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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.
What a day. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody listening, taking some time away from the eats and the treats to listen to some performance enhancing audio coming directly to you from Stacking Slabs HQ. I'm fired up to be here.
What a day. Is it your favorite holiday? It might be mine. You get to sit and you get to eat and you get to watch football and you get to just relax, man. No no no hustle and bustle, no presents, no, rigmarole, none of these things.
It's very relaxing. Well, maybe. It it should be relaxing. I I can't say anything in my life at this point is relaxing with a two year old and a four year old and another one coming in a less than a month or a month.
It's the clock is ticking. I'm gonna be severely outnumbered here, but I do love it and appreciate you.
And that's what I wanna talk about today. I want to dig into 10 things and this hobby that I am thankful for. Give a little gratitude to some things that I wanna recognize.
I wanna do something different here. You know, we have a free space here in Stacking Slabs on Thursday and I've talked about, you know, maybe I take it off, maybe it'll be something else, maybe I'll test a new format here.
I just wanna talk about what I'm thankful for. And it just seems appropriate, right?
And by the way, if you are listening to this actually on Thanksgiving, whether you're like, I need to get away from the family and tune into some stacking slabs, or perhaps you're traveling and you're making your significant other as you're traveling from town to town listen to stacking slabs.
You're one of the real ones, and I do appreciate you. I really do. There's been a lot of noise in the hobby lately.
A lot of frustration, a lot of drama. You all know what I'm talking about, and I don't even wanna get into it. You can't scroll five minutes without seeing someone yelling, exposing, or fighting.
You know, I had this thought last week or this week, as a matter of fact, and I seeing all the story posts and seeing all the conversations, and I'm just like, do are we do we even talk about cards anymore?
And I think that sucks. Like, I want more conversation about collecting, more conversations about cards and products, and less about all of the the the the negative stuff going on.
And I understand, like, human beings love drama, and human beings love drama, and understand, like, human beings love drama, and human beings love to call people out and do all these things, and it's needed at some level.
But, man, maybe it's the series of events, maybe it's the domino effect, but I am burnt out. So I wanted to pull us out of that for a moment. Not saying ignore the problems, but to remind myself why I'm here.
To remind all of us that there's still plenty in this hobby worth being thankful for. For me, gratitude isn't about pretending everything is perfect. It's about choosing to focus on what matters most.
It's about grounding yourself. It's about remembering what brings you back to this space, this hobby, each and every week. And so today, I wanna share what I'm thankful for in this hobby this year.
And I hope, it sparks some reflection for you too, because in the middle of all this chaos, there are people, products, and moments worth recognizing and worth holding on to. And I don't know how long this is gonna go.
I'm just going to go, and I've got my 10 things without anything else, so let's just get into it. Think it would be a mistake by me to not, off the jump, recognize you, the loyal listener of the Stacking Slabs community and audience.
We we have gone through a transformational year this year at Stacking Slabs. We have gone from a couple podcasts a week to new content each and every day, and I'm fired up and dedicated to keep pushing this forward.
And we're trying new formats. We're trying branded content. We're trying spinning up new shows with guest hosts. And I can always rely on all of you for feedback, and feedback is a gift.
And part of what I just try to do each and every week is get people to care. And you all care, and you care in a bigger way than you probably know and recognize, and I just wanna say thank you.
I wanna say thank you. We just passed 800 episodes on the Stacking Slabs feed. It has been a passion project turned into my primary source of income.
This is what I do for a living. I get to talk about sports cards, psychology, technology, entrepreneurs, everything. I get to talk about a lot of different topics that interest me. And it it feels very much like a dream job.
And it wouldn't be possible without you. I would not be able to be consistent each week without you. And the commitment for from you all to tune in to this content each and every week is is very valuable.
You know, and when I talk about what I do, everyone always talks about or thinks and moves directly towards video and formats like YouTube.
And while there's some YouTube presence there, I I am I am dedicated and focused on the audio format.
This is my medium. You it is my medium because it's always been my medium, and I don't wanna veer away from that. And I'm only going to double down on that because this medium is really, really important.
And it's really, really important because a lot of you out there who are listening don't have time to sit in front of a screen and watch someone talk about sports cards or watch sports card content.
A lot of you are busy professionals with kids and you're always on the go. You're moving from place to place. And, the best way to listen to content or consume content when you're in that state of being is through audio.
I am a I will say I'm top percentile audio consumer, and we'll talk more about this in a minute, but I'm in a natural state of work. I'm in a natural state of parenting.
I'm in a natural state of movement, and I have my my headphones in, and I'm listening to content. So I know this medium and this content fills a specific profile of collector in this space, and that's why I'm building what I'm building.
I'm building this for you because I am you. And so I don't really get to talk about that too much, but I'm thankful for you being you because you inspire me to continue to do and not veer too too much off the track.
And when we're talking about audience, I wanna talk about the Patreon group.
All of you out there who've been in the Patreon group from the jump, supporting Stacking Slabs, getting, new shows that aren't on the main feed, getting access to video, that's where I do put video. But I appreciate all you.
You you don't need to be there, but you are. And if you wanna be, you can always be. And if you if you've been and you left, like, I appreciate you for supporting me. And you can sign up. The link is in the show notes.
You can be part of it. Or you you don't have to be. I'm not trying to force anybody. It's it's another space where you can come hang out. But none of this exists without the people who care about collecting sports cards, and that's you.
I gotta hit you know I gotta hit the partners. I would not be able to do this without you, the listener, and the partners. It's the combination, my stakeholders here at Stacking Slabs.
So we'll recognize partners here. EBay, Card Ladder, DC Sports eighty seven, PSA, Haystack, Inferno Red Technology. I think about previous partners, Port City Sports Collectibles. I think about the Wharf Sports Cards.
I appreciate all of my partners. I appreciate my cohosts, John, Pat Nicholson, Caitlin, Cold Lunch Cards. All of these partners, all of these people have helped elevate Stacking Slabs to its next chapter.
And those stakeholders and more will help elevate Stacking Slabs to its next chapter. I have learned so much from working with different companies in this space.
I have learned about how businesses think, what businesses need. I have learned how businesses think about building and developing trust. I think I've learned so much about communication, shared mission, and it has been amazing.
And I legitimately love all of the conversations I get to have with my partners each and every week and content that gets created with partners each and every week.
This is a little Stacking Slabs network inception here, but just for me to remark, because I never get to, like, sit up top and and zoom in and commentate on content that's happening in stacking slabs, and I won't make a habit of it because it'd be weird.
But I think about this series Passion and Profession. We've been running it with eBay from the beginning of this year all the way up through now.
And I can't tell you how rewarding it is each and every week to get in a conversation, in many cases, with somebody I don't know, and explore why they're here.
Why they're building a business in this space. How did they get here? What do they care about?
Passion and profession has been therapeutic for me as I'm on my entrepreneurial journey in this space building and to hear and learn from so many other people who have been doing it a lot longer than me has been so inspiring.
That has been an amazing side effect of that that I wasn't expecting is just not only the insight, the knowledge and expertise from so many incredible builders, but also it's created an additional network for me for individuals that I can turn to if I have questions or just wanna get inspired.
Support people that are great people that are building businesses in this space.
Do whatever you can to support them. This hobby runs on those types of businesses, and it's the foundation for this space. It could be your local hobby shop. It could be a consignment shop. It could be someone who promotes shows.
Any of it. Go support those people. Tell them you appreciate them. It goes a long way. The partnerships that I have built and developed throughout this year, I I don't think about them as transactions.
They're relationships. They're trust exchanges. They're proof that people believe in the mission and what we're trying to do here at Stacking Slabs. So I'm having I have a laundry list and I feel very fortunate for this.
I have a laundry list of active conversations I'm having with brands in the hobby that potentially could become Stacking Slabs partners, and I feel so fortunate for, that.
And even if none of them become Stacking Slabs partners, I'm better for those conversations. There are the fact and and I'll say this, and we'll we'll move over to the next topic.
But I'll say this. We should all be encouraged when we look at the hobby and we see what we see. A lot of the times, it doesn't feel like it's for us, whether it's too indexing too much on gambling or whatever.
We should all be encouraged that there are brands in this space that want to invest in collector focused content. And I think that's really cool. And that's a reflection I have.
Man, there are enough brands in this space from eBay to Carlettr, DC Sports, eighty seven, PSA, Haystack, Inferno Red, that want to invest in collector focused content, and I think that's a really good sign.
Alright. Number three, Instagram.
I know. It's crazy. Instagram. I spend way too much time on it, and it's crazy. It's a weird dynamic here at Stacking Slabs HQ because I'll be on Instagram, and my wife will see me on Instagram, and my wife knows that I'm working.
That it's just bizarre. But, of course, I do the scrolls, and I'm on Instagram to communicate and for for pleasure too.
But my primary use case at this point with Instagram is professional, which is, it's wild. But I wanna focus on Instagram from a positive perspective, and I think it's one of the most important platforms still in the hobby.
You have the opportunity and the ability to start something and build your brand on that platform. You have the ability to share your cards, your collecting identity.
This is who I am and what I represent as a collector. You have the ability to meet and network with other collectors, with businesses, with brands, all on one app, literally one app.
You're it's a huge hive of people in this space doing amazing things, and it's not the only view. I think we get caught up in thinking, like, Instagram is the view. It's it's just a small view of the hobby, but it's an important view.
And I know without Instagram, I would never have been able to build stacking slabs and gain traction for stacking slabs at the level I have. It's been a primary platform for me, and I'm on it way too much.
I'm on it every day. I am using it for so many different ways to help elevate what I'm doing here, but I'm just very thankful for it. I'm thankful for the leads I get from you all on cards.
I'm thankful for the the DM conversations, the group chats, the advice. Alright. Product focused here. No surprise, but it's an end of an era. So I've gotta say I am thankful for Prism Football.
Prism has Football has shaped the identity of who I am as a collector. It's it's helped me focus. It's helped me really I talk about shrinking the sea a lot, and it's allowed me to not only collect my favorite team.
It's not only been my favorite product, which helped me has helped me collect my favorite team, but then also my favorite parallels, and then also do it from the level of this is a project, and it's never ending, and I'm gonna continue to do it.
I love it. We're going to get Prism Football's last installment, like, as we know it. Who knows what's gonna happen in the future, but, like, the last Prism Football installment's coming, and I'm fired up.
It's gonna be a lot of work to get the cards I want, But this is the last stretch, so might as well come at it and come at it correct.
You know, there's a transition happening. But for me, I'll say this. I will always love Prism deeply and intimately because of this. I was in a bad place in my life.
Very bad place. Not good. I decided to to get back in the cards and pick up a microphone prioritized. But as on top of that, it was I'm gonna get back in the cards, and I'm going to start documenting my journey.
And as a part of this process, Prism and Prism's football specifically was the card, and that card was that product was front and center.
And so I have always been deeply I have a lot of gratitude for that. There there's something strong connection point with me because ever since I started to do stacking slabs, started to collect again, my life has been so much better.
It's been remarkable. And, yeah, alongside of that, there's been two children, a third on the way, and a loving wife, and a couple homes, but I'm in a lot better spot.
And so I have to call out Prism and Prism Football specifically because that product has really taken me on a ride both figuratively and whatever other superlative you have. That it's taken me for a ride. Okay. Great communication.
Another thing I'm thankful for. I wanna celebrate all of you who are excellent communicators. I need great communication. And if you communicate with me, whether it's through DM, deal making, whatever it is, I appreciate you.
It's the biggest separator between good and bad hobby experiences. Shitty communication, bad experience. Good communication, great experience. Dealers who don't respond, services who don't follow-up.
All that stuff sucks. Like, I hate chasing people. I hate waiting. Like, be if you're running a business and you are or you're trying to make a deal with me, like, be good at communication. Strong communication builds trust.
It is the foundation for everything we do. Poor communication creates friction and damages relationships. I appreciate everybody I interact with who is a excellent communicator. Alright. Let's talk about content.
I live in this space, but I also am a consumer in this space. I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for the content ecosystem and the diversity around it. All the different types of content that exist, I appreciate and I value.
I appreciate hearing the different perspectives, getting educated. I appreciate the entertainment. I appreciate the community that content builds. I wanna thank all of the creators that I and I'm not going I'm I'm not gonna do it.
I was thinking about just rattling them off, but I'm not gonna do it because I listen to so many different podcasts that I will certainly forget someone.
And also, if you're doing YouTube, for people like me who don't watch YouTube, make sure your content's available via audio. Because if it is, I'll listen to it. I listen to everything. It is always my top podcast. Whatever it is.
If it's new and it's related to sports cards, I don't care who it is. I'm listening to it first. And maybe that makes me a sicko. But I think it makes me a better creator in the space by understanding other people's approach to content.
I obsess over it. I'm obsessive compulsive over it. I wanna understand. I wanna know how you think. I wanna understand your perspective, the way you format, the way you think, all the way, all the things that happen behind the scenes.
All that stuff, man. It fires me up. Thank you, creators out there. I want to send some gratitude for the cards.
Let's take a moment to think about the cards. Thank I wanna thank the cards themselves. I wanna reflect on the importance of the actual reason why we're here, but we often lose sight of the cards.
Product knowledge, insights, information ground me as a collector. They guide me as a collector. They make collecting more meaningful.
And I just love it when you're sitting there and you're in a conversation or you're seeing someone post, and it's like a PhD level post about a card and all the qualities, design, aesthetics, rarity, scarcity, manufacturer.
Like, that shit fires me up, man.
We need more of it. We need more people educating. So much of the insight, information, and knowledge in this space is in the heads of so many collectors. So many collectors that have been doing this for far longer than I have.
Part of the reason why I love doing the shows and talking with people is because I can pull out this insight and information. It's therapeutic, and it's also enjoyable for me.
But sometimes we just lose sight of cards, and I just wanna just wanna say, man, thank you cards. Thank you sports cards. Wanna celebrate hobby diversity. And this means diversity in a lot of different ways.
I think there are so many different ways to approach the hobby, and the mix and the diversity and different ways to approach, whether it's collecting, your role in the hobby, all this stuff, it matters.
If we were all doing the same thing or all share the same opinions, it would suck.
But the fact that there's many different flavors of the hobby and many different styles and profiles of people who participate in this space, different ages, different genders, different races, different you name it.
Like, that melting pot is why this space is awesome, and I appreciate that.
I think diversity is one of the most important things in this space, and it doesn't get recognized and talked about enough. I think it keeps the hobby interesting, and it prevents stagnation.
I wanna shout out all you independent thinkers. I'm thankful for you. I wanna celebrate people who think for themselves and aren't part of the herd. I wanna we need more independent thought.
We need more independent thinkers. People who turn left when other people are going right. It is valuable when people think for themselves, and they question things, and they analyze different parts of the hobby.
That's important. And if you do that, and then you create content and share it, it's game over. We are curious people, and those who lean into that curiosity, I can't say it enough.
It's very valuable. And so lean into your instincts as as collectors. Finally, I just wanna share some gratitude for kindness. I think kindness is underrated.
There's a lot of kind people that are very thoughtful, that are giving, that are fair, and it just doesn't get talked about enough because it's not sexy. Kindness stands out more than anything else in the hobby to me.
There are so many kind people in this space that never get recognized, and I don't even think they wanna be recognized. But I think that kindness is is powerful, and it and it helps establish and builds trust and relationships.
That's it. That those are my 10 things, man. I don't know. Like, that's just I just before I hit record, I just wrote down 10 things, and those were the first 10 that came to my mind.
But it's it's a holiday. It's Thanksgiving. There's Macy's Day parade. There's football. There's all the things going on, and I do appreciate you spending some time here with stacking slabs on this Thanksgiving.
I'm fired up for the rest of this year. I'm even more fired up for 2026. It's gonna be a fun year. Appreciate all of your support. We'll be back with more stacking slabs on the other side. We'll talk to you soon.