What's going on, everybody? Welcome back. Stacking slabs, your hobby content alternative. I'm your host, Brett McGrath.

It's that time of the week, the flagship, the OG, the goat on the main feed here. It is how this all started, and it is a opportunity each and every week for me to come here prepared with a topic that I think will resonate with you.

Typically, this is coming from a place of personal experience, something that happened from the previous week or the weeks before that I felt so compelled to do a whole damn episode on, and that's what we're going to do today.

So we're gonna talk about the power of trust in the hobby. This is a very important theme.

It is a theme that I have been spending a lot of time behind the scenes digging into. Now I am running a hundred miles an hour each and every day to create really freaking good content for you, for you, the collector.

That's what I'm doing. There's a part of me that I left aside, a little bit ago, and I I I like to build things.

I like to do new things. And so there is a lot of opportunity, ideas, things that I'm thinking in the background that I think would potentially help improve some things that are going on in the space.

So I'm exploring those opportunities. I'm working in the background. I'm working behind the scenes, and I'm trying to continue to do whatever I can to add value to this hobby.

And I share all that because it's all trust based. It's very important, and I'm excited to dig into this topic. I'm gonna do a quick check-in on the happenings of my world, what happened from this past week.

I don't know if you've been paying attention or not, but we've been, make sure you follow this show wherever you listen to podcasts, Apple, Spotify, whatever it is.

Hit the follow button. There's there's new shows coming out all the time, new episodes coming out all the time, and we're creating shows.

I'm in the business of creating shows. I love it. I love the whole process. Last week, we dropped five episodes on the main feed, five straight days, all different topics, interviews, all this stuff.

So if you're liking what I'm doing or you're coming around for the first time, there's a lot more where this came from.

So make sure you hit that follow button. We won't hit five episodes every week, but my goal is to always give you something different, exciting, informative, and fun to dig into.

Make sure you check it out and support all of the sponsors that are supporting this platform. All of them. Make sure you go check out what they're doing. Good people, great companies.

I'm fired up. I'm talking about Card Ladder. I'm talking about the worst sports cards. I'm talking about eBay. We're creating shows, man. We're in the business of creating shows that I think will resonate with you.

So appreciate all your feedback in the DMs. The volume of DMs I get each week from you who are fans of the show, who are talking about the show, wanna go talk about more topics of the show, or just say, you know what?

I enjoyed this. Appreciate that. Without you, the collector, hitting follow, telling a damn friend, there's no stacking slabs.

We're growing, baby. Appreciate that. I also have a topic before we dig into the broader topic that I'm just gonna throw out there, and I'm gonna say it.

And I had this moment recently. This was like a couple days a few days ago. And I look back on my own collecting, and I look back on my buying.

And this past week, which, the the theme of this episode will be being vague about cards because, I'm not ready to go into a lot of details on some of this stuff, but I and and we'll talk about another card here in a minute.

And I can't go into details on that because it was a deal that was made. But I will say this. I could not be more fired up than I am right now about 2024 Prism.

And the the this is coming from twenty twenty four Prism Football, 2024 Prism WNBA. As I'm recording this, NBA is just dropping, so I haven't really gotten the time to dig through that yet.

But if it's tracking in the same trajectory as the football and WNBA product, then I'm probably gonna say nice things about it too.

I think this product is the best thing that Panini has done in a long freaking time. And this is not coming from a place of let's go to card ladder, and let's go look at values and see stuff getting sold for thousands of dollars.

That's not what this is. This is just quality, design, photography, and bringing that all together into one card. When I got my first, 2024 Prism card, and right now, my my brain is mushed trying to think of exactly what it was.

I think it was. My first one. Colts, rookie, defensive end, gold Prism. When that card came in the mail, I was like, god. This is awesome. I like, there's something about the design elements, the the the photography, just the quality.

I was like, into it. And then I started to, you know, continue to run my process. And especially with the Colts Prism stuff, you know, I'm trying to get all the golds, black finites when they pop up, opportunistic about gold vinyl.

I gold Colts team set complete. I'm waiting on one card, and this is not, everybody but the every active player, rookies and active players.

I'm waiting on a card. I'll take a photo, put it up on Instagram at stacking slab. But just when you're buying that volume of volume of cards and they're coming and you're looking at them and you start to get excited.

I'm just like, man, this is good. Then I had an opportunity last week to land two different black finites, and and this was crazy.

It happened in the matter of fifteen thirty minutes from each other two different leads and that's why relationships are so important cards not publicly listed.

They were DMS to me. Hey, dude, check this out. This is where it's at. This is what it costs And I'm like, let me use you as channels to help me get these cards.

I appreciate that. That's what's so important about relationships and trust. And I'm previewing the topic, but I'm I wanna stick on the topic of 2024 prism.

So a lot of excitement. I just think these cards look great. In this in these moments in time, when a manufacturer is losing the license, a lot of the time, they mail it in.

I'm thinking about just the dying days of the Topps license with football, like twenty fifteen finest football in chrome. Ugh. Not my favorite. Not great.

It's not good stuff. I'm thinking about the last Tops products in the former license before it went to Panini, and now it's back to Tops. But those last days, photos sucked. The cards sucked. They just weren't good, in my opinion.

But so it's so nice in this, like, final in these final moments of the Panini license or Panini having these licenses that they're releasing a product that rules. I will forever be a Prism simp because I believe in this product.

I believe in this era of collecting, and that brand is the brand of this era. I I I will I will die on the hill. And I'm just so thankful that Panini America is not mailing it in on this stuff right now.

I'm enjoying it. I really am. This got amplified when WNBA Prism came out. Same thing. I'm like, this stuff rules. Great design, great photography.

I like the parallel structure. Not mailing it in. There's a Panini has gotten so much shit over the years. Some just, maybe some unjust. But I'm just gonna take a minute because I'm a Prism simp to just say thank you.

Thank you for putting out a new product that is exciting me enough to lead with it on this podcast. Appreciate that. I talk about Prism almost every damn week on Prism Talk in the stacking slabs Patreon.

If you wanna hear those episodes, you want focused episodes on topics that fall into Prism, there there's enough to go do a whole, like, a whole podcast on Prism.

There's enough there. Twenty twelve to today, all the sports, all the parallels, all the one and dones, their topics for days, and I love it.

Prism talk is in the stacking slide of Patreon, and I'm gonna do I'm gonna go Broadway on 2024 Prism and expand on this, but wanted to just let that out.

Just let that out. I'm I'm fired up. I'm excited. I'm excited about the product. I'm excited to see the the NBA stuff, and it'll by the time this goes live, it'll it'll have mostly all trickled out, but it's it's great, man.

I believe in this product. I'm excited, and, like, I like 2020, '20 '20 '1, 2022, 2023 better.

Twenty twenty four, we're talking some some entering the top tier territory for me. I understand this is a aesthetic design, product, photo, all these things, they're all subjective.

I'm just sharing my own personal experience. I like this stuff. Alright. Let's get into it. There is going to be some vagueness to this, and I'll I'll I'll talk about why I'm being vague.

But I sold a card to a long time friend while I was happy with the move and happy with getting that deal done. The bigger story to me is how easy it was to make it happen, and the reason it was easy to make happen is because of trust.

In this hobby, trust is everything, whether it's dealing one on one, making auction purchases, or even engaging with content.

Reputation is the foundation for absolutely everything that we do as collectors, as independent business owners, as operators, as dealers, flipper, whatever it is.

Whatever you do in this hobby, if you're not thinking about your reputation and trust, you've got it twisted.

So in this episode, the goal is to dive deep into how trust is built, how it is lost, and why it's the real currency in this damn hobby.

Alright. Let's let's get into the catalyst for this episode. And I can't talk about the card specifically that changed hands.

And the you wanna know why I can't talk about it? Because I believe in when there is a direct deal, one to one, there needs to be a layer of privacy that goes on with that.

When I sell something to someone, that is not my card anymore, nor is it my right to share that that card is moving hands.

It's not my right. If the owner of the card, that that is their news. That is their news to share. I think one of the biggest I don't know.

It's not like a a huge issue, and I don't think anyone does it, maliciously, but I don't like it when people sell something to someone and then immediately say it's sold in their stories and then tag the person of who they sold it to.

That that that's I think that's poor operating. Like, that's not your news to share. You sold the card. You can say you sold the card, but don't don't tag the person.

That's their news to share. Selling a card, it's not your story. It's the new owner's story. So so we're gonna be really vague. I've not coordinated with the new owner of this card.

I'm just recording this damn episode to try to give you some content. So so understand that there's gonna be some vagueness vagueness to this. Now the new owner gets the card, wants to post it.

I'm happy to repost it, and we can help close the loop on what the exact card is. But this card had a really good run-in my collection, but it ultimately didn't fit into the larger vision of the collection that I was building.

Now it if you looked at my collection and looked at this card, it wouldn't feel completely out of place.

Like, it might connect to a player I collect. It might collect connect to a a product that I collect, but the connection point wasn't as sturdy or wasn't made of Teflon like some of the other cards in my collections.

And that that is what I have really realized about building and and collecting.

It's like, man, you really know what you want and what you're here for when a card needs to represent a bigger p a bigger picture or is a piece of a bigger puzzle.

The backstory of this deal is that it went to a trusted friend, and the trusted friend had been after this card for years.

So the seed had been planted. And I talk about this a lot. Like, when you see someone who has a card that you want, you know the person, you don't know the person, it doesn't matter.

Like, when someone's posting something for the first time, they just picked it up or sharing it in their collection, it's probably not too appropriate, especially when they don't have a for sale tag on it to go try to get that card from them.

What you can do though is say, damn, I really want that card, and here's the reason why I want that card.

And if you're ever in the mood to sell that card, please keep me into consideration. This is one of those instances. I have done plenty of deals with this individual. They had won this card.

I have bought cards from this collector. And so that, the the this there has been a situation where I've made an offer on a card that he's had that was substantial, that he wasn't wanting to move, but knew that it was going to me.

And so it's just the table had been set already. The deal was effortless. Okay? I knew I needed the capital based on something else I was working on and doing, And I literally just said a DM, simple message.

Hey, man. I'm gonna make this available to you. Here's the price. There's no room on this price. This is the price.

Let me know if you wanna get a deal done. And instantly, it was this is a fair price. Give me can you give me a couple days? And I said, absolutely. Now I send plenty of cards to opt auction, and I we've gotta show auction talk.

It works. It's efficient. But there's something different about direct deals with trusted collectors. The peace of mind and lack of friction in dealing with someone you know and trust is a really good starting point to get a deal.

You know, a lot of people say it's going to a good home, all this. Like, you know, that phrase, I don't I don't know about that phrase.

It is what it is. But to me, it it's so much easier to sell to people that I know because I know I'm not gonna take advantage of them, and they're not gonna take advantage of me.

I know that their word is good, and I just think that that, like, that doesn't just happen. That can't just happen because trust doesn't just get established overnight. But I think that's the point.

The point is that when we are not buying, selling, and trading, that when we're in this community, when we're engaging with other people's content cards, conversations, like, these are all opportunities that we have to build relationships and ultimately build trust with others.

And we are doing ourselves a disservice when we are in the game, and we're not trying to build relationships.

We're doing ourselves and our collections a disservice because I've said this. Last year, all of my best cards that I bought last year all came from private deals, all came from people who I knew and trust.

That says something. And none of those relationships and none of those cards that changed hands happened in, like, a week or a couple weeks.

It all took a lot of time. That's why I think trust is an asset in the hobby that we need to really think about. We need to consider our own position and how we think about trust.

This hobby is nothing without trust. Trust is the ultimate currency. A collector's reputation is everything, whether you're buying, selling, trading, or just participating in the community.

In a hobby with high value audit items, trust separates great deals from questionable ones. I think a lot about being consistent.

I I hope if you're a listener of this show, you if you were talking about this show, this platform, me as an individual, one of the things that you would say about what you like about me and what you like about this platform is consistency.

I would hope that's the first one of the first things or descriptors that you would come out of your mouth. I work towards that. I work towards being reliable.

I work towards being consistent. And I think reliability and consistency in content, like what I'm doing here, or in communication, what I'm doing when I'm not here, when I'm interacting as a collector, is critical.

And that helps build and develop trust, and trust compounds over time. So much of this hobby is transactional. It's let me just get this deal done.

Let me put one over on someone. Let me make as much money as possible. Like, that's the mainstream thing to do. Like, the things we don't like about the hobby are the things that aren't focused and intended to build and develop trust.

Those are the things we don't like, and there's a lot of them. That's why I think it's a huge problem in this hobby and why I think there's an opportunity to help solve it.

It's never gonna be completely solved, but we can make it better. I mean, we've got ideas. We've got great thinkers. We've got technology. We've got so much opportunity to better improve and streamline trust in this hobby.

We do. I'm confident. I spend way too much time thinking about this. But trust is that currency, and I think trust compounds over time. Collectors with great reputation can get deals that others can't.

Relationships lead to opportunities like the deal I just made. Being trustworthy means people seek you out instead of vice versa. This happens with businesses too. Businesses and trust.

If you are a business or brand in the hobby and you're not thinking about your your brand and not thinking about what other people are saying about you when you're not in the room and you're not obsessed with experience, you're not obsessed with service, you're never gonna make it.

You will never make it. You have to be focused on trust. This is why some hobby businesses thrive while others fade.

Those who prioritize trust build long term customers or customers for life. Too many hobby businesses take their reputation for granted, assuming customers will continue to come back.

Let me tell you this. The hobby is moving too rapidly. Change is happening. So much is happening on the industry front front that it's a terrible position to be in to not be trust first. Without trust, we have nothing.

I think we need to build. We need to protect trust. And for collectors, convinced the card that I'm talking about in this deal that I made, I think I could have marked it up for maybe a thousand more dollars.

And it wouldn't have been like, oh, let me get this right now, but it it there were it would have just taken more time. I didn't. I I I listed no room. Here's the fair price.

I know it's fair, and the deal got done. I when I wanna move a card, I don't have time to wait. I'm I price it to move, and I price it to move to people who I know and trust. I think chasing every last dollar is ridiculous.

It it's it it it hurts relationships over in the short term get gains, hurt relationships. We should be prioritizing those relationships. We gotta look out for others. Helping someone land a PC card goes a long way.

Think for hobby businesses, communication, transparency, and fair dealing, build trust over time. Why? Businesses with good reputations don't need to market as aggressively. Word-of-mouth does all the work for them.

Trust can be lost. And once it's lost, it's hard to regain again. That's one bad deal. That's one shady decision or one moment of greed that we we do or our business does can sacrifice years of goodwill. Collector's talk, man.

Bad actors in this hobby never last long. I think trust is a competitive edge for collectors and businesses. The easiest deal I've ever made recently wasn't going through a bunch of channels or a bunch of negotiation.

It was through a relationship, and it was because of trust. I would encourage you to think about your reputation in the hobby and how you think about trust. Are you someone collectors wanna deal with?

Are you protecting and strengthening your trust with each move? The more trust you build, the more access to opportunities and enjoyment you'll get from this hobby. It is the best damn investment you can make.

I love sports cards. I love doing this. I appreciate all of you tuning in and showing out each and every week. Check out the Patreon group. Hit the follow button. Tell a damn friend. A lot of calls to action. But you know what?

I'm here. I'm trying to deliver value, and hopefully, you can reciprocate on the back end at minimum. Thanks for showing up and listening. We got a lot more content coming at you. Stacking Slabs on the other side. Talk to you soon.