What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to stacking slabs. This is your hobby content alternative.

It's a flagship episode. I'm Brett. Thank you for coming back and listening to me talk about mindset, mentality, operational things, whatever, psychology, all the things that go into collecting sports cards.

I've long been a believer that this space and what we do is a lot deeper, several layers deeper than maybe it appears from afar from someone not into it, you know.

When I tell people, they ask, what do you do for a living? And I talk about, you know, I start high, high level. It's like I I got a media company.

Media company? Okay. What what kinda industries do you work with? And I say, well, actually just one. It's, sports cards. And, there's a lot of questions around sports cards, and there is a lot of curiosity.

And it's a lot of, reactions I get after that are, you know, something to do with collecting as a kid or maybe seeing a big sale and a certain perception around cards. And it always starts with money.

Right? It's always about values, and I saw this big card on, CNBC. I I hear these, people like mister wonderful talking about sports cards and how much money they're worth, and all those things are great.

And yet you put them all together, and it's great to have momentum for a category that we love. It is great to have, growth.

It's awesome to see all these sales, go down at record highs and month over month month over month volume increases by card ladder that they're reporting. It's awesome. All those things rule, and all those things matter.

But what I never wanna get lost in the mix and lost in the shuffle is the reasons why we're all here, and there are so many different flavors of the hobby, so many different ways to do this.

And you, the listener of Stacking Slabs, likely participates in a lot of different, flavors of the hobby.

And that's good. It's good to have diversity in this space. But I know based on doing content for, it's coming up on six years, which is crazy.

I've had so many conversations with so many of you, and I know the core audience here are individuals who participate in a lot of different ways in the hobby, but at the end of the day, you're trying to build a collection that you're proud of, that is meaningful to you.

You would you would many people work and do all these moves to create more cash for themselves.

I think a lot of us like the the side benefit of money, but we're working ourselves to continue to build a collection that resonates not with anybody else, but resonates with ourselves.

And so what I what I wanted to talk about, and I'll set the stage for this chat, is, you know, when you produce a content that I won't call it, robust might seem aggressive because it wasn't robust.

It was thorough, I think, and it was a heavy project. But when I released collecting for keeps finding meaning in a hobby build on hype, it was more of from the perspective of, okay, this is a culmination.

I've been doing stacking slabs, and I've learned a lot about collectors, and I've learned a lot about myself over this band.

There's enough conversations I've had to let me take this a step further and pursue kind of what I've learned in another format.

And so that's when I dropped the book, and it was a personal goal. It was like, alright. I'm doing this full time. I've always wanted to write a book.

I'll figure out a way to make time, and it I did. I made time, and it was, like, six to eight months. There this was happening while I was doing everything else, and then I released it and got a great reaction.

I released it for free, and you can still get access to it if you're listening to Stacking Slabs for the first time. Link is in the show notes.

But my my intention was I wanted to I wanted to, create. I am a creative, and I wanted to express that in a different way. And now that it's out there and people have consumed it and I've gotten feedback, my I'm I'm a marketer.

So it's like, let's how do we continue to gain momentum and how do we continue to, squeeze as much juice out of this orange as possible?

And so I go back. I go back and reflect, and I think a lot about this era we're in right now, this bull market era.

And I I I gotta be honest. Like, I could I could not have released my thoughts around collecting and collecting for keeps at a better time based on Market Forces dynamics. And so the the book is not like an instruction manual.

It's more reflection in my own personal experience, but that has caused me to wanna go back and revisit some of what I wrote and create episodes around those, and the flagship feels like a great vehicle to do that.

And so that's what we're going to do today.

We're going to start and I haven't decided yet. A lot of what I do here in content, I try to be organized. I've got a lot of partners. There's a lot of shows. I try to be as organized as possible, but sometimes you just gotta go.

And so I don't know if I will do this in sequential format where each each week, I'll address a new, chapter, and we'll talk about some of the mindset mentality and how it applies to today in this era we're in.

I I'm not sure, but we're gonna start with the the the the chapter one, and we're gonna dig into that.

And that's the asking the question, which I think is the most essential question we can ask ourselves as collectors is why we collect, and that's the inner forces behind our hobby.

So we're we're certainly back in a bull market. You can see that through card ladders volume data, 121,000,000 in August. There's the $13,000,000 logo in sale.

We'll be talking about more sales. But I think if you're a collector who lived through the 2021 twenty twenty twenty twenty one boom, it it feels familiar, but it feels very different in terms of what's transacting.

I think what is the same is prices are flying. Attention is back. The noise is louder than ever, but there's a difference.

I think that the difference this time around is there's more infrastructure, grading, more platforms, more global attention than ever before, more, one of the biggest observations I've made, and we'll talk a little bit more about these, but I think more collectors are focused in on buying stuff that's not so ridiculously out of bounds in terms of rarity and scarcity.

They're focusing in on stuff that makes sense to buy at the price it does based on a lot of different factors, product insight and knowledge, supply and demand, a lot of different things.

We're we're getting smarter with where we're putting our money.

That's that's my personal observation, but I look at the data. And collectors aren't just flipping blindly. They're they're being very, very intentional with the moves that they're making.

And a lot of these moves are moves that I'm having conversations with on background, and individuals are saying, you know, I I would have never a few years ago, spent, you know, $3,000 on this card, but it it's been on my watch list.

And I'm watching everything that's happening around this card, and it's like, I I gotta get this card now or maybe I'll regret it if I don't.

I think that's cool to see. It's cool to see an evolution. But I think with all the hype and there's a ton of hype, it there's always hype.

But in these periods of time, the biggest indicator of hype is a a lot of new people with platforms and opinions on what they think we should be doing with our cards.

That's very, very evident. And I'm pro creator, but I think it's also you've gotta be very cautious on who you take your information from. I I I'm pro creator, but I'm I'm I'm pro researched, passionate, creator.

And I wish everyone was very prepared before they put something out. But it's not always perfect. When I set out to put out collecting for keeps, I wanted to start hot out of the gates.

I wanna talk about the inner forces that keep us in the hobby when the noise is deafening. And I I I broke that down by connection, escape, and expression.

And these aren't abstract ideas. They're the difference between collecting with joy and collecting until you burn out. And in a bull market, keeping them front and center might be the best guide that we have.

So getting into it, one of the biggest kinda pieces of of feedback that I'm seeing is that we're in a to the moon mentality, and it a lot of it has to do with a lot of excitement, exuberance, people sharing perspective on big sales.

And so I think the the Hallmark sale is the Kobe and Michael Jordan logo men one of one based on the traits, based on the personalities who bought it, based on the publicity that's got.

But there one thing that I think is interesting to consider and think about is while that's the the mainstream card that's going to be talked about on all the mainstream media outlets.

We all are experiencing similar type sales, not as seismic as almost 13,000,000, but we're we're experiencing cards and that we monitor and safe searches and markets that we monitor. And we've been monitoring for years, look different.

And those changes impact the way we we perceive our hobby. And so for for me, for instance, I am primarily a football card collector. I think about some recent sales that just impacted the way I think about what I'm doing.

And cup and they're personal to me, and they've been talked about by me. But just a a few of those would be the talked about this on the football card podcast, the o two Manning Finest, X Factor.

That card selling for 10 k was wild to me. It is the longest tenured card in my collection. And to see that kind of growth of that card is is wild. The Jay Cutler finite pack, we've talked about it ad nauseam.

But just him, one collector going and buying a card or bidding to buy a card that they truly love really has changed the landscape of how people perceive and pursue prism football.

And then, secondarily, you've got the twenty twelve Luck Gold prism selling for a lot more than I bought it for a year ago. I think about these big sales and these sales that look a lot different than what I bought it for.

And I think about you as the collector, and you're experiencing the same thing. You've bought cards and you're seeing similar adjacent cards that have you thinking differently about your cards.

And and the question I'm asking is, what what does this tell us? And I think it tells us that money is flooding back into the hobby, which is a positive.

It's not only at the top, but across the board. There's millions and millions of smaller transactions that are happening monthly, which is something else to consider.

I don't remember talking about monthly sales volume during the pandemic boom. And so I'm asking myself, what what are like and you've heard me if you've been listening to my content.

I've been hitting this on all the stacking slabs content properties. Like, trying to drill down, trying to understand what the reasons are.

And my my my thought process and mindset around the reasons changes and shifts, regularly. But as I'm recording this episode right now, I think some of the things that I'm thinking about are the discretionary, spending is still strong.

Even with inflation, consumers are spending on wants, not just needs. You know, I I just think about, some recent things that I did to get out of Stacking Slides HQ for a little bit. Last weekend or let's see.

A couple weekends ago, I went to Chicago to see my favorite band, Goose, and it was sold out. And it was insane, and there was tons of people. And people were the merch line was crazy. And, you know, t shirts were, like, $40.

And this is this is, like, the signal for me is that and this is at Northern Lee Island right by Soldier Field is where I saw the show. Great show, man. Goose rocks live. But I was I was with my buddy, and, I was getting a drink.

And I looked up at the board, and I was like, man, I'm kinda hungry. Should I get something? I'm like, nah. Don't get food. It's impossible to eat food while you're at a concert.

And I looked up at the board. They literally had an order of nachos. Granted, it had, like, all the fixings and proteins, but it's, like, $30. And I, like, look over to my left, and there's, like, a guy getting two of them.

So you're at this entertainment event, this this this concert that, you know I don't know. It cost me over a $100 to get in, sat in the pit, bought a shirt. I'm a T shirt guy.

Cost me $40. There's a 140. Think about the gas to get up there. There's, you know, I don't know, $50. We're around $200 now. Luckily, my friend lived in Crown Point, so we just crashed at his place. But I just think about that.

That's just like one night in $200, and I didn't even think twice about it. And, you know, I'm I'm I'm trying to conserve cash at all cost to keep my business running, but also I'm also spending whatever discretionary I have.

Not only that's a rare instance for me to get out, but it was good to see there's that's so many other people getting out.

But also the other money I've left over, I'm spending on cards. And I think it to me, it tells me that people are comfortable allocating budget to passionate purchases like concerts or cards even as the life costs rise.

I don't think the flood of money the flood of money isn't random. I think people still have room to spend. And for collectors like us, that spending finds its way into cards. I think we're seeing platforms lower the barrier to entry.

There's more platforms, more people doing things, selling, buying on those platforms, that I I I I just I'm looking at, partner eBay of mine and just the all the time we spend on eBay and then the addition of live selling on eBay.

It's it's pulling new collectors in who have not been here before. More platforms equal more transactions, especially, I think, at the level of $5 to $200.

And this flood isn't just million dollar auctions. It's millions of micro deals happening daily, and that accessibility brings more people in, and it also can add to more noise.

There's the repositioning, which I've been hearing of cards as alternative assets, and collectibles are being treated like art or wine.

Listen to mister wonderful on any of the media outlets, and he does not start talking about cards without talking about, I'm an art collector first.

So he's legitimizing sports cards by comparing them to art. And I think art from a long term sustainability celebrity culture, that is a asset class that's undeniable and has been, front and center in that culture forever.

And so you've got someone like mister wonderful that is bringing cards and connecting cards in the minds of the audience together.

Global market growth projections, and there's more institutional presences, more data tools, shout out card ladder.

And they they these things like card ladder helps legitimize the wealth of these cards for individuals that are not deep in the weeds just by looking at the data.

Before this, we didn't always have access to the data. This mindset of cards as an alternative asset attracts capital beyond just traditional collectors.

So that's happening. I think when cards start getting talked about like stocks or art, it's going to bring in money. That can raise the tide for everyone, but it also changes the way outsiders approach the hobby.

There's tailwinds in their psychology. There's the headlines from the big sale, and money flows towards categories where people see growth and there's social proof.

There's also the generational nostalgia in new entrants. Think millennials are hitting peak earning years, more disposable income.

Gen z and Younger are onboarded through brand new stars. Wimby, Caitlin Clark, Skeens, Yamal. There's breaks in social. It's like a proliferation of activities to allow new participants to get a piece of these new stars.

So let's get in early. It's that mindset. There's non sports, Pokemon, Marvel, TCG. They're bringing look new liquidity to the ecosystem, which also has crossover with sports cards.

It's not just old collectors coming back. It's new generations with fresh money and different tastes. I think this diversity of demand is a big reason why we're seeing money flood in across the board.

You contrast that with 2021. It was largely fueled by COVID stimulus flipping culture and FOMO. Now there's the infrastructure. There's the fanatics of it all. There's global attention. There's category growth like women's sports.

Feels less like a bubble and more like a wave. In a market this loud, how do you keep the hobby personal instead of letting the dollar signs dictate your decisions? I believe that cards operate a lot like time machines.

And my good friend, Luke, Memory Machines, we did an episode a long, long time ago, and this really got burned in my brain. And as I'm thinking about sports, I'm thinking about the season Jonathan Taylor's having.

I'm connecting his cards with Edron James and the seasons he had, and I just like him having so much fun doing that. In the book I wrote cards are time machines. Without connection, you're chasing dollar signs.

With it, you're building something that can outlast any market cycle. I think there's a difference between owning something that you hope goes up and owning something because you love it and you know it's going to go up.

Big sales when I see those sales, and it can change. But when I see a big sale of a card I have or in a category, it makes me wanna hold those cards even more. I think about Halliburton.

I just wanna buy more of his cards because of the moments he gave me. Yeah. He's heard it sucks, but doesn't mean I don't want his card. I think in a bull market, connections get tested, but connection is deeply personal.

A player that matters to you might not mean anything to the market, and that's okay. I think prices are being driven right now by a lot of different factors, and we discussed that.

But if you're chasing players without personal collection or connection, you risk burnout when the hype shifts, and that's not a good place to be.

Cards are always an escape. Cards are a a reprieve. Collecting an escape from all the noise in of our lives, and there's a lot of noise.

I try to avoid it. I try to, like, shut down personal social media news sometimes. It's like, I don't need this. I don't want this. It's not good for my mental health.

And so when I jump into cards, I'm very protective because I wanna experience it in a way that doesn't feel like the other facets of life and is an escape. I had that moment a couple weekends ago where I was just in the house.

My wife was away. My daughters were asleep. And I just grabbed my case of cards, and I just started going through it. And I was taking pictures of the cards and talking about them.

I'm posting my stories on Instagram, and I spent, like, an hour and a half looking at my cards. And it was incredible, and it was therapeutic because I needed a break, and cards are a great escape for that.

I think in the bowl cycles, collecting can start to feel like a job again, especially if you're overthinking it, especially if you're trying to buy stuff you don't really care about, checking comps, tracking auctions, chasing opportunities.

It gets exhausting. The sheer volume of sales and auctions and grading means the pace has never been quicker. And I think without boundaries, we feel stuck in this loop.

And so the the key point for us long term collectors is building in rituals where we're spending time with our cards, and it's not always about the chase or buying. And I think we need to find time for non market joy in our collection.

And I think treating the hobby as escape is a key feature of the hobby. It's not just a by byproduct. Hit expression. I think building what feels like you is really important.

I wrote the book, when I collect, I'm not curating. I'm telling a story. I think this matters more now than ever before because of the indirect side effects of what happens or direct side effects of what happens during a bull market.

A lot of flexing, a lot of clout, a lot of a lot of all those things, and the environment can make us collectors feel like our own collection isn't significant enough or is less than.

And I think long term collectors stand out in these cycles because their collections look different.

And that's a key key nugget. They're not chasing what what's hot. They're expressing who they are. And it's it's the easiest thing of all time is to go across and just play, like, Instagram profile and roulette.

Just start clicking into profiles of collectors, and instantly, you can see who is collecting for themselves and who is trying to resell because of a lot of different factors, and I find it fascinating. But if you know, you know.

It's the same thing as a card show. You go to a card show, and it's like, you can differentiate who has the long term collections and who just has the inventory. And I think that's super interesting and super fascinating.

And it and there's no right or wrong, but I think being different in collecting for what you want or what you want to express yourself as is super important and super powerful, and I'm attracted to collectors who do that.

I don't necessarily have a ton of advice and do this, don't do that.

That's really not the role I wanna play in this industry. I mostly just wanna bring up topics that I find interesting and that I'm thinking about from a collector perspective and hope they resonate with you.

But I think it's always good to have reminders and reminders of we don't need to chase everything. When there's a big headline, we don't need to go feel like we need to get some version of that card because someone else did.

It's always important to define your why before you buy. Connection, escape, expression, that's a good checklist to follow. You always gotta protect against FOMO.

You can celebrate without competing. I think acknowledge the hype, enjoy the energy, but don't let it dictate your collecting. Collecting isn't about keeping up. It's about keeping close to what matters.

I like collecting when the market is hype hyped up and it and it's hot and it's excited. I know it can suck to buy cards and you have to say no, but I would much rather be in a a zone that has just a ton of energy around it.

It's exciting. But when the heat cools, collectors who stay are the ones who built with meaning, and that's something notable.

This isn't always gonna be this way. And there were last time around, a lot of people left, a lot of content left, and now it's kind of moseyed on back. Watch that. It's it's interesting.

Watch that. But I think those who stay are those who are here because of the meaning. If your cards bring you closer to your fandom, give you an escape, or feel like a personal expression, then you're collecting for keeps.

Thanks everyone for supporting stacking slabs. My name is Brett. Appreciate you. And by the way, tell a damn friend. Take care. Talk to you soon.