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Welcome to the Stacking Slabs, a podcast for sports cards collectors. There's been a tremendous amount of change to our Hobby over the last few years and the one constant has been the passion from the collecting community. Stacking Slabs is built by the collector and lives to tell stories for the collector.
What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Stacking Slabs. This is your hobby content alternative.
I'm your host, Brett. I collect sports cards. I have a podcast network about sports cards. It's all we do around here is we talk about sports cards, different angles, different theories. We cover it all, or we're trying to cover it all.
We're trying to get focused. We're trying to get in the weeds and focus on specific verticals. And every Wednesday, I get up here and do a flagship episode. These episodes typically are centered around the psychology around collecting.
I enjoy doing them and appreciate all of your feedback along the way. We are growing. We are building for 2026. I would ask all of you who enjoy these episodes to hit the follow button.
Make sure you do that. Would be also cool if you leave a review trying to increase discoverability across the platforms where you listen and make sure you tell a damn friend.
Would you? Appreciate you being here. I'm fired up. I wanna shout out Inferno Red Technology for being the sponsor of the flagship.
Inferno Red Technology is the engineering team behind some of the biggest names in sports and collectibles, like DC Sports eighty seven, Comsea Collectors, Upper Deck, and eBay from AI powered solutions for startups to full stack platforms for industry leaders.
Their team can tackle your toughest challenge. They build awesome software for the hobby, for leagues and fans, and for everyone.
In between, see what they can build for you at infernored. com. There is a lot going on in my life, a lot going on in my world. I'm trying to bank some of these episodes because I'm about to have another child.
I don't know when this is going to happen. It's imminent. It could be anytime. So I'm trying to get out in front of it because this is the third child that I have brought into Stacking Slabs HQ since starting Stacking Slabs HQ.
So I wanna thank my podcast for, being the soundtrack of my children's existence. That's not really true. But it is also it's fun to think about my kids have kind of, entered this world as stacking slabs has evolved.
So, we are nearing that time. And I wanna make sure when I am with my family and with my wife and new child in the hospital, there are stacking slabs episodes for all of you.
So there might be a gap because I don't know when this is gonna happen, but I'm just trying to get aggressive and make sure we do whatever we can.
If you have children, you're probably dealing with sickness right now. I know I am. It's the kids at home, waking up in the middle of the night getting sick.
It sucks every December. Tis the season for sickness. So my sleep schedule is off, but maybe it's preparation for the road ahead because when you get a newborn around, there really is no sleep schedule.
So I'm in training camp over here, and and that's why you know, I actually, this is a brand I'd love to have sponsor the pod. Shout out to Alani.
I'm drinking a pink slush right now. Not my favorite flavor, but it was a part of the whatever 12 pack, 18 pack that, got picked up from, Costco. I can't think of Costco without thinking of, AJ, the Boom Guys, the Riz.
Oh, Costco. I'm off the rails already. I'm I'm delirious, but I am chugging a Aulani energy drink. Aulani, the official energy boost for sports card collectors worldwide.
It's my pitch to you, Aulani team. Let's get into it. Alright. Today's topic, I want to talk about about how focusing in on your collection can actually unlock true value.
And this came to me as I've been thinking about these topics and themes, and one of them has always been for me and I know for many others that when you start collecting for yourself instead of buying cards that you think other people want, that is when you start to increase the value of your collection.
I know it sounds counterintuitive, but it's a familiar turning point in the hobby. A collector stops chasing quick flick flips and starts collecting based on interest or with your heart.
We move from buying for profit to collecting for personal passion, and I have noticed in my own journey that something remarkable happens. My collection has become more valuable, and, obviously, it's become more meaningful.
It's a phenomenon. It's a pattern seen time and time again in our hobbies history. I actively have conversations where this topic is unlocked with other people, so I know I'm not alone.
And many of us have entered during these boom periods, and we're lured in by these skyrocketing prices only to discover the real treasure isn't the dollar signs.
It's in the cards that resonate with us. I'm always trying to build a collection that I'm proud of and that's meaningful to me.
I I have learned that the most valuable collections often start by things such as nostalgia, curiosity, and love of cards rather than, the transactional mindset of, like, I'm gonna get a quick payday from this.
So it's what changes when profit stops becoming the primary goal. I think that's the core question. Clarity, intention, and purpose as a collector are very important.
You get more joy, more energy, and more direction. I think this is a deeply personal, realization that when you focus on what truly matters to you as a collector, the hobby feels less like a stock market and starts feeling like a home.
And it's ironic that by not prioritizing monetary value, you often end up with a more valuable cards because you're selecting them with knowledge, purpose, and passion.
Why did you fall in love with this hobby in the first place? Was it the thrill of profit or the thrill of connection to a player, team, or memory?
Many of us, if we're if we're honest, started collecting because the cards meant something to us. The realization is at the heart of intentional collecting.
I find this topic very, very interesting. I explore it myself. And what I wanna do in this episode is try to see by talking through some examples how this shakes out, not only for me, but hopefully for you.
We've had a wild stretch. I recorded an episode that's live now with Tory at DC Sports eighty seven where I made mention the episode I brought up the pandemic and the bubble.
And I told him it it felt like I had not done that much this year as opposed to previous years.
The storyline is fading a little bit. Maybe it's because 2025 has been an aggressive year. But I think when you go back to the 2020, 2021 boom, many people or many participants started treating the hobby as day trading.
And there were companies, platforms. There were so many things popping up to help people think that this is the way it all worked.
You had forums in social media that were filled with talk of ROI, last sales prices. You had people yelling, this isn't a hobby anymore. There was just a big conflict.
And I think about that all the time. And there was a lot of frustration. The frustration captures the sentiment of collectors who watched a wave of speculators enter the space, many for the sole reason of flipping cards for profit.
The language of collecting seemed to shift to the language of investing, comps, profit margins, what's hot.
And it's no wonder that those who cherish cards for their personal, meaning felt alienated, and that still exists today in many hobby circles.
I think amid the noise of profit chasing voices of traditional collectors push back, reminding everyone what makes this hobby special. I hope that if you listen to my content, you consider me one of those voices.
Now I'm not anti flip. I am not anti profit. I am just concerned by the volume of people in this space who aren't getting to that point where we want the cards over the cash in our pocket.
Because fundamentally, for this industry to survive and to grow, you need end users or collectors who love cards because they want to keep the cards rather than keep flipping them around.
I think there there's that conflict between different groups in areas, and I've gone on record of saying the diversity of the way we approach the hobby is one of the special features of this hobby.
But I it's not lost on me that it's lost on a lot of people that there's a lot of us who just wanna collect this stuff.
I think there is sentiments that underscore a growing movement in the hobby to reclaim collecting as a personal pursuit rather than a mere investment vehicle. You hear content about this. You see a lot of people discussing it.
I think we debate internally how we're approaching the hobby. It's okay to wanna collect cards on one side, but then wanna make money on the other side. I think the important thing is to recognize it.
I think the current era of the hobby is prompted many collectors to do that, to take stock in what we collect. I have been digging into this week in and week out and sharing my own stories.
And the more we reflect and inspect what we're doing with our collection, what we're buying, selling, trading, what we're amassing, the more we begin to realize where we wanna focus.
But when personal enjoyment and meaning are the motive, the hobby becomes more sustainable and fulfilling.
And in the long run, those who have stayed true to the joy of wanting to collect tend to still be here after the speculators have come and gone.
So why does shifting from extrinsic motive or money to intrinsic one like a passion often lead to better outcomes both emotionally and financially? That's the question that's core at this.
I think psychology offers some clues. Collecting is fundamentally a human activity. It's driven by our internal needs and rewards. We collect something in pursuit of something tangible, experience, feeling, an idea.
It can be a card that our grandfather gave us or a rookie card of our favorite players. There is sentimental value in that. Intrinsic, drive is also powerful.
I think collectors often describe their collections as an extension of themselves, their extended self. That is what they're saying is their collection. I think about myself and my collection and what I collect.
And it's if you saw me on the street and you saw what I was wearing and the team I'm supporting and then you went teams I support and you look at my collection, they would be very, very similar.
Value tends to gravitate towards meaning. I think it's it's why Lifelong's fans meticulously assemble team collections that mean the world to them. Each piece is a chapter of their story and a fragment of their identity.
And ironically, because such a collection assembled with knowledge and love, it ends up containing the right cards, the ones that do gain monetary value because they're historically and, culturally significant.
Contrast that with extrinsic motivation or collecting, undermine our undermine our enjoyment and persistence.
If one of the hobby if if one is only in the hobby for profit, the moment profit dries up the motivation to participate evaporates.
And that's when we see market dips, and that's why we saw the bubble burst in 2021. There is a lot that goes into this.
There are a lot of companies in the hobby organized around profiting off of this mindset, this, mentality of get rich, get rich quick. Let's gamble, baby. Let's roll the dice. Let's pull the slot machine.
I'm okay with some of it, but it can't be all of it because if everyone who's brought into this space is focusing in on that all of the time, the we all know this the end of the that movie, and it's going to be a horror film, not ending well.
The financial side is just catching up to it. I think when so many people want something for personal reasons, that collective desire creates value. I think collecting for personal satisfaction all also fosters expertise and flow.
You spend more time studying and enjoying the niche that you love, whether it's players, cards, era sets, not because you have to, be be because you want to.
It interests you. It drives engagement. It makes you feel good. You become the subject matter expert.
Many collectors have become very intentional with the moves they're making and are focusing in on the stuff that makes sense to buy at the price it does based on their own product insight, knowledge, and supply.
They're do you're doing the homework. Like, if you're in this space and you don't enjoy the research that in in the work behind building a collection of your dreams, then I don't know what you're doing.
Like, that part is fascinating. The information, the communication, and, ultimately, the intrinsic motivation transform collecting from shallow transaction into a rich experience. And we, as collectors, demand great experiences.
Why else are we doing this? We want an experience that takes us away from the monotony of the day to day, the priorities, the responsibilities into something that feels and makes us, feel good.
It's like getting on a roller coaster, going up and down and all around the twists and turns, man. That is what it's all about, and then it stops. And when it stops, we get a moment of reflection.
Think about the cards in your collections that you treasure the most, the ones with the highest value. If you were to rank your top five cards by what they mean to you, not their market price, what would that list look like?
I remember hearing Dave, Iowa Dave talk about that. And that's a good way to refocus and your appreciation over the value of cards. One of the key ingredients of intentional collecting is focus.
This can mean focusing on a player, team set, genre, whatever speaks to you. Focus in what turns random buying into deliberate action. The focus approach tends to result in fewer purchases, but higher quality ones.
Cards that you're going to be excited about, cards that are going to resonate, cards that are going to set you off on an uncharted path. Counter that with buying cards that you think someone else wants.
Why in the why why do we think we can predict what somebody else wants or the performance of a certain player? Why do we think we do this? Because the gambling mindset mentality is so integrated into everything we do.
There is no profits on here. And when I mean profits, I'm talking about people who are looking into the future, who can crystallize what is going to happen and where values are gonna go.
If anyone is acting like they are, then you should probably run because they're they're a gimmick. You shouldn't listen to these people. It's a fraud. It's a sham. Nobody knows what's going to happen next.
So doesn't it make us more comfortable and comforted to be buying cards that we truly love and no matter what? Even if the price went down to zero, it wouldn't matter because we love these cards.
That's how I think about it. I think it is important to dig in to what we're doing, why we're doing it. I bought cards before where three days later, they're in my case.
I'm like, why did I buy this? And I bought it for all the wrong reasons, and it's okay. It takes these moments of our own reflection and it happening for us to finally turn the corner. I think focus embodies or excuse me.
I think focus empowers collectors to become selective, knowledgeable, and disciplined, and connected. Those traits all contribute to building a collection that is personally fulfilling and as a side effect, likely financially robust.
It's like focusing on your health. Think about that. If you eat well and exercise well for the sake of feeling good, you'll probably also look better as a byproduct.
In the same way, focusing on your collection on what you truly care about tends to result in a collection that others admire and value.
Focus is the antidote to the spray and pray approach, buying that leaves many new interests entrants with boxes of regret. It can transform collecting curation, and the collectibles market curated collections command respect.
I wanna spend some time talking about why value or why I think value follows intentional, collecting and some of the key reasons before we get out of this episode.
And we've danced around the central thesis in a variety of ways, but let's distill it clearly. Why does value or financial value tend to follow those who collect with focus and intention rather than those who chase value directly?
That's the key question. There's a lot of interlocking reasons that come to the forefront. Number one, there are fewer but smarter purchases.
Intentional collectors buy less junk, plain and simple. When you are focused, you aren't buying every hot card or ripping endless packs or buying into breaks for big hits that you're never gonna win.
You're selectively acquiring cards that fit your collections long term vision. This means your money isn't wasted on dozens of transient items. It's concentrated into a fewer things with staying power.
Fewer purchases also means fewer opportunities to make mistakes. The profit chaser often ends up with boxes full of stuff that they can't even remember buying because of stuff like FOMO.
The focus collector has a short list of targets and sticks to it. By avoiding unnecessary spend, you preserve capital for truly important and special cards.
It's almost like a natural budgeting tool. You're less likely overspend chasing every card you think someone wants. Additionally, making fewer moves means you're paying fewer transaction fees, shipping, grading, all of that.
Think about all the budget that goes into it. This fewer but smarter purchases is a reason. The next one I'm thinking about is the opportunity to have deep knowledge or subject matter expertise.
Focusing on a niche that is significant to you allows you as a collector to be an expert in that area. Knowledge is profit in collecting.
You learn which players actually have a passionate fan base or which cards or players are in demand, which sets our condition sensitive, which parallels the audience cares about what you love, and gives you broader knowledge just in general around the different errors that you collected.
And you might remember that certain cards have are one per case or you might know the pack odds or odds or the nuances of specific product, and that is a lot more valuable than a flipper mindset where you're buying a card just because you think someone else wants it and then you try to sell it seconds later.
Quality and rarity over quantity. A focus collector inherently gravitates towards higher quality items.
When you truly care about a theme, you eventually want the best representation of that theme you can afford. I can attest to that with my twenty twelve finite Reggie Wayne purchase.
If your theme or your favorite player, you eventually figure out what their other cards, what matters, and you start to get in this rabbit hole of trying to acquire cards that are scarce and significant to you.
There's long term interest and patience.
When you collect for yourself, you're in no rush to sell. You tend to hold pieces for years and even decades, especially if they continue to make you happy. The long horizon is exactly what allows many collectibles to appreciate.
Value in collectibles often accumulates over the long term as players cement their careers, as sets become more recognized over time as supply diminishes and nostalgia increases.
All of those factors play a role in value, and the intentional collector's timeline is naturally aligned with this. You might wanna own a card until the day you die unless you have to absolutely sell for something.
This means when a temporary market dips, they shrug it off, and when the surge comes, they're not scrambling to cash in either. Ironically, allowing the surge to go even higher due to their own restraint.
Restraint is such a superpower in this hobby. I think patience and restraint are like the two most important superpowers in this hobby along with curiosity, maybe three.
I'll bucket those together. If you have restraint and you're able to be patient, your cards will go up in value. If you're buying stuff you love, that's rare and scarce.
I think about this stuff a lot, and I'm just fascinated by it. I'm I'm fascinated by the alignment with true demand too. The items that intentional collectors focus on usually are those that have real collector demand behind them.
This is the crucial point. It is not just buying what's available on the marketplace, but it is scrambling to find the cards that no one else knows where they're at and using your resource sources to your advantage.
That is fun. It's the game with inside the game, and there's community and network benefits from that too. And if you're not sourcing other people for information about this stuff, then you're probably going about it the wrong way.
It's an individual sport that relies on relationships. Relationships to find information and to buy cards that matter. There is so much that goes into this, and this is just a heavy topic, but it's one that I think about a lot.
I think focusing in on passion is the cornerstone of value. When collectors shift from profit chasing to intentional passion driven collecting, they often build collections of greater value, both personal and financial.
There's psychology behind this that centers around, intrinsic motivation, the love of cars, the stories, the hunt, which yields better decisions and more fulfillment than chasing extrinsic rewards like money, clout, you all the above.
Think the more we think about collecting for ourselves and intentional collecting, there's a mindset and a discipline and, above all, a celebration of why we're here.
There's value in our cards, and it's not just the grade or the label or the last comp. It's the journey we have taken to acquire them and the meaning we assign to them.
Focusing on that journey, focus on that meaning, and you'll find almost by surprise that you've amassed something truly valuable in every sense of the word.
I think that you have to think in order to build a collection that not only means something to you, but that's valuable over time. It's crazy, man.
I'm telling you. Stop trying to buy cards that you think other people want that you don't want because you're trying to make money. Start buying cards that you love, that have traits that are rare and scarce that you want.
And be patient and have restraint. And enjoy your damn cards. Like, spend time with them like I talked about last week. The more we consider all these factors and the more we be more intelligent, the better experience that we have.
And we're all looking for experiences, and this hobby provides some of the best experiences in our lives. It just makes our lives better, especially if we're going about it in a way that's personal and for us.
My name is Brett. I collect sports cards. I have a podcast network about sports card collecting. It's called Stacking Slides. Make sure you hit the follow button.
Get all the content. I've got a Patreon group. Would love to see you in there. Link is in the show notes. Looking forward to sharing the next episode with you. You take care, and we'll talk to you soon.