what's going on everybody welcome back stacking slabs this is your hobby content alternative i am brett appreciate you spending part of your week here with me a lot happening in the stacking slabs universe behind the scenes building for twenty twenty seven feel like i need to be at least one quarter ahead there will be some fun exciting announcements in the next month or so about what we're up to over here for now we're gonna do what we normally do we're gonna talk about cards and we have talked about a lot of different theories a lot of different ways to consider your own psychology when you are buying sports cards i share my experiences on the flagship and throughout any other show that i'm on the microphone for on a weekly basis sometimes we don't get the opportunity or i don't give myself the opportunity to really display or show that in motion i might post on instagram and share the card and share a story with my latest pickup but you know an instagram description can only take you so far and i do like writing those i like reading other people's but sometimes you just need to take a step back and say you know what we have been talking about all of these things regarding mindset and mentality in my own collection over the course of the last three months let's just show it in motion and that's what i wanna do here i wanna talk about a pickup i wanna talk about a card that i just won at auction really break down the reasons why i wanted this card talk about the brand that the card comes from and i think the timing is good it is a basketball card and we're tipping off this week shout out all of you basketball fans and collectors i'm very very excited for the season as an indiana pacers fan the optimism is at an all time high i just want you all to consider this i saw my team two years ago go all the way to game seven of the nba finals and get out to a hot start then my favorite player who was responsible for helping us get to that point goes down with an achilles and when he went down it was like my heart was ripped out of my chest and it wasn't just that we lost the finals it was we have to wait a whole another year for him to return and last season sucked but the benefit of it is every day that i woke up was a day closer to tyrese halliburton getting back on the floor and that is what kept me going as a fan that is what kept me going as a collector and i thought you know what like this is the time to buy halliburton cards out of sight out of mind and i tried my best i did whatever i could to pick up cards that i wanted to during that time but it wasn't they weren't flooding the marketplaces i had to look very high and wide and i picked up some really great cards i wish i could have picked up more i will say that but i guess this is a preview that this episode is going to be about a tyrese halliburton card i bought a tyrese halliburton card on fanatics weekly auction this week it's the twenty twenty twenty twenty one panini obsidian card number one fifty three electric etch white mojo one of one his rookie card king's uniform which will be a part of this conversation and it is the very first obsidian card that i have ever owned there is a lot in that description and if you followed how i've collected halliburton the king's uniform is one of those parts that i think is worth talking about for a long time i connected collecting tyrese with collecting his pacers cards that's my team that's where my connection to him developed when i looked at cards of him i wanted to see him in the uniform that i was rooting for that made sense for where i was as a collector but my collection has changed because my appreciation for the player has changed i care more about his career now i wanna understand more of the cards that document it this purchase really brings those changes together and that's why i thought it would make for an interesting episode my focus on halliburton the move into his rookie cards my interest in base set one of ones and the excitement that i feel heading into a season where i get to watch him play again and i get to watch him play again live i'm going to the home opener on friday night against the dallas mavericks and i just can't wait i wanna walk through this card and the work behind it what is obsidian where does the white mojo fit how long has this parallel been around what separates this card from another one of one with his name on it those are the types of things that i wanna explore in this episode but i wanna start with the reason i was willing to spend time answering those questions the research matters because ultimately the player matters to me the subject always matters if you're listening and you collect somebody else think about your player as we get through this think about how your own collection started think about the rules that you made then ask whether those rules still describe what you want to own because i think sometimes you learn something about a card and sometimes learning about a card shows you how your interests have changed the starting point for me with halliburton is joy he has brought me joy as a basketball fan i wanna remain part of that conversation whenever i talk about his cards we spend so much time discussing what somebody has to do to accomplish next or what haven't they done what award do they need what round do they need to reach what will their cards do if they win i understand those conversations but i can also look at halliburton and appreciate what he has given me as a fan the twenty twenty five playoff run is part of my life as a pacers fan now and forever it happened got to watch that team reach that game seven of the nba finals i went to so many games in that playoff run i spent so much money being a part of it the way it ended sucks but it doesn't take away from the experience the four game winners that got us there think about the knicks game in madison square garden aaron nesmith went on a shooting blitz then halliburton shot at the back of the rim bounced up and fell in to send game one into overtime the pacers finished that comeback that bounce is one of those things i can think about and still feel the tension waiting for the ball to come down waiting to see whether the game would continue that is part of what makes following a team worth the time you put into it i often joke with my friends about that game won and how undeniable and unmistakable it will be for the rest of my life and sure the win as a basketball fan was incredible but moments before the game started something very very special happened to me pacers and knicks obviously massive rivalry i didn't know where i was gonna watch that game in my house superstition kicked in and i was pacing and i finally decided you know what like i've got two daughters i'm gonna probably be yelling i should be in the basement so i was in the basement had the tv on and i was pacing phone in my hand and my phone bust and i looked out at the text and it was for my wife and she was upstairs and i opened up the text message and right before that game she sends me a picture of a positive pregnancy test letting me know that we are going to have our third child my daughter iris is now ten months it's crazy how much time has passed but if you can imagine i found out i was gonna be a father of three and then that game happened when i got to bed that night i couldn't go to sleep i was just staring at the ceiling but that moment is and halliburton are forever tied together for me and that to me makes collecting him special you think about game one of the finals his jumper with three tenths of a second left gave the pacers its first lead of the game against oklahoma city on that stage those moments have a place in how i think about halliburton when i'm looking at his cards i'm bringing those memories with me and a checklist cannot explain that part of the purchase and it was a team i want to give that its place there were contributions across that entire roster that made this that run possible my focus on collecting halliburton doesn't require me to forget those players around him part of what i appreciate is watching him play with that group he makes everyone around him better we are already seeing that in preseason the ball moves other people get opportunities there is enjoyment in seeing the possession develop and seeing somebody benefit from his facilitation that is basketball i want to watch it gives me reasons to pay attention behind the scoring total you know i brought it up but then we get to game seven of the finals towards achilles after hitting three threes and we went into the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six season waiting for him to return that waiting changes your perspective you want your team to win you wanna see another run but you also find yourself wanting the chance to watch your guy play basketball again that's where some of my excitement is coming from right now tyrese's return to preseason action as a maniac at that he looks really good i knew when he scored twenty four points in the first half of a preseason game we we'd probably be okay you know there's anticipation in being a fan again what will the team look like when he's back how will it look to watch him develop with some new teammates and i don't need to answer those questions before i enjoy having them and i don't need a prediction about his card prices to explain why this is a moment when i want to spend time with my halliburton collection following the player and collecting the player are connected to me that return gives me another reason to appreciate that connection and there is something worth doing when you become a player collector spend some time listening to that person read what they've said about their career learn about what they cared about before you started paying attention halliburton wrote a piece for the players' tribune after the trade to indiana in february of twenty two he described being hurt by leaving sacramento he had wanted to build a future there and had started making connections in the community then he talked about the responsibility he felt coming to the pacers and wanting to give fans something to be proud of reading that now with what came after it adds something for me the kings part of his career mattered to him it wasn't time he was waiting to get through before indiana that helps me appreciate a rookie card in a kings uniform i'm collecting somebody whose career began before my connection to him reached that point and there is value in learning that history instead of starting his story where it became relevant to me in an interview with high snobiety he also talked about being from the midwest enjoying a life in indiana and spending time with his family and appreciating how people treat him here i live here i lived here i've lived here my entire life i'm a pacers fan the pacers are part of the dna of the city when they are good boy it is electric here hearing somebody who represents the team talk about enjoying the place that i live that i love that i call home means something to me i can appreciate that without pretending i know him beyond what he shares publicly the performances get your attention the way somebody talks about the team and your community gives you more to think about and over time that can change what you want your collection to represent for me collecting halliburton has become a way to spend more time with something i care about i get enjoyment from the games i get enjoyment from understanding his cards i get enjoyment from deciding which ones belong together that is why he has become a primary player collection for me i keep coming back to him the interest remain when there isn't an auction to bid on my earlier rule was easy to understand i'm a pacers fan i like halliburton because of the pacers i should collect his pacers cards pretty easy to understand there's value in a rule like that because it helps narrow the search it helps you pass on things it gives your collection some direction when there are more cards available than you have time or money to pursue i still love his pacers cards the change that i'm going through is that i no longer need every card to show him in that uniform to feel a connection about it it really started for me and i did an entire episode of this i think it was in january because i remember formatting it in the hospital room when my daughter was born so i haven't thought about that but really the halliburton story comes full circle for me but i picked up his crown royal rookie one of one platinum that changed my perspective on everything i've talked about that card on this show and it's just gorgeous i actually just looked at it before i hit record just to like give me some inspiration he's in king's gear a card that made me question whether the uniform rule still covered everything i wanted to collect i spent time learning about crown royal the brand history the crown design where crystal platinum fit in with parallels the more i understood it the more i understood my interest with the card and i remember learning about that set learning about the product the more research i did the more it made me want it and i missed it the first time it sold then it came back and i bought it there was time between those two opportunities to find out whether the interest remained and it did that card is still in my collection and i still love it very much and that is a reference point for the obsidian purchase crown royal gave me an experience owning a halliburton rookie in king's uniform and having it feel at home in my collection that i was building and once that happened the questions really changed i started asking which rookie cards i wanted to own alongside the pacers cards that had already mattered to me there are different reasons a card can belong a pacers card can connect me to the team i watch in the years that made me a fan of the player a kings rookie can connect me to the beginning of that same career and i want room for both my interest has become more specific about the player while becoming less restrictive about the uniform and i think that is something collectors experience in different ways you start with one team you learn about the player you start paying attention to the years before they arrived you notice a design you hadn't before and your definition of a collection changes through the process of building it that doesn't mean the earlier version was a mistake the pacer's focus taught me what i enjoyed it gave me a place to start i don't need to dismiss those purchases to explain why i want something else now but i also don't wanna defend a rule because i was the person who made it if the rule stops describing my interest i want to be able to reconsider it the way i'm building my halliburton collection now is around one of ones which for any of you out there who are building a player pc around one of ones it's not an easy thing and it also causes you to ask yourself a lot of questions the focus makes the rookie side worth understanding there are only so many original rookie year based designs and they're one of one parallels to consider and i want to know which ones matter to me which brands i want represented which designs i enjoy what cards i would be interested in keeping to the changes and attention around that player that work has made the king's uniform feel like part of the appeal it tells me where he was going when the card was made i don't need the image to be from indiana for the card to belong to an indiana fan what i need is a reason to want the card of that player crown royale helped me understand that and obsidian gives me a chance to apply it again i think i said it upfront but this is my first obsidian card ever not just one of one ever i've never owned an obsidian card so i wanted to understand the product before treating the one of one stamp as the answer to every question obsidian started in football in twenty eighteen and panini described it through its optichrome technology in the combination of a black design with neon color the first football released arrived in december of that year the origin helps explain the identity of the brand obsidian uses a dark presentation to make the player the lines and the color stand out there is a design idea behind it that you can recognize across releases every time i see an obsidian card i know it's an obsidian card the stand alone basketball product followed in twenty eighteen twenty nineteen panini introduced it as an online exclusive through its own store in august of twenty nineteen the boxes had five cards with two autographs two inserts or parallels and one base or rookie card on average that is worth keeping straight the season on the product is twenty eighteen twenty nineteen the stand alone basketball release came out in twenty nineteen and halliburton's card comes from twenty twenty twenty twenty one the third season of stand alone obsidian basketball should be noted obsidian also appeared with within twenty eighteen twenty nineteen chronicles basketball there's another reason to read the checklist with some care when you're learning the product a card under a brand name within chronicles and a card from the brand stand alone release need to be identified by the product that they came from for this purchase i'm talking about standalone twenty twenty twenty twenty one obsidian basketball the debut standalone basketball checklist had a hundred base cards its electric etch parallels included purple to forty nine orange to twenty five green to fifteen yellow to ten red to five and white mojo one of one that's the part i wanted to establish white mojo was present in the first stand alone basketball release it was there before halliburton's rookie season i don't need decades of history for that to matter i want to know whether a name has some context within the product in this case i can go back to the beginning of the stand alone obsidian basketball and find the one of one parallel that appears on my card then twenty nineteen twenty twenty followed the product continued and white mojo continued within it panini's product information for that season promoted white mojo along the among the parallels in the autograph lineup and showed it in the insert program as well by twenty twenty twenty twenty one the brand had reached halliburton's rookie class panini preview described seven card box two autographs two inserts in a parallel on average white mojo was again part of the product those details give me a sequence i can understand football established the design approach basketball became a stand alone product white mojo was a part of the basketball debut the product returned and the parallel reached the season that matters for his rookie collection that history adds to how i view the card i can place it within a product instead of treating it as an isolated item that happens to have a print run of just one and there's a distinction i wanna keep here obsidian has a design identity that has continued that doesn't mean every parallel name in every print run stayed the same if you look at twenty twenty four twenty twenty five base checklist you see asian flood vibrant mojo listed as one of ones panini also described new parallels in that release so i'm researching the year i'm buying white mojo's place in twenty twenty twenty twenty one is what matters for this card i don't want to assume that knowing one release means i know every release that's part of what makes this all enjoyable when you research you start to notice things you start to see a card you like you learn where the product began you look at what returned and what changed you become more capable of explaining your own interests obsidian isn't a brand i've spent years collecting before this purchase i've already stated that also it hasn't been a product i've ever researched before this purchase that's fine a player collection gives me a reason to study a product that i had known and that is the fun part about collecting a player i came to obsidian through halliburton now i have more context for both the card and the brand okay let's get into the card itself because this is where the checklist work that i do becomes useful tyrus halliburton is number one fifty three in the twenty twenty twenty twenty one obsidian based checklist the unsigned base portion runs through number two hundred with rookies starting at one fifty one white mojo is in one of one parallel listed for that base card that's the card i bought the base rookie design is its electric etch white mojo version the card number keeps the discussion specific if you search halliburton obsidian rookie and one of one you're not necessarily talking about a single card type the product has autograph and memorabilia cards too for example halliburton has a rookie jersey autograph number two thirty four and a white mojo version of that in the subset that is a different card from one fifty three it serves a different purpose in a collection i wanted the base rookie parallel the preference is part of the case for the purchase i enjoy understanding the base design of a product and then understanding the version of that design i am choosing to own there's no autograph or memorabilia component doing the work here the attraction is the player the rookie year the obsidian design the white mojo treatment and its place in the parallel hierarchy looking at twenty twenty twenty twenty one the baseline of gives the place some definition purple is number to ninety nine orange to fifty green to twenty five yellow to ten red to five white mojo one of one there are other versions in this release as well including versions tied to different formats there's the fotl product information for example identifies a blue to sixteen or a contra to three as its base exclusives that is why i want to look past the color and read the version a name a pattern and a serial number together tell me which card that i am considering they help me avoid confusing one version with another version while i'm looking through all of the listings and i don't need to read every parallel name into a microphone for this to be useful i need to understand enough of the lineup to explain what i bought and from me white mojo has a role here it is the one of one version of the base rookie card in the basketball product that has already used white mojo name before halliburton entered the league that gives the rarity context and the context is what i am looking for as a collector if i say i bought halliburton rookie one of one that tells you something if i explain that it's his standalone obsidian base rookie number to one fifty three at a parallel present since the product's basketball debut you start to understand more of why i wanted it that stamp didn't change during the explanation my understanding of the card did there is a visual part of it too i want to enjoy looking at the cards i buy think obsidian's dark design in white mojo treatment gives this card a presentation that differs a lot from my other rookie halliburton one of one out of crown royale the difference appeals to me when i think about the cards together same player same rookie season and different products with different approaches presenting him i like that i never thought i would like that but i like that that is something in all the years of collecting i've not really gotten to that point where you're putting two rookie cards together of maybe obscure brands and like comparing and contrasting them i get to learn about both i get to decide why i want each represented and that is part of building a player collection that i think really really matters the one of one focus gives me a way to make decisions i know that if i'm a player collector there needs to be some sort of filter on it and that's why i've challenged myself with the one of one of it all because if i didn't do that i'd just be buying and buying what buying cards that don't give me the same opportunity to do the deep research as i did to get this obsidian because there's a lot of halliburton cards that i like i can't pursue every version of every card that i like i think having a focus lets me put more time into fewer decisions and i can spend time learning a product because i'm considering a card that has a role in the collection that i wanna build it also changes how i think about the opportunity when it appears with the exact parallel there's one copy if somebody buys it and keeps it the timing of the next opportunity is outside of my control this halliburton also is significant for me in a way where there was a time at the beginning of the year right after i bought the crown royal platinum one zero one where it got listed on ebay and i messaged the seller and it got listed for i can't even remember a price but it must have been a price at that time i did not wanna pay so i messaged the seller on instagram not to negotiate but because the card vanished from my listings and he made mention that he sold it at a card show and i was gutted because i had no information on where who owned the card now up until i saw it relisted or listed back in a marketplace and so when it got relisted or listed again on fanatics weekly i saw the card i hit favorite and it gave me an opportunity to get reenergized about the card and it felt like a second chance opportunity much like the crown royal card from the past i think when i think about the collection that i want to build i think a lot about the endgame for these cards when i think about the parallels i think about the end game for these cards and i think i have this goal of trying to build a collection of cards that give me that feeling deep down when i pull them out of the case and i don't wanna sell and it's very very challenging but this card i think brings me closer to where i want to go with the halliburton pc for this card i like the combination tyrese is the player i wanna collect his rookie year is part of the collection i wanna build the card comes from a product with history i can follow and the one of one parallel has a defined place in the release and i like how it adds something alongside the crown royale the crown royale purchase started my move into his kings rookies that purchase gives that part of my collection more substance that doesn't mean i need to own every rookie base out of one zero one in fact there was i think it was studio there was a chronicles release that came up rookie one of one got listed on ebay during the time that this obsidian auction was going on and i looked at it and i go you know what this this just is i don't want this i'm not a chronicles guy there will be cards like that that i pass on and there will be cards i learn about and decide aren't for me but there will be cards i want that somebody else owns and those are all parts of collecting i think what appeals to me is having some direction to recognize a card that fits when i see it i had already started considering his kings rookie before the auction i had already chosen to focus on halliburton one of ones obsidian gave me a card to study within that direction and i don't need the entire hobby to arrive at the same preference somebody else will put a different brand first somebody else will prefer an autograph or memorabilia somebody else will want the pacers uniform for every card and i understand all those choices mine comes from what i enjoy and what i want these cards to represent together that is part of the freedom of player collection building a player collection you can go deep enough to develop preferences within the player's cards and hierarchy you don't have to accept every preference that comes with the broader conversation around the player when i talk about the research phase i want you to understand what it did for the purchase it helped me identify the card it helped me understand the history of the product and it helped me place the parallel all within the year it also helped me understand why the combination belonged inside of what i was building those are different questions knowing the player doesn't answer the product question knowing the print run doesn't answer the design question knowing the brand doesn't tell you whether you want the card in your collection you have to spend time with each part for this card i started with an interest that already existed how it mattered to me then i had to learn enough about obsidian to decide whether this was a card i wanted product history mattered looking at the card all of these things culminate together and gives me something to be really excited about and there's one thing i don't wanna lose while talking to the research i'm excited about this card i'm excited about halliburton i'm excited to watch the pacers get up back on the floor this season and i want those feelings to be a part of collecting we talk about patience and focus on this show because they help us make decisions but the reason i want to make the decisions with care is that i want to enjoy the collections that i'm building i want to be able to look at a card and connect it back with something i care about i wanna learn a product and feel like learning adds to the experience i wanna watch a player i collect and have another reason to pay attention to them this purchase helps me do that the year on the card and the time when you buy it don't have to match for the purchase to have a meaning a rookie card can enter your collection years later and after you've had enough time to understand why that player matters to you that is what is happening here i know more about my connection to halliburton than i did when the product came out i know more about the cards i wanna own and that purchase reflects it and once it becomes part of your collection i wanna spend time enjoying it but put it aside crown royale look at the designs appreciate the differences that's what i wanna do and that's what i think is a lot of fun i think it's really important to pay attention to our interests because they're constantly shifting as we build collections give yourself room to learn more and if you have a rule you made that note you no longer follow change it i started collecting halliburton and pacers uniform because it was the connection i understood that connection grew my collection has room to grow with it that's why this obsidian rookie belongs i appreciate the player i understand more about the card and i want to own it alongside the other cards that represent what collecting halliburton means to me i appreciate you spending time with me if this brought a player or card to mind i'd love to hear about it really enjoy getting the opportunity to spend some time with you each and every week your time is very very valuable and appreciate you spending it here and appreciate you hearing a little bit about one of my recent pickups enjoy the tip-off of the nba season happy collecting we'll talk to you soon