing to see how fast she just like clicked into the team like she was able to use like kinda picked up everything and just like kind of integrate into the team so just having more like playing time together just like excited to see how it looks yeah i think that those two i remember when both of these drafts were happening those were the two players that i really wanted on my team like those were the two players that got me the most excited i buy into kind of the international prospecting hype of you know get somebody who's really green really young you know we're talking like nineteen twenty years old and entering the league they just feel like a little bit different builds than what we've seen before it's just a different brand of basketball that's entering this league and i think that you're completely right that the potential especially for dom and i i i might even say like fom i think has even a higher ceiling just because of my personal bias but they're both like like you can build around them do you know what i mean so i guess do you feel like seeing that potential can translate into kind of confidence in buying their cards like or do you think you just like them like just watching them and you're like oh i just enjoy this or do you you kind of think about it as like a play or like a prospecting play of any kind i think that's a mix of both so like like for everything especially now that i've narrowed down it's like kind of like seeing the potential but also them as like a player and like how they interact also with kind of like the city and like the fans it's like pretty cool to see too it's like another card that's like kind of unique to the lobemia it's like they're so like i said like natisha had them and too may i need to pick up some of her cards maybe when she's in a storm kind of new products it's how they embrace like the community around them so it's like cool to see so it's like kind of a mix of both yeah i i just wanna underscore that point that you make because i completely agree i think that specifically in wnba collecting we as fans just it just means more to have a player that say reflects the values that you hold or embraces your city or you know just sees you as a fan and understands that you guys are part of this altogether and i think the wnba and its players really do a good job of that and it makes me wanna collect their cards like when i talk about fi that's how i feel i'm like oh she's a great player but she's also a great person and i think a lot of these storm players the way that you speak about them i can feel that that it's not only just on the court play but it's off the court kind of behavior attitude all of that and i love the plug for naticia heidemann you know i grew up with her she was in green bay and i just love everything about her play and i'm so glad that she's being embraced by seattle she's like just one of those players that i could never wish ill will on i'm like i just hope she does so well so yeah i'll be able to look out to see how she looks in the storm uniform on cards but yeah i i completely understand that that allure i guess speaking of on the court play going into the season we're talking about you know having a really solid young core with high expectations but at the same time really young how would you rate the success of the storm today as we're recording compared to kinda your expectations heading into the season i feel like they're a little bit under i think i got myself too hyped i remember seeing some of the pre season games off with i think i don't know if she had like twenty points on one of the pre season so i was like before the pre season games i was went in fully knowing that it probably was gonna be a down year but then i saw some of those like pre seasons so i think i kind of like i just like my expectations were like kinda went up a little bit but now it's like gone down a little bit but that's what initially what it was i feel like it's hard to just like win right away i don't think it ever happens like straight away so i think it's just like as expected i wish we could have won a couple more games i feel like there's been like blowouts but i feel like a lot of games too they come close it's like yeah single digit or like just like on the fourth quarter i feel like it's also because like the team is so young too kind of the courts like learning to close out games as well yeah it's like kind of like the main thing that i feel like it's a good good living experience right now yeah yeah i think that the storm are in a good position obviously this season didn't end the way you guys or like it's not ending the way that you guys want it to but i think the future seasons ahead i mean there's nothing to complain about there's a lot of success coming there's a lot of pieces there it's just putting them together so i'll be excited to kinda follow along with the storm i think of the storm as being like we we talked about in the beginning historic you mentioned legacy you know there's a lot of great players if you had to think about the seattle storm and the wnba as kind of a food chain and i'm talking in terms of like popularity in cards specifically where do you think you would fall to me i think like the fever or like the obvious at the top because of their their just like prices with caitlin clark you see the caitlin clark radius effect of all the players that surround her their prices going up where kinda in the food chain would you put the storm are they at the top are they in the middle or are they more towards the bottom i think i'll put second i feel like at the moment might be the wings not the storm i feel like wings right now with page pickers kinda like feel like it's might be second so we'll put it on the three to five range i feel like right now just because we're having a down year you see like down prices are not as crazy so i think it's like a little bit lower than the wings so it's like in between that range that's pretty good for a down year jenny that's pretty good for a down year i agree also i think like the legacy plus these new exciting names equals pretty high up there they they've got a great fan base and i'm excited to have you representing them on the podcast and i think one thing that we previewed at the beginning of this podcast was that we were gonna dive into something specific to you something that's super special and something that i've been kind of like waiting to ask you both personally and on this podcast which is the player of the day promotion so panini for all those that are listening that aren't aware of this promotion they ran the first ever wnba player of the day promo with more than a hundred thousand collectors and five hundred shops around the country and none other than yours truly jenny won the whole thing panini staged a surprise reveal with a personalized video message from cynthia cooper you they threw a party in february with your closest hobby friends and seventy five apparently like lcs regulars up in seattle and cynthia cooper was there there was a q and a autographs box breaks contests and you sat and opened product with a legend i guess could you kind of take us through this whole experience what kind of how did you win and then we can get into kinda like what that night was like yeah so well like i don't remember exactly the process of like how it ended up like winning but i remember there were the lcs at dj sports for us was running the player of the year i think it was like the first year they were doing it for wma i don't know if it's second or first second year but first year so it was like the first time so it was just got enter into kind of like the contest by buying w and b products and then we've been the player of the year like silver packs and i think when you pull one of the players that was assigned that week or day you got entered that's how you enter and then i kinda like went away i was like in i think it was like december i was back in florida visiting family in miami i got a call from djs that i had i didn't know i had won the entire thing but that i had some prices for me to pick up so once i came back to seattle i just stopped by the lcs and there was a reveal that i didn't i it wasn't just like a price it was like the entire thing that i have at once so i was kind of in a little bit of shock but excitement i just seen also the video the personalized video and that there was gonna be a like party with like the hobby friends and like the oscars it was like pretty cool yeah that is like so awesome also shout out djs i follow them on instagram they're a great local card shop in seattle and if you guys are online they have like tons of deals all the time on their instagram and so when i saw that and then i was like wait i know jenny what the hell like she won this whole thing like that's such a cool experience i guess could you kind of like maybe reveal when you were talking to coop maybe like what you guys talked about or if she had any thoughts on cards or kinda what that experience felt like to be kinda in the presence of a wnba legend ripping boxes like that's that has to be like once in a lifetime right like yeah it was like pretty cool so got to talk to her a little bit like kind of like back backstage i know i remember talking about her about like kind of like the college i know i was going into march madness she actually predicted ucla she said they were gonna win she it was like their pick i was going to uconn but she said pretty sure she told me ucla will be the winners she wasn't wrong so i gotta give it to that but yeah just like talk about like different things also i don't think she's a big collector but i still remember i asked her about because at the national the previous year i know anne marie had showed her like some of the cards i think it was a yogurt card that was like for italy i think she still remember that i like mentioned that that i knew her and then she was surprised because i get that goes back to like the community's like so small we know each other pretty well i yeah mentioned that that i knew anne marie and then she still remember the card that she's offered but it was like pretty cool and then yeah i also mentioned the one of my favorite like college players that i took away was sarah strong and actually it's like a pretty cool story we're ripping nil yukon packs and she pulled the on campus and she just gifted it to me it's like a it's like pretty hard to just like hid she just like hid it from one of her packs to ruin ripping packs at at the shop and she's like gave it to me so that was like pretty cool but on top of those i also got to open some other boxes like twenty twenty four prism impeccable boxes and then dandruff so that was like pretty cool and i got like an angel reese signed jersey and i actually pulled her auto on the done rest boxes so it was like pretty cool that is so awesome this is like i feel like if people were like oh what's the perfect party i could throw for a wnba collector that like is up there like to be surrounded by community be surrounded by a legend rip some boxes talk about cards it just had to be like such an affirming moment to be like i've been in this hobby for so long and now this is kind of just like something that i wanted it just must have felt so awesome to be part of that community and i'm so glad that you had that experience and that you were able to represent us us meaning the wnba card collecting community so well like when i saw that article come out and all the posts about it i was like i'm so glad that she won because you're just such a good ambassador for women's sports in general let alone card collecting i just i was so happy for you so appreciate that well yeah yeah i think it's a very small community so i feel like i'm glad it was someone that we kinda like new to in the community so it was like pretty cool but pretty grateful to have like won that contest too absolutely well let's move into kind of another segment before we round out today's episode which is something that we've called the personal grail this is where i asked the guest i asked jenny before we recorded to kinda look through her pc and pick a card that really represents her storm fandom it doesn't have to be the most expensive it doesn't have to be the most flashy but the one that kinda means the most i know that you sent over a picture and i'm just curious if you could talk about what you chose and why so the car that i chose was for the car it was like the subaru i think we talked about it in like from previous podcast i feel like it has been brought up a couple times already but it's like kinda like a grill for me i also found it at a car shop just walking around someone had it it's like the super ripped what's unique about this one that i really like it's like it's a pretty good grade for like this card most of the grades that you see it's like a psa seven psa eight those type of grades and also it's like the red patch too not the red the yellow patch i feel like most of the patches are like the white ones because like i was like actually looking at the jersey it's like kinda like on the shoulders that's like the yellow most of it it's like white because of like that's most of the jersey so picking up a high grade and like a color that also doesn't pop up as often it was like pretty unique so it's kind of like a grill for me and what makes it neat i feel like it's talked about before on this like some of the previous episodes is it's like an actual from the jersey she wore on her first year i don't think it's like something unique that i don't see that happening especially with the nonassociated patches right now that it's like been like put out even like for the high end like the flawless dom it's like not associated it's like a high end card but the patch doesn't have like much meaning to it so that was like pretty cool to kind of like own that like piece of like history i guess so i think that's why i chose it as like kind of my grill yeah i think as you said a few people have mentioned this card and i think it's earned its spot on just i'll say this on the wnba card mount rushmore pyramid like period ever like top four card that represents like this is one of the greatest wnba cards ever produced because of that fact that you said that it was something that had never really been done before and we haven't seen really recreated at least not a scale of the jersey that she wore her first game it just feels special it feels closer it feels more tangible and i think it ending up with a fan like you probably means a lot and you can almost feel like you feel that history and you have it in your hand and it's it's like it's real i know that you sent kind of an accompanying not a card but like another thing with this do you wanna talk about that yeah so also i included i also stumbled this upon at a car show too it's like kind of the things that just like as a collector i feel like it's kind of stuff like cool stuff that it's like pretty cool to own it's like an actual ticket for the like first game at like it was back then it was called the key arena before it was kind of like renovated to be like the climate pledge but that's like a pretty cool it's like first game at home it was actually against the comets i was like looking at the back the other day and we lost by a lot of points or actually i was looking at the game we lost by i think thirty points but it was against like the comets which was like their final year on like the four p so i guess we lost against them i'm not converting too much and but yeah that is so cool though to have that piece of history especially as we enter this digital era where it feels like physical programs physical tickets are just disappearing you can't even get your hands on them anymore i think we'll see a lot of fans gravitate for that aspect of just having something real and tangible and like traceable to specific moments become more popular and i would bet that those are not easy to find especially with such a wide big fan base like the storm that feels like such a special thing to pair with you know the sue bird rookie relic that also has ties to just like first i think that's something that's super important to collectors especially collectors that have kind of like matured in their collecting habits over the years so to see those paired together i think is a true testament to storm fandom so great work bringing those together i can't think of their own yeah for i think like something else for the silver that also was thinking about i know there's been a talk a lot of like the nba debut patch i feel like in like it's like kind of like similar with this one but it's like a little bit like more attainable because there's like multiples like yeah there's not only one and i i get the uniqueness of like the patch and like being just like one in the world but for this one it's also fitting for the wnba where like a lot of collectors can actually it's like realistic to kinda go and buy and own this like piece of pastry too it's an interesting point that you bring that up because i really like the rookie debut patches that we're seeing in the nba and nfl and i i do wish we had them in the wnba but to your point and to add on to it the patch is only one thing that they kinda just like stamp on there they just kinda smack it on right it's kind of like an afterthought this it's manufactured for the points of putting it into the card whereas when sue bird walked out to wear that jersey her first time on the court it wasn't to just like produce a card it was to go play a game and then they happened to put it in a card that despite the fact that there's more available almost feels more special to me i don't know how you feel about that but i think like you know we can talk about rarity of that card depending on the color like you were talking about how the yellow shows up a little bit less because it was only on the shoulders compared to the white which adorned the entire jersey if we would have went back to that year that that card was produced it would have been very interesting if they chose to make them serial numbered and put kind of like the nameplate patch or the logo patch and make that a one of one and then the rest of them you know different numbering how about we just bring that back like what can we just we won't even ask for the rookie debut patch but can we do something like that doesn't even have to be like the first the first jersey just any jersey but like you said i think that that's a really important card in the history of storm collecting for a myriad of reasons yeah yeah i don't see i don't know if we'll get like something similar but i'm hopeful i'm hopeful we do some of those like cooler patches but for now i think it's like pretty happy to own that one one hundred percent it's one of the coolest cards ever i hope to have my hands on one of those one day so that's pretty sick well before i let you go jenny i wanna give you the floor to kinda mention anything that maybe we didn't get to that you wanted to talk about and also to share with the listeners where they can find you if they wanna follow along on your collection collection journey maybe they're just interested in chatting about the storm where can they find you on social media so i go by w sports collector on ig that's yeah the only platform that i cannot do cards on or that i post are card related on ig but yeah i think we covered pretty much everything that we were gonna talk about so pretty happy yeah this has been a great conversation and each conversation ends the same way and it's with this question and i wanna pose this to you if somebody's listening today and they're new to the wnba or maybe they're not even new maybe they just don't have a team that they feel super strongly about but they want to they they wanna pick one and then they wanna collect the cards as you as you kinda represent the seattle storm fandom could you make your elevator pitch for the storm so i guess i'll go back to the three words to describe the franchise it's legacy we have a good winning i guess like winning culture too goes with legacy and then optimistic i feel like we have a pretty fun and young core group that should be exciting on the years to come so you're getting early you won't be like getting in while they're winning so it's like a great timing to just like join us to support the team and then just like even if you when you look at if you look at it from the card collecting it's not one of those like kinda rookies that everyone's chasing so it's still like kind of like still have a window to buy some of their cards or before they become like too expensive maybe in the future and then on the basketball experience like climate pledge it's like an innovate amazing environment so if you're in seattle or just like coming to visit it's like always a great time so to go to one of the games awesome well that's that's a great pitch i love it i love the storm and i'm so glad that we got to talk jenny about your collecting your fandom about player of the day and about that awesome grail so thank you so much for joining and thank you to the audience for listening to us today we'll be back next week with another team collector but everybody thank you so much