we are back another episode of the flagship here on stacking slabs your hobby content alternative the episode that is the heartbeat the engine of the stacking slabs network without the flagship i am not sure we could keep the rest together these episodes mean so much to me it has been the foundation for the last six years delivering one of these episodes each week where i share my experience i talk about the psychology around collecting dial into a collector topic that is on my mind and today's episode is going to be very personal it is going to be an episode where i talk about the biggest card i've ever bought i'm going to share the process the decisions the psychology behind the purchase and hopefully a whole lot more the intention with this episode is to share a point of view from one collector i've always viewed my collection as living breathing it grows it retracts it evolves so much is going on this movement is exciting to me i appreciate change i appreciate watching change in my collection and also understanding while that change exists which pieces stand tall in the long run we're gonna dive into all of that and more make sure you are following along wherever you're listening to this episode so hit the follow button a lot of you have been doing this and i do appreciate it if you're enjoying this enough tell a damn friend a great way to do that is sharing in your story on instagram if you do that i'll repost i'll probably put tell a damn friend and copy on it i do appreciate all those shares and we are putting more content out than ever before in the stacking slabs patreon link is in show notes and shout out to inferno red technology the sponsor of the flagship they're the engineering team behind some of the biggest names in sports and collectibles like dc sports eighty seven com c collectors upper deck and ebay from ai powered solutions for startups to full stack platforms for industry leaders their team can tackle your toughest technology challenge they build awesome software for the hobby for leagues and fans and everyone in between see what they can build for you at inferno red dot com i spent thirty thousand dollars on a roman reigns card i think that sentence will get attention we love prices we love big prices in this collecting space it also leaves out most important parts of the story the conversations that made the deal possible the collections i had to break apart the cards i had to sell the trust required from the different people involved the responsibility that came after i said yes this was not one transaction it was a series of decisions that forced me to decide what i wanted my collection to become i sold non one of one parts of my tyrese halliburton collection i broke apart my cold school prism and gold vinyl runs that had taken years to build i consigned around sixty cards through multiple rounds of sales and i did that all in part to acquire one single card and that is the twenty twenty two immaculate roman reigns premium memorabilia autograph platinum one of one on card autograph superstar worn slash used material it's in a psa nine holder that doesn't matter much but that's a nugget to share this is a card tied to a wrestler i've been following for years a card connected to a story that helped bring some consistency into my life during covid a card from the period when roman reigns became the tribal chief and started one of the longest championship reigns in wwe history this episode is not about whether you should spend thirty thousand dollars on a card it is about what happens when the right card asks you to make a real decision what are you willing to sell what parts of your collection have already served their purpose are you buying the card because it's scarce or does the card belong in the collection you want to build next excited to get into this episode and i appreciate you spending your time with with me there's so many places where you can consume hobby content i shared on instagram last week a photo of the card and i shared a small blurb and i alluded to the fact that i'm gonna probably be doing an episode on that that purchase this week well this is the week i wanna talk through the entire process how the opportunity started i wanna talk about relationships with the seller i wanna talk about the conversation that led to the deal i wanna talk about how i paid for it i wanna talk about the cards that left my collection i also wanna spend time on the subject roman reigns my relationship with wrestling wrestling cards and why this carried enough meaning for me to make those decisions i'm sharing the number because i think it matters thirty thousand dollars is a lot of money i had my cards out and my kids were getting ready for bed and of course i shared this whole lead up with my wife and i realized since i had it i hadn't shown her yet and i showed it to her and she was just like wow it's here and my oldest daughter jolene was like let me see it and she said cool and i said you know this could probably fund your first year of college and of course as a five year old or almost five year old she has no concept of money but that really put things into perspective for me i'm not gonna hide behind vague language and call it a major deal without telling you what major means and i think at the same time the number is not the lesson the real lesson is what the purchase required from me this card forced me to examine my entire collection it forced me to separate the cards i enjoyed owning from the cards i still felt responsible for owning those are not always the same thing the opportunity started with one of my favorite collectors in the wrestling card community roscoe you might know him as lonnie skywalker four collector roscoe reached out to me and asked if i had interest in the roman i knew the card i knew it was important i also knew that it was going to be expensive what i did not know was how expensive this card entered roscoe's collection from a private deal there's no data in card ladder around this card and the uncertainty matters when you're discussing a one of one there's no second copy sitting in another listing there's no other owner you can call next week you do not wait for another copy to surface at a price you like more the owner controls the only available supply and that creates pressure it can make collectors act faster than they should it can also make a collector confuse the fear of missing out with a reason to own the card and i had to separate those two feelings did i want the card because i had a chance to buy it or did the one chance matter because this was a card i had wanted for the type of collection i was building those questions might sound similar but they're not scarcity can create urgency scarcity cannot create meaning on its own and the relationship with roscoe also mattered this wasn't a cold message from a person i never met roscoe and i had recorded a podcast together we had talked over the years we briefly met at the national a year ago and our relationship did not start with this transaction and that history gave both of us context he knew what i collected he knew my connection to wrestling he knew this was not a card i plan to buy post and move a few weeks later i knew how he collected i knew this was a meaningful card in his collection i knew he was not sending it to me because he had no other options that did not guarantee we would make a deal it gave us a place to start relationships do not move the need to negotiate they change the quality of the conversation though you have more context you have more trust you can speak with more honesty about what each person needs roscoe gave me his number i countered he told me i was close he also told me he had received a trade cash offer and that was an important information there was a real alternative on the table for him he was not required to wait for me i came back to him with a thirty thousand dollar cash offer he accepted it and that is a short version of the deal a seller gave me a number i countered he had another offer i improved my position and we agreed at thirty k the number alone does not tell you why the deal worked roscoe and i also spoke over the phone and i think this matters in big deals because that call mattered when deals reach this level i do not want every part of the conversation just happening through direct message messages are good for sharing numbers they are not always good at communicating intent a phone call gave us room to discuss our positions roscoe was able to explain what he needed from the deal i was able to explain how i planned to complete it neither of us had to guess what the other person meant when collectors make large deals communication is one of the few risks they can control you cannot control where the market is going next you can't control whether another roman reigns card sells for more or less you can't control you can control whether the per other person understands the terms you control whether the payment plan is clear you control whether the timeline is clear you control whether concerns are discussed before they become problems i let roscoe know from the beginning that i had planned to use the wharf sports cards for card funding i was not presenting myself as someone who was just sitting on thirty thousand dollars in an account that i was ready to send i told him how i planned to fund the acquisition i told him because he deserved to know roscoe was comfortable with the structure and that openness helped the deal move forward it also created a responsibility for me i now had to manage expectations with roscoe i had to manage expectations with nick at the wharf sports cards i had to do everything in my control to get roscoe paid once roscoe received his money my responsibility moved back to paying the moved to paying the wharf back the card was in my collection kind of not really the transaction was not quite finished and i think that distinction became important i wanna be clear about what card funding did for me it gave me time to convert card equity into cash it did not make the card less expensive it did not remove the responsibility it did not turn thirty k into free money it moved the payment timeline that structure only worked because i had cards in my collection i was prepared or kind of prepared to sell the ultimate judgment day let me tell you everybody it worked because nick understood what i owned and we had we've worked together we're friends he knew what i had in my collection it also worked because roscoe understood the process it worked because i committed to selling the cards required to close the balance the worst version of this decision would have been buying the roman first and planning to figure out the rest later that is how emotion takes control of a financial decision i needed a repayment plan i needed to know which parts of my collection were available i needed to act once the deal was complete when a one of one becomes available the collector can feel like the like the hard decision is whether to say yes the harder decisions often come after the yes will you sell the cards you said you were willing to sell will you accept the fair offers will you follow through when the cards leaving have memories connected to them will you pay back the obligation before moving on to your next purchase the purchase was one conversation paying for the purchase required action over a decent period of time the first move i made was selling a couple tyrese or a few tyrese halliburton cards locally it was kind of ironic once this deal was made for the card and i was in sales mode i saw a post from boom baby cards three one seven on ig about needing the tyrese halliburton gold prism run and those cards were great cards and they were my collection but i had a mindset of moving more towards just one of one hall halliburton cards so it seemed like a good opportunity to make a deal these were not cards i bought without a connection they were cards i enjoyed building and owning when i made that deal in person that money went directly back to wharf this is where the word sacrifice can become misleading i did not hate those halliburton cards i was not waiting for a reason to get rid of them they had given me value i enjoyed finding them i enjoyed building the run run i enjoyed looking at them together selling them did not erase any of that the ownership still counted the enjoyment was real a card does not need to remain in your collection forever for the purchase to have been worthwhile that was one of the first lessons from this process collectors often treat a sale like an admission that the original purchase was wrong i didn't see it that way i think your collection changes because you change your priority changes your budget changes the cards available to you change a card can be right for one period of your collecting life and wrong for the next one those halliburton cards help fund something that carried more meaning for the direction i wanted to go with my collection that does not make the halliburton run a mistake it makes it part of the roman story the larger decision involved my colt's collection i built a colt's gold and colt's vinyl collection that was significant those projects required time they required research relationships they required me to keep watching for cards that didn't surface i love building them and i'm a colts fan those cards represented my team prism history player connections and the years of collecting work breaking those runs apart was not an easy decision it was also a decision i had started making before i admitted it to myself the process of building this collection had become a chore i was still trying to make complete runs i was still watching for missing cards i was still carrying the responsibility that comes with a long term collection project the satisfaction had changed i was putting effort into the runs because i had already put so much effort into them that is an easy trap for a collector you start a project because you love it years pass the love changes and you keep working on it because stopping feels like wasting the time and money you'd already invested the past effort begins making the decisions for you and i had to ask myself direct question if i did not own these cards today would i start building the same runs again and my answer was no the answer gave me clarity it did not mean the collections had failed it meant they had reached the end of their role in my collection and the roman opportunity forced me to act on something i already know knew i had made some sales to andy and shane at any card exchange i moved a move or i moved cards that had taken me years to bring together those were local relationships with people i knew and that mattered to me i knew the cards where the cards were going i also knew i was making a fair deal that would help me reduce the balance after those sales i still had work to do i ended up consigning i think around sixty cards to nick at the worst sports cards it took multiple rounds of consignments there was not one sale that cleared the entire balance that would have made things a lot easier there were no single card waiting in the background to solve the problem i had to go through my collection i had to make choices then i had to return to the collection and make more choices and that process taught me more than buying the roman did it is easy to sit in front of your collection and call every card important it becomes harder when you need to rank them which cards are central to what you collect which cards are connected to a past version of your collection which cards are you keeping because you still value them i was not selling junk i was selling cards with demand i was selling cards i liked this is how judgment day and consolidation works if you want to acquire one of the best cards in your collection the outgoing side often needs to include cards you care about selling cards you do not want is inventory management selling cards you will like for a card you value more value more is a collecting decision and i received years of utility from those sixty cars some gave me the satisfaction of finishing parts of runs some gave me relationships with other collectors some gave me content ideas some sat in my collection during periods when they were the exact cards i wanted to own and they had already done something for me i did not need to keep every card to prove that the experience mattered and that shift helped me to sell without feeling like i was destroying my collection i was changing its direction there's another part of this story that needs to be said i do not have an unlimited collecting budget i run a small business i have a wife i have a i have three small kids i have a mortgage bills responsibilities and people who depend on me those facts do not disappear because of a one of one when a when a one of one just becomes available the roman had to be funded through the collection i was not willing to place the purchase ahead of my family i was not willing to take money that the business needed to pay for it i was not willing to create an open ended obligation with no plan to close it my collection needed to pay for the card and that boundary gave me a way to evaluate the decision if i was not willing to sell enough card equity to fund the roman then i was not willing to buy the roman those are the same decisions collectors tend to separate buying and selling buying feels emotional selling feels financial in this case they were connected the roman was worth thirty thousand to me if i was prepared to release thirty thousand in cash and card equity if i wanted to keep every other card and own the roman then i did not have the budget for the roman that is part of large acquisitions that gets left out of each post you see the card you do not always see the cards that left you see the one of one you don't see the sixty cards consignment you see the announcement you do not see the rounds of payment that followed i want you to see both sides because both sides are the deal to understand why i made this decision you need to understand my relationship with wrestling wrestling has been a part of my life since i was three years old i have followed the characters i followed the stories i followed the changes across eras the connection started long before sports cards became part of the equation when i returned to the hobby in twenty nineteen wrestling cards played a major role they gave me an entry point that felt personal i was not trying to buy what every other collector was buying i was collecting people and moments connected to something i had followed throughout my entire life wrestling cards help me remember that collecting can be built around your interest it does not need approval from the wider market it does not need to fit into the largest sports card category it needs to matter to you and that connection shapes stacking slabs i was learning about cards while reconnecting with stories that had stayed with me i learned products i learned parallels i learned how wrestling collectors thought about rookie cards first appearances autos memorabilia and character changes i started understanding which cards carried meaning behind beyond the serial number roman reigns was a part of that process i was a roman reigns fan before the tribal chief era believe it or not i was always the guy during these pay per view parties when everyone was booing roman reigns i was the guy in the roman reigns superman punch cheering for him i think that is worth saying because a lot of people change their view on roman after twenty twenty the tribal chief character gave fans the version of roman many had wanted to see there was more control there's more depth there was more tension around every relationship roman did not need to ask the crowd for approval he carried himself like the person wwe had told us he was for years i had stayed with him before the transformation i watched the pressure the pressure that was placed on him i watched the reaction from the fans i watched him continue through it all by the time the tribal chief arrived it felt earned it did not feel like the wwe had introduced a new wrestler it felt like roman had taken control of the story people had been telling about him the history matters when i look at the card i'm not collecting one character from one year i'm collecting the path that led to the character the covid period also sits inside this card for me life fell uncertain normal routines disappeared live events changed sports changed wrestling changed but wwe kept producing shows the presentation was different the buildings were empty then the thunderdome arrived roman returned at summerslam in august twenty twenty a week later he won the universal championships the bloodline story started taking shape roman paul heyman jey uso jimmy uso the relationships became part of the conflict family was not background information family was the story roman was not defending a championship in isolation he was building control around the people closest to him the story kept developing you had to remember what happened the week before you had to watch how roman spoke to jay you had to watch who stood beside him you had to watch who acknowledged him that story gave me something to follow during a period when the days often felt the same i could turn on the wwe and watch the next part that carries weight for me a card does not need to picture every moment to hold the memory of the period and this card represents that period the card carries a twenty twenty two date the debut year in the three year run of the wwe panini relationship and that year sits in the center of roman's title run he entered twenty twenty two as universal champion at wrestlemania thirty eight he defeated brock lesnar and added the wwe championship and he became the undisputed wwe universal champion the bloodline was controlling wwe roman had moved beyond being one of the company's leading names the entire product was being built around him his universal championship run continued for one thousand three hundred and sixteen days when i look at this card i see the run i see the period when the tribal chief became the center of the wwe i also remember where i was when the story started and that connection is very real now let's talk about the card this is the twenty twenty two immaculate wwe premium memorabilia autograph platinum one of one roman reigns it comes from the first wwe immaculate release and that matters to me immaculate entered wwe as one of panini's premium products this was not a base prism parallel with the sticker autograph the card combines several features i want in a roman card it has an on card autograph and the signature is part of the card instead of being placed on a sticker before production it contains superstar worn or used material which is very very rare in the panini era it comes from a product built around premium autographs and memorabilia it is the platinum one of one there is no parallel above it in this set for the the card is graded to psa nine for this card the grade is not the center of the decision there is no second platinum available in another holder the card is the card the grade gives me condition context the one of one established its place in the product i also wanna be honest about what the card is not it does not provide the type of event specific memorabilia provenance collectors are now seeing with wrestlemania patch cards the card does not tell me that roman reigns wore the material during one named match i'm not going to add a story to the memorabilia that panini did not provide that's a limitation and i considered it the wrestlemania patch program has changed how wrestling collectors think about event used material those cards connect a specific patch event wrestler and a one zero one autograph and the market just respond roman did not have a wrestlemania patch available for me to chase when i made this decision he didn't wear a patch in the last two wrestlemanias he did wear one at summerslam which means another major roman card will enter the conversation once that piece is produced that does not reduce what this immaculate card means to me it helps define it the roman immaculate comes from the panini era an era beloved by myself and many many wrestling card collectors it comes from the first year of wwe immaculate it comes from the heart of his title run it combines a hard signed autograph worn material premium product and top parallel that combination matters the card does not need to be every type of roman grail at once it fills its own place i'm not claiming this is the most important roman reigns card in existence his twenty twenty two prism black one of one certainly matters that is in the collection of my friend steve diamond card collector got a chance to hold that card at wrestling card takeover his twenty fourteen topps chrome super fracture certainly matter early autographs future event patch cards will matter collectors will rank those cards in different ray ways i do not need every collector to place this card first i need to understand why it belongs near the center of my collection the answer is very clear to me there's there are several psychological forces at work when a collector considers a card like this and the first is scarcity one of one cards create pressure because the opportunity can disappear and that pressure is real but it can also be dangerous the words one of one can cause a collector to stop evaluating the rest of the card who's the subject what is the product what is the card connected to does it have an autograph does it have memorabilia would you care about this card if the one of one stamp was removed serial numbering should strengthen the card it should not carry the entire card for me the roman had enough without the stamp the one of one gave the card its final position in the set the second force is loss aversion selling a card you own can hurt more than missing a card you never own you already have a relationship with the cards in your collection you remember buying them completing the deals you remember the person who you sold them to you know what those cards look like the new card is still an idea that can cause collectors to hold every existing card while chasing new ones with new money i cannot take that path i had to compare the roman with the cards already in my collection not in theory card by card the third force is competition runs create momentum once you own five cards from a ten card run the missing five cards start to feel like obligation the closer you get the harder it becomes to stop and completion can be satisfying it can also keep you committed to a project that no longer gives you the same return that was part of the decision on my colts prism run i had to decide whether i still wanted to to complete the collection or whether i wanted credit for the work i had already done those are different motivations the next force force is identity collectors build part of their identity around what they own i had become the person building colds gold prism and gold vinyl runs other collection collectors knew the about those product projects breaking the runs apart meant changing something people associated with me that can feel uncomfortable it can also feel freeing it allowed me to change you're allowed to change you do not owe a past collecting goal permanent control over your collection the fifth force is the need to justify a large purchase through future valuation when you spend thirty k on a card it is tempting to build a market argument that makes the decision feel safe roman is one of the largest stars in wrestling not just now but of all time his market has room to grow wrestling cards are receiving more attention premium one of one have produced larger sales all of those factors can be part of the evaluation none of them guarantee an outcome i cannot tell you that the card will be worth fifty k or seventy five k or a hundred k in the future i do not know i did not buy it because a spreadsheet promised to return i bought it because i believe the card was worth more to my collection than the money in card equity required to acquire it and that is the decision i can defend before completing the deal i needed to answer a few questions would i still want the card if no public sale price established a higher value the answer is yes would i be comfortable owning the card if the wrestling market slowed down the answer was yes was i prepared to sell cards i like to pay for it obviously yes did the card connect to a part of my life and collecting story that lasted for years it did could my collection fund acquisition without taking priority over my family or my business yes did i trust the seller i did did i understand the repayment process with work yes was i buying the card because it was available or because it fit my where my collection was going it fit where my collection was going if i needed future appreciation bought the card that does not mean future value is irrelevant thirty k is too much money to pretend value doesn't matter i consider the market i consider roman's place in wrestling and wrestling history i considered the growth of wrestling cards i considered the supply of premium on card roman autographs with worn material i considered where the card sits within the panini era price mattered value mattered they did not replace the personal connection the process of paying for the roman showed me what i valued that is what sacrifice can do for a collector it creates ranking when you do not have unlimited money every yes carries a no yes to roman meant no to keeping halliburton gold prism run it meant not continuing my colts gold and prism and gold vinyl run it meant no to holding dozens of cards because they had been in my collection for years that does not make the decision negative i found the process energizing my collection was changing because i made a choice i was not waiting for the market to tell me what to do i was not selling because i had stopped enjoying the hobby i was selling because i knew what i wanted there was fear in changing the collection there was also relief some projects had really started to feel like work and some cards had become items i maintained instead of pieces i connected with and that roman gave me a reason to address that i did not lose the experience of building those collections i converted part of the collections into a card that matched my current priorities that is not the correct move for every collector fewer cards do not always make a better collection more expensive cards do not always make a better collection one of ones do not always make a better collection the right collection is the one that reflects the collector and for me the transaction created more alignment the deal will influence how i build my collection moving forward the phrase i keep returning to is the best of the best i need to define what that means it does not mean every card needs to be the most expensive card of a player it does not mean every card needs to be a one of one it does not mean i will stop buying cards that are fun the best cards for my collection need to carry more than one reason for ownership they should connect to a person i care about they should connect to a period moment team or story they that card should have a place within its product and scarcity should support the story the purchase should fit my financial reality the card still makes sense after the excitement of the acquisition ends and that's the standard the roman has also changed how i look at runs i still respect the work required to build them i still value collectors who choose a lane and keep going i need to be honest about whether i enjoy the work myself a collection project should not only survive because a collecting a collection project should not survive only because i'm afraid to stop if i'm checking boxes without feeling connected to cards the projects need to be reconsidered that does not mean i will sell everything and place the full collection into the hand in into a handful of slabs it means each part of my collection needs a reason to remain and the roman will also make future purchases more challenging think that's a good thing when one card carries this much meaning and require this much sacrifice random purchases look different a card can still be cool without needing to come home with me i can appreciate a card without owning it i can watch another collector acquire it and feel happy for them i can wait i can direct more energy towards cards that have the strongest connection to my life buying less is not about restricting the hobby it gives the cards i buy more room to matter i keep returning to relationships involved in this deal roscoe did not have to contact me he knew the card would mean something to me and the opportunity came from years of conversations before either of us knew the deal would exist nick did not have to provide the funding structure our relationship gave him enough context to understand my collection business and my plan the local sales mattered andy and shannon and any card exchange mattered the collectors who purchase cards through consignments matter large deals can look like one collector acquiring one card the deal involved a network of people and that does not mean relationships should be built on a transaction strategy people can feel when you only contact them because you want access the value comes from staying connected before you need anything recording the podcast have the conversation meet at the show talk about the cards learn about other people's collections follow through in small commitments trust is built before the one of one becomes available when the large decision arrives the history makes a direct conversation possible roscoe and i still had to agree on price we still had to work through payment the relationship did not make the card cheap it gave us confidence to work through the details and that work is something the price of the roman was thirty k the real cost was more personal it was the coles collection halliburton run sixty cards i gave up through consignment i was letting go of work i had completed it was accepting the parts of my collection no longer reflected where i wanted to go and that is why the card means more to me than it did when roscoe's first sent his message i know what it required i know which cards help bring it home i know which conversations made it possible i know what the card represents the roman is not standing alone in my collection the history of outgoing cards is part of his story that is the part no price guide will record as we wrap this up just wanna say you do not need to spend thirty k to face this type of decision your number might be three hundred might be a thousand might be five thousand the amount changes the questions remain does this card connect to your life would you still want it if the market stopped validating the purchase what would you need to sell are you willing to sell those cards put the outgoing cards in front of you make the trade visible look at what will leave think about what each card has already given you then decide which side better represents the collector you are today i'm grateful roscoe reached out i'm grateful we were able to have a direct conversation i'm grateful for nick and the war of sports cards and their ability to create structure that worked for everyone i'm grateful to every purchase per person who purchased a card i sold i'm grateful for the collections i broke apart they gave me years of enjoyment they helped me understand what i wanted then they helped me acquire a card that brings together my wrestling fandom my return to collecting the bloodline story romans title run and the direction of my collection the purchase price might have been thirty thousand dollars but the value to me is the clarity the decision created my name is brett i collect sports cards i create content about sports cards and collecting here on the stacking slabs network i appreciate your attention your passion i appreciate you spending part of your week here take a look at your collection this week find one project you are continuing because it still means something to you then find one project you're continuing because you already started it and be honest with the difference if you enjoyed this episode hit the follow button tell a damn friend happy collecting take care we'll talk to you soon