What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Stacking Slabs.

This is your hobby content alternative. We're back. Flagship episode. Hopefully, everyone is doing well. There is a lot going on here at Stacking Slabs. Hopefully, you're appreciating all of the new content coming your way.

The football card podcast is popping off with at pack nicholson. If you're not already, go follow the football card podcast on Instagram at the football card pod. Pac's got me laughing with all those memes. He's killing it.

I'm really did love digging into those episodes. Last week, we spent way too much time talking about Tavon Austin, but that's what you're going to get on those episodes. I had to think long and hard about putting this episode together.

There was a lot of emotion, but I felt like it was a good time to dig into the post Pacers loss, the loss of Tyrese Halliburton, and how I'm doing emotionally, and how that has impacted my overall collecting.

I needed about three weeks to process this. I would still say I'm kind of in the grieving period, but, as I think about this, it felt like a good opportunity to share some perspective with you.

And, hopefully, in some of this episode, you can apply how something like this might influence or impact the way you think about how you collect.

Okay. So Tory from DC sports eighty seven kinda teased this a little bit. I wasn't planning to talk about Halliburton, but he asked the question, so felt like a good time to share some perspective.

I'll I'll start here. The Pacers playoff run this year, that two months was the most satisfying time I think I've ever had as a fan of anything, and I'm a fan of a lot of different things. The Pacers are very, sentimental to me.

My earliest sports memories are going to Market Square Arena and the roar of the crowd and the watching the Pacers, and seeing all the their success in the nineties. In that era, that is where kind of the the connection, was formed.

And, the Pacers are just have just been an institution to the city my entire life. This run was so much fun because it helped remind everybody in the city how important the Pacers are.

In 49 other states, it's just basketball. It is different in Indiana. And if you're not from Indiana or you don't know, it's hard to put into the context. But this this is a basketball state.

It is the mecca of basketball. Go look at all of the NBA talent that's from the NBA. Go, look at the high school gym size here in Indianapolis, for basketball. The biggest basketball gyms in the world are here.

It's just part of the culture and has always been a part of the culture, and you can kinda trace that back, you know, whether it's you you you look at Bob Knight, you look at Larry Bird, even John Wooden, all of these Oscar Robertson, all of these old connections that have made basketball just such a part of the culture here.

And so it was, it was this experience and this run really ignited that and brought that back to the forefront, and it was incredible.

I spent way too much money on going to the playoff games. Obviously, they get more expensive as you go, and you get more invested as you go.

So, you know, I wanted to go wanted to go more. My rule of thumb was in previous years, it's just been, you know, grab, one game each round, and you should be satisfied. And that was that was not the case here.

It was multiple games and multiple rounds, including the finals, which got, really expensive and mighta impacted my hobby budget a little bit. But you know what? Like, I I was willing to sacrifice cards to be there to support this team.

That is how much it meant to me. And the moments, there were so many moments, so many memories, so many buzzer beaters, and so much, excitement that came from this, run that even though how it ended, I I will never never regret it.

You know, you it's weird where you go into this, you get into a final series, and you get into a championship game, and your team loses in a brutal fashion in game seven.

And it's like you like, that normally to me, like, sends me in another direction where I wanna have nothing to do with the team, basketball.

I just need to keep my distance, and I've found myself, it's been very, very different this time around. And I've been asking myself, like, questions like why, why is this happening?

And so I think there's a lot of reasons, and that's why I want to dig into collecting in the wake of heartbreak and how it can help tell you or help guide you to how you should be thinking about collecting.

I mentioned this in the episode of the staging area. If you haven't got a chance to listen to that, make sure you go check it out. I love working with DC Sports eighty seven.

Tory's been phenomenal. Really excited about that show. But, you know, three for four from three, game seven of the finals, Halliburton's on one. It just felt different. Right? I yelled at my wife.

Oh my god. He hit one again. There's no way we're losing this. And then moments later, he's Tyrese is down, pounding the floor, Achilles tear. It was just the worst nightmare scenario. Like, I couldn't even watch the game.

The most important Pacers game I've ever watched, I couldn't even watch it, with a normal state of mind the rest of the game. You know, it has taken me about three weeks to, like, feel comfortable, like, really talking about it.

But I think this is a good opportunity for me to just, like, do some reflection and think about, like, what something like this does and, most importantly, what it does to my overall collecting.

And the this is this was certainly, like, the saddest I've ever been. And the sadness was it was yes. It sucks losing game seven of the NBA finals and your chance to win your first NBA championship as a fan. That sucks.

But it sucks even more, I found, that, you know, your star player who's literally overcome all the adversity, showed everyone who he is and what he can do, and put the team on his back in so many moments of this playoff run to go down like that, to not only go down in the most important game, but then miss next the next season.

It just sucks, and it made me so sad. It made me so sad for him. It made me so sad for the team. And I I, like, asked myself, is this the most sad I've ever been?

And the only thing I could connect it to was when I walked away from Lucas Oil Stadium in that preseason game, and I got home and got the tweet from Adam Schefter that Andrew Luck was announcing his retirement.

You know, I it was one moment, preseason game, even though luck wasn't playing, there was optimism because every year luck was our quarterback.

You it was, you we were optimistic. But that one tweet, much like Halliburton's injury, sent me into shock, disbelief, and despair.

You know, I think both of those losses were personal losses, and they weren't just sports losses, but they involved franchise cornerstones that of my teams that deeply set me spiraling, deeply sent me reflecting, and going through these phases of, like, how do I get over this as a fan?

Like, how do I not let this bleed into me being a dad?

How do I not let this bleed into me producing content and doing my job? And what I found like, how do these moments impact and influence the way I think collecting and cards? And after both of those moments, I didn't walk away.

I just went deeper. And I think that like, I'm trying to uncover, like, the why behind that. I think there's a connection between loss and collecting, and I think there's, there's grief in sports fandom.

We we mourn athletes as if they're family because a lot of the time, we are escaping when we are watching sports, and these athletes or characters become, individuals who we deeply appreciate, like we appreciate family and friends.

There's this illusion of control that we try to have versus this need for com comfort. And I think card collecting can be the perfect coping mechanism if we let it be.

I think we fill the void of uncertainty with the certainty of owning something tangible. So, there's I got some control things here. Like, I wanna be in control of my destiny. I've worked my entire career, and that hasn't been the case.

And part of the reason why I jumped in, decided to do stacking slides full time because I was like, you know, if if this ship's going down, at least I wanna be the captain here.

So, part of me, this, like, I want like, there's this feeling as fans, we wanna have control of the situation, but, like, the more we tell ourselves that we don't, the the better off we are. But it's still really hard.

But we, as a form of expression, as a form of, of filling some gaps, have the opportunity, like I always say, be the CEOs of our PC and make decisions and make decisions that can help influence or impact the way we think about building a collection and having that collection deeply resonate and be meaningful to us.

Fill, a way collecting is a way to channel helpless emotion into focus action.

So, you know, when the dust settled on the Halliburton injury and it happened and the Pacers lost, and I tried to avoid content, and I was felt like I was spiraling, I started to think.

And I started to take myself to the place of, man, how much fun was that playoff run? All those moments. And I opened up my case of cards, and I started looking at all my Halliburton cards.

And I said, god. I this guy, man, like, he was my favorite player in the league before all of this. And after all of this, he is my favorite one of my favorite players of all time.

And so as I, like, make those statements to myself, my thought process is like, if this is how you feel and if because this guy took you for this ride of a lifetime as a fan, like, who cares that he is hurt right now and what his market does and what the prices do and all this stuff?

Like, go after it because there's going to be other individuals that are trying to unload the cards, and now is the time to collect.

And so often, I think we wanna collect in those moments where, a season starting or a team's doing well. But I think collecting in those moments of despair is where I'm seeking to find the connection and find real opportunities. Right?

It should be more cheaper than Halliburton winning the finals so I think, like, this mindset shift into pursuit and pursuit of Halliburton as a forever piece of my collection and finding the right cards has been so deeply satisfying and has helped it's been therapy in a way as I've been trying to go through this, and it's trying to figure out where the cards sit that I want and starting those conversations.

And I think a big reason why I am so confident that this is the right move is because I have already experienced what chasing luck post retirement has done for me as a fan and for me as a collector.

His stuff in my case, my prism black finite one of ones are some of my favorite cards in my collection.

And the pursuing cards like that of a player like that that I deeply appreciate helped me stay connected to the the his best memories post retirement.

And the best part about the Halliburton thing is, does it suck that he's missing next year? Absolutely. It took me forever to get over that, but it's not a forever thing. With luck, it was a forever thing. It was like, he's done.

And so I need to collect his cards to help fill the void there. Right now, it's like, man, I wanna celebrate what we just experienced. And while I'm celebrating what we're just experience experiencing, I can buy Halliburton's cards.

And every day that passes is a day closer that Halliburton steps back on the floor. And I think it's just, like, the mental framing that I have around my fandom and also my collecting and how those two worlds come together.

Like, the more intentional I am about bringing those two worlds together, the the more confident I am in the collection that I'm building.

I am a collector that collects based on emotion. I'm a collector that collects based on passion. I am a collector that collects based on my city and my home teams.

I spend a ton of money to go to these games. I watch everything. I don't miss any games. I don't miss Colts games. I don't miss Pacers games. I don't miss fever games. I don't miss Notre Dame football games.

I don't miss them. They are a part of my schedule. Because I prioritize my fandom in this light and go to games to celebrate my fandom and recognize my team, why wouldn't I bring cards into the mix?

And bringing those two worlds together is why I collect. If I didn't have a home team, hometown team, and city, and those connections, I would be the worst collector ever.

I'd just be buying shit that I thought was cool in the moment, and we all know what happens when that when that goes down. I think the hobby is built on hype, and that's so much that's front and center, but that's not the whole story.

I think you look at the hobby, someone who is just coming in, go to YouTube, go to Google, go whatever their source is, go to Instagram. There's going to be a dominant mindset that presents itself.

It's a buy before the breakout narrative. It's a sell at the peak narrative. It's the what's the play narrative or question. I think the the mind the this mainstream mindset doesn't apply at all to the Halliburton Chase of mine.

There's there's zero rush to flip. I'm not worried about comps. As a matter of fact, I I I am paying strong because I want the cards, and I'm not looking for a deal.

It and and because in the grand scheme of things, I know that, it's going to be it would it it it's cheaper than it would have been if it went the other way.

I just bought I don't have these cards yet. They're at PSA. I did the, I'll shout out my sponsors here because, it's a great opportunity.

Shout out eBay. Shout out PSA in that integration. I love it. It's literally one of my favorite updates that enters my overall collecting workflow. If you haven't already, go check out the episode of vaulted.

It came out this week with Jacob who runs the vault at PSA. I love what they're doing over there. Even if PSA and eBay weren't sponsors of stacking size, I would still say that.

But I bought two cards on eBay this week or this past week that I bought that are one of a kind that are at PSA for grading, and it was all just one workflow.

Boom. Both cards are there. But I'm so fired up to get those cards back, and I'm so excited to share them with you.

And I paid strong for them because I wanted those cards. And so I'm not looking to sell the cards. I'm just looking to have them be in my collection.

I think there is discomfort a little bit in going against the grain. You know, people look at you and what you're doing and what you're saying and might say, like, this is a rational behavior.

You know, and you you might feel, like, I might feel in this instance that I need to, like, fight off the pressure to justify the purpose our purchases.

But I I I don't really feel that way because I have so much confidence in the way I collect and why I wanna collect these cards right now. It gives me clarity.

There's no noise, no narrative. It's just me and and my fandom, and it becomes my version of the hobby, and it's so freeing. Like, what is your version of the hobby? You have to create that version of the hobby for yourself.

No one is going to do it for you. I'm always chasing connection, not just the cards. What the the the the playoff run, the Halliburton buzzer beater moments, they I I felt that in my bones.

I I felt it in my bones. I will never forget for the life of me. Game one, MSG Eastern Conference finals. I'll never forget it. There's a few reasons why I won't forget it. I went down in my basement before this game, nervous as can be.

Nervous wreck. It's like, oh, man. We got the Knicks again. They're on a revenge tour. This is gonna be tough. And I moments before the game, I get a text message from my wife who's all the way upstairs, and she sends me a a text.

And it's a picture of a positive pregnancy test. And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. And this is what happens when you don't completely close the door on, your next child.

So we're super excited. We're expecting, our our third, child here in late December, early January. Of course, it's another girl. I've I've got a emerging WNBA roster over here.

A girl, dad, coming up times three. And so then I found out I'm having another child, and then you have the Halliburton game winner that wasn't a game winner bounce, choke sign, thought the game was over. It wasn't. It was overtime.

And I just remember being like, oh my gosh. I'm having another kid. If the Pacers lose this game after Halliburton did the choke sign, and then the Pacers won. And I I literally, like, stayed in my bed. Like, I couldn't go to sleep.

I was just, like, staring at the wall, like, gritting, staring at the wall. And, like, I think about that moment, and I think about the memory, and I think about all of that did for me as a human, and it's like, yes.

I want to remember that moment forever, and the best way for me to do it is by collecting Tyrese Halliburton right now. These matter these moments matter more than stats.

I I don't care about I will never care or look at, like, efficiency rating or any of these advanced analytics in the stats and that won't or in the playoffs or that's not gonna help me justify the purchases.

The moments are, the memories, the magic, that's what preserves it. I think cards are emotional time machines. You can touch a card and go right back to the moment.

The card is a souvenir of a personal memory, not just a market asset. I like I mentioned, like, I am, like, we all have, like, these moments in these seasons where we prioritize what we are looking for.

Like, I am on the prowl for Halliburton cards because I am chasing this feeling of where I once was in a void that I have.

I'm trying to fill it. I think we all have emotional anchors. Every collection has one or two players that mean more than the rest.

Maybe not the best value, but the best fit. They're the cards that aren't leaving your PC, and they are part of the story. I think this is why we stay in the hobby. This is why we collect for keeps.

How many people come in during hype cycles and leave? And why connection connection is what makes us stay through all of the ups and downs. I think cards can start to become part of your identity. You're not just collecting Halliburton.

I'm not. Like, I'm not just collecting Halliburton. I'm expressing what he has meant to me before the playoffs, during the playoffs, and even right now. I I I tend to, when I go all in, start to follow teams and players more closely.

I'm listening to more Pacers content than ever before right now. I'm more engaged, and that's atypical. I'm usually off that stuff now, but I'm not. I'm chasing.

I think staying and and not leaving or not taking a vacation becomes an expression of love through thick and thin, through death do us part type of stuff, through injury, through doubt, through media narratives, you don't stop being a collector because a player is hurt.

I think, in fact, it's it's caused me to go harder.

I think one thing we can do is audit maybe our emotional drivers. Like, what are the three cards in your PC that you hold that hold the most emotion? Are you collecting because of connection or momentum?

Have you ever had a heartbreak moment that shapes the way you collect? I think these are important questions. I think this is hopefully something that resonates with you. I think the those memories, the moments, and the stories matter.

They influence why we do what we do and why we go deeper in certain areas and why we leave others. I think collecting can be more than just the next chase. It can mirror a memory and a mechanism for healing.

And, I've learned so much, and I'm still learning throughout, you know, the recovery process of this Halliburton injury. But it didn't break my collecting spirit. It deepened it. And I think cards are not escape hatches.

They're reminders that can help you feel something very real. If you've ever bought a card because of a feeling, not a forecast, you're not alone, and that's what I wanted to express in this episode.

Thank you so much for supporting Stacking Slabs. I really appreciate everyone following, listening along, joining the Patreon, doing all the things.

I'm really optimistic about the direction of this brand and what we're doing, and the biggest reason why I'm able to do what I'm doing is because of listeners like you.

Really appreciate it. You all take care. I'll be back. Talk to you soon.