Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / Surface Issues - Episode 3

Transcript

Surface Issues - Episode 3 · Sports Card Clubhouse

0:00
In our massive country, there are card collectors throughout
0:03
the land participating in the hobby.
0:06
There's Mike of Junk Wax Hero and Greg of Midlife Cards.
0:11
And while distance may separate them, here is where they come
0:14
together to talk cards. All right, here I am.
0:21
I'm here with Tony Lebrik, though, not Mike.
0:24
Junk Wax Hero. Mike, Mike wasn't feeling well.
0:29
And so he said, hey, do you want to postpone a couple of days?
0:33
And I go, Nah, dude, I'll just replace you.
0:34
That's no big deal. So.
0:37
It's hard to replace Mike, man. So a quick call over to my boy
0:41
Tony, and here we are. So thank you for coming in out
0:44
of the bullpen on short notice. You're the man.
0:47
Hey man, I anytime dude. I just love talking about cards.
0:51
I love spending time with you, so it's a win win.
0:54
Hey, likewise. SO basically if, if people
0:59
aren't familiar with you because we're on different platforms and
1:02
stuff than we normally are, but tell people where they can find
1:07
you if if they're not familiar with you, Tony.
1:11
Yeah, so on YouTube, Southern Collector 14, it will take you
1:15
right to my channel. And then on Instagram, Southern
1:18
Collector 14 made it really easy.
1:20
It's the same on both. So yeah, I've been on Instagram
1:23
for a couple of years and built a community there and then
1:28
branched out to YouTube. Thanks to you, you know, help me
1:31
out, get me started and give me all the pointers and and coming
1:36
up on my one year anniversary on that.
1:37
So yeah, it's been a lot of fun. So Tony's got a great channel.
1:42
If you aren't following Tony at Southern Collector 14 you are
1:46
missing out for sure. Does lots of research for his
1:50
videos. Has an amazing collection,
1:53
really likable guy, has great guests on, so highly recommend
1:58
him. We are going to talk about
2:00
something when when I found out on short notice that, you know,
2:04
Mike wasn't going to be on and I I gave you a buzz and you said,
2:07
yeah, I'm in. The first topic that came to my
2:11
mind when I thought about you and I thought would be really
2:15
fun to talk about is how a lot of the times a lot of us in
2:20
collecting cards, we will we will kind of just pivot from
2:23
where we're going and what we're doing and then kind of on a
2:27
dime, we'll just start heading in a different direction.
2:30
And I think there are a lot of us that do that.
2:33
A lot of us, you know, we were doing one thing and then all of
2:37
a sudden we're doing a different thing.
2:38
You know, you're collecting basketball cards and all of a
2:41
sudden you go into a baseball, you go from, you know, golden
2:44
era and all of a sudden you're you're suddenly really
2:47
interested in in pre war cards. And when when you first got back
2:53
into the hobby, you were doing a lot of player runs and you were
2:56
doing Hank Aaron player runs, you're doing Mickey Mantle
2:59
player runs and and now you're doing something completely
3:03
different. So tell us about from your
3:06
perspective, why did you change? Why did you pivot from what you
3:10
were doing into what you're doing now?
3:13
Just take me through that process on what kind of spurred
3:16
that, because I think a lot of people at times start to think
3:21
of themselves as well. I'm the, I'm the, you know, the
3:24
Hank Aaron guy. And now I can't, I can't start
3:27
collecting something else because Hank Aaron is sort of
3:29
what I do. So how did, how did you, how did
3:32
you come to that point? Well, yeah, so when I got back
3:36
in, it was, what do I do? Like, I didn't know I knew what
3:43
I knew. And what I knew was golden era
3:44
baseball cards, 'cause even in my teenage years, in my early,
3:50
like elementary, middle school school years when I was
3:53
collecting, I knew those cards like the back of my hand.
3:58
Those were in the Beckett's. Every now and then I'd see a
4:01
really cool one at the flea market or at my local card shop.
4:06
It really wasn't that local was downtown Nashville.
4:09
And my Mama would take me every now and then and me and my
4:12
brother and we'd look at the cards under the glass and, and I
4:16
remember wanting a, a Willie Mccovey rookie card so bad.
4:20
Like that was just so cool to me.
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And of course you always dreamt of having a Mickey Mantle card
4:26
or something like that. So that was what I knew.
4:30
I knew some of the pre war, I knew the T2O6 set, I knew the
4:34
Gowdy's, I knew all that stuff. And so you know one of those I
4:39
remember I still have like when I first got back in, I don't
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think I've ever told you this. I was collecting the golden era
4:47
stuff. But man I was seeing some of
4:51
this T2O6 stuff when I found eBay and I order cause at this
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point I wasn't spending money man I've never dreamt I'd spend
5:02
the kind of money I've been spending.
5:03
This is stupid. But anyways it was just I was
5:07
dipping a toe in and I ordered 2T2O6 cards and some dudes I've
5:14
never heard of because it was really cheap and I thought the
5:17
card looked really cool. It was an action shot, this dude
5:19
diving for a ball. And it was kind of weird
5:21
looking. And I remember getting that card
5:24
and it's showing my wife and going, this card right here is
5:29
115 years old. Can you believe that?
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And she was like, wow. And I think I paid, I don't
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know, 60 bucks for it or something, you know?
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Yeah. And so I, I was already kind of
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dipping a toe in. And then I, I started watching
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YouTube and that's what changed things because I started being
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inspired by people. And you know, seeing Orlando go
5:57
through the catalog and show all these different pre war sets.
6:01
And then Dave Blue Jacket 66, you know, seeing him show all
6:06
the stuff he was showing and man, it was interesting and it
6:09
was sexy and it, man, I've never seen that stuff before.
6:13
And all of a sudden that was piquing my interest cause while
6:17
I still love the Golden Air stuff, that was new and it was
6:21
exciting. So I started going down that
6:23
route. And then there was one thing
6:26
that really kind of changed me a little bit.
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I'd all, when I was a kid, when I'd go to the library, we had
6:32
the book fair. I'd always check out baseball
6:36
books, you know, and I'd buy, buy a little baseball book.
6:40
And I remember reading about Hank Aaron and Willie Mays and
6:43
Ted Williams and those guys in Babe Ruth.
6:46
And I was always into baseball history.
6:49
I wanted a Cracker Jack card, but again, I wouldn't spending
6:52
big money. And I was able to get a Chief
6:55
Bender Cracker Jack card. I didn't know who Chief Bender
6:59
was, but I thought it was cool. He had the pill box had on had
7:02
the stripes around it. And I didn't know why he was
7:05
even named chief. And I, and I read the back of
7:09
that card, the biography thing and it talked about how he grew
7:13
up in a, on an Indian Reservation and, and it, I was
7:17
thinking, Dang man, that's awesome.
7:19
So I ordered a book on Chief Bender.
7:22
So there I go. Now I'm getting back into that
7:25
history side. And once I started reading
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books, now I'm reading about different people in these books
7:31
I didn't know about and I'm it's starting to piquing my interest
7:34
on different players. Then she was Joe Jackson
7:39
happened and I start reading about him and man alive, dude, I
7:45
knew the name and I knew, you know, 8 men out and I knew Field
7:50
of Dreams and all that stuff. But when I started really
7:53
reading about his story, it really hit home for me as a
7:56
Southerner about how this guy didn't know, you know, he didn't
8:00
know how to read and write. He just loved to play baseball.
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He ends up going to the Northeast.
8:06
He's kind of a weirdo because he has a Southern accent and he
8:10
doesn't know how to get around a town and he can't read a menu.
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And that piqued my interest. So now I'm, I'm like, man, I got
8:16
to get me some shoes. So Jackson cards.
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So I go down that route. In the meantime, what's always
8:22
kind of lingering there as I'm seeing more and more cards and
8:26
I'm getting into auction houses. Autographed cards have always
8:32
been a thing for me, man, always been a thing for me.
8:36
And you know the story, I've told it.
8:38
I had Nauseam about me getting Mickey Mantle's autograph on my
8:41
59 Mantle Tops card when I was 14 years old, standing in front
8:46
of him. And also earlier than that, in
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1980, the Braves came through town on the Braves Caravan and
8:54
they all sat in my local mall behind tables.
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And it was Jerry Royster and it was Phil Necro, and it was Dale
9:00
Murphy and it was Glenn Hubbard and all these dudes that I had.
9:04
I mean, these are major leaguers.
9:06
And I took my little cards with me and they signed the cards.
9:09
I got a 69 Tops Phil Negro sign that day.
9:12
He touched that card. He looked me now and handed it
9:16
back. And I'm sure he was thinking how
9:18
this kid get a 69 Tops. I was 10.
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I didn't know how I got the card, don't remember, but I
9:24
still have that card. So I've seen all this stuff and
9:28
I'm like, man, dude, that's cool.
9:31
And so I don't remember what the first one I bought that was.
9:36
I don't remember which card that was.
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I wish I did. I don't have that kind of
9:40
memory. But when I got those cards in,
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that affected me more than just having an unsigned card.
9:49
It brought back the memories of meeting Mantle.
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It brought back the memories of meeting Dale Murphy and Phil
9:55
Negro and, and, and then the Nashville Sounds would have
9:58
exhibitions. Sometimes they bring in Major
10:01
League teams. And I remember the Indians came
10:03
and I got Corey Snyder's autograph and some dudes, they
10:06
were just, you know, hanging over the dugout asked for the
10:08
autograph when I was like 14 years old.
10:11
And, and so and getting Dave Winfield's autograph when I was
10:15
in 7th grade at a Sounds game and the Yankees were playing the
10:20
Sounds and he autographed my program and taking that to
10:22
school the next day and showing all my buds.
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So having an autograph card in my hand that Jackie Robinson
10:30
touched or Mickey Mantle touched or Yogi Berra touched, even if I
10:37
didn't see him autograph it and I wasn't there.
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You know, it says PSADNA on that slab.
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It has their DNA on it. It really does.
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It touched that man. And to me, that is more of an
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emotional attachment to a, you know, a object that I would ever
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have by just getting a, a 1959 pink Bob Gibson card that
11:05
doesn't have a signature on it. So it was an emotional thing to
11:09
me. And it, you know, I just think
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it's cool as crap, man. So it's, it's grabbed me and,
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you know, I've, I've gone down other routes, the Negro League
11:18
route trying to pick those guys up.
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You know, I, I started reading some of those books.
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I read the book about the, the, the 1948 Indians and read all
11:32
about Larry Doby and man, dude, that blew my mind.
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Like, why did I not know his story like that?
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Felt guilty for not knowing that man's story and it he did
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everything Jackie Robinson did. So now I went on a Larry Dobie
11:44
run and then I start reading about Monte Irving, did Monte
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Irving. And now I'm starting to read
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about the Negro League era and then I get a Josh Gibson and
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then I'm reading about Josh Gibson.
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Now I'm learning about, you know, Buck Leonard and I'm
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learning about Cool Papa Bell and Satchel Paige.
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And so it the history kind of intertwines with my collecting
12:08
journey in it, and it spurs on stuff.
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It all started with Chief Bender.
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It's his fault. It sounds to me like the the
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method behind the the growth is exposure.
12:23
It sounds to me like what you're saying is before when I would
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look at a book at the book fair, get a Beckett and there was a
12:31
Babe Ruth cart on it. You became aware of those cards
12:35
and and that was now in your awareness and some of the
12:39
players and some of the the sets and some of the stories you just
12:45
previously weren't aware of. But then you watch Orlando and
12:50
you watch Dave and, and they kind of they kind of they're the
12:54
tentacles kind of outreach a little bit further.
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And then you read a book and then, well, there's this guy in
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there and this guy in there too. So let's find out about them.
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And, and it's almost like this domino effective.
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Once the first domino goes, it, it just starts to spread.
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And I think that that's, I think that that's an interesting
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concept that it's one of the beauties of YouTube is it's a,
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it's a wonderful learning tool. It, it can be a negative tool,
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it can be a positive tool. It can, but it's a really,
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really good medium for learning and for sharing knowledge and
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for showing pictures and videos and telling stories.
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And you know, books are great too.
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And you, you're doing a lot of reading and, and that's a lot of
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your exposure, but a lot of people don't read books.
13:48
And so I think that those two things, it sounds like to me,
13:53
are sort of the genesis of the spread.
13:56
Would you agree with that? Yeah, I mean, it started on
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Instagram actually. You know, I was seeing now that
14:02
that is real surface because you're just seeing the card and
14:06
you're getting exposed to different cards.
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You're kind of seeing stuff you like.
14:10
But YouTube is 3 dimensional, man.
14:13
People are talking, they're telling stories, they're
14:15
teaching. That's what I like about your
14:17
channel. You teach.
14:19
But you know, Dave, Blue Jacket, he teaches Mangini.
14:23
He'll show stuff I've never seen before.
14:26
He's teaching me about a card. And so, you know those channels,
14:30
Rick, vintage oddball cards, he'll show me stuff, man.
14:33
And I'm learning stuff. And it's opening new doors.
14:37
And all of a sudden the scales fall off your eyes and you're
14:40
like, whoa, you know, and everything's in vivid color and
14:44
you're seeing stuff you never knew before.
14:46
And to me, man, that's what's rich about the hobby.
14:50
It ain't about the dollars and the cents and the man I got to
14:54
invest in this card or I hope this car, I hope this got no
14:58
man. It's deeper than that.
15:00
And so at least it is for me. So that's how I tried to do my
15:05
channel. I've seen guys, man, these
15:08
influencers get on there and talk about their cards and you
15:13
hear them talk about and they're not even saying stuff right.
15:16
And they're mispronouncing people's names.
15:19
And then and you realize real quick, man, they're on there
15:22
just to try to get their name out there.
15:24
They're they're influencers, but they, they're influencing you
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not even knowing what they're talking about.
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I ain't that guy. And that I want to know.
15:34
I don't know it. I'm, I'm not, you know, and the
15:37
all knowing I'm, I'm learning every day where it's what we're
15:40
discussing, but I try to be humble about it.
15:43
And I want my channel to be one of those channels that people
15:45
learn and people talk about experiences and there's an
15:50
emotional attachment to things. And that's why I do my Collector
15:54
Spotlight series. It's it's a focus on the cards
15:57
and your experience on grabbing that card.
15:59
I do my episodes on players and we do deep dives into Ted
16:03
Williams and Larry Dobie and Jackie Robinson, you know,
16:08
because to me, the key to the hobby is the history of the
16:12
game. If you don't, if you don't have
16:15
an appreciation for the history of the game, you have no reason
16:19
to ever dig deeper, to be intrigued and, and, and want to
16:24
learn, you know so. There, you know, there's when we
16:30
were when I was younger and and I don't want to paint with too
16:33
broad of a brush because there are always outliers.
16:35
There are always, you know, anomalies that but but generally
16:39
speaking, younger people in the hobby, I can speak for myself
16:44
when I was younger in the hobby, I wanted, you know, the chases
16:48
where the Daryl Strawberry cards, the Jose Canseco cards,
16:51
the Mark McGuire, the Rodger Clemens, the Will Clark, Those
16:55
were the guys that everybody wanted.
16:57
And, and there wasn't, in some cases, I had attachments to some
17:03
cards, like the Clemens cards that came into my collection
17:05
were prized. But some of the other stuff,
17:08
there were times where you would, you would want to pick up
17:11
a card 'cause it was good trade bait.
17:13
You know, it's good trade bait for, for getting what, what you
17:16
wanted more. And there was less of a
17:19
connection. Now again, I, I still have some
17:21
cards from my childhood collection that, you know, I'll
17:24
never sell. But then as we get older, I
17:28
think that there is more of an appreciation for the history of
17:34
the game. There is more of a appreciation
17:39
for the beauty of an image or of a card or of a design.
17:45
There's more of an appreciation for the rare, you know, and, and
17:52
I, I mean like the cards where you could go online right now
17:55
and what not and see a bunch of people just ripping packs of the
17:59
same thing. Like like tops basketball is
18:01
about to come out like in October and that that stuff's
18:04
going to be all over the place and they're going to be people
18:07
spending all sorts of money to get it.
18:08
Great that I don't have any problem with that.
18:11
But to me, I'm a little bit more intrigued by the card that you
18:16
don't see very often or the design you don't see very often.
18:20
And I see a beauty in that. And I do think it, and correct
18:25
me if I'm wrong, you tell me if you agree or disagree.
18:27
But I feel like it's part of the evolution that we go from being
18:32
interested in prospects that have a high potential ceiling
18:37
and the chase and and the hot potato to being more intrigued
18:45
by the history and the legend and the beauty and the design.
18:52
I mean, if, if right now you and I went to the Museum of Modern
18:57
Art, there would I would say the average age in the building
19:02
would probably be about 70 years old.
19:05
There's not a bunch of kids just sitting there looking at the art
19:07
going, this is amazing. Like, again, I know I'm speaking
19:12
in generalities and of course there are anomalies, but why is
19:17
that? Do you think that people go from
19:21
being interested in in the hot thing, not having the emotional
19:26
connection to then getting to the point where the beauty and
19:32
the history and the the age of it and the the impact that was
19:38
made? The impact becomes really
19:39
important. And I've heard you talk about
19:41
this a little bit in the past, but but take me through your
19:46
thoughts on that. Yeah.
19:48
So I have talked about this in the past.
19:50
I talked with it with Brett McGrath about this on stacking
19:54
slabs and got a little play. Chris Hoge even picked up on it
19:57
and talked about it on Jeremy Lee.
19:59
But. I was just trying to explain to
20:02
him and it kind of hit a nerve with some people.
20:04
But it's true. As we get older, you start to
20:09
look back because I'm 56 years old, man.
20:13
My life is all already over halfway done.
20:16
I'm not living 112. And if I am, I don't want to
20:19
because I'll probably be in a bed somewhere.
20:22
Bed sores, somebody changing my diaper.
20:23
I don't really need that. So that's not quality of life
20:26
thing. But just yesterday, man, I was
20:30
over there hanging out with my grandson and I got emotional
20:34
just holding my little buddy. You know, he's, he's 10 months
20:38
old and he knows who his pops is now and he's climbing on me and
20:42
I'm getting emotional. I'm thinking this is my legacy
20:45
right here. Everything I've done, it doesn't
20:48
matter what kind of thing I've done in my business, what kind
20:51
of thing I've done at my church or what kind of thing I've done,
20:55
you know, financially, what kind of house I live in, none of that
20:58
crap matters. What kind of cards I have.
21:01
What matters is that little dude, did I raise a good enough
21:03
son that one day my grandson is going to be a good person?
21:08
That's what's important. And so I'm looking at my little
21:11
grandson thinking this is this. He's, he's got my last name.
21:15
He's even got my middle name just passed down.
21:18
And this is my legacy right here.
21:20
And I'm looking back at my life. It's kind of like Saving Private
21:23
Ryan when, you know, he kind of flashes back.
21:26
And so that's what you do the older you get.
21:29
It ain't I'm looking back and going, man, Dang it, man, I'm
21:33
almost going to be dead. No, I'm looking back thinking,
21:37
man, I remember when my kids learned to walk and when they
21:40
were that age. And I'm looking back with
21:42
fondness. And so those baseball players I
21:46
watched when I was 14 years old, man, they're old men now.
21:50
They're being wheeled out on the field.
21:52
Like I remember seeing Dave Parker, big, huge Dave Parker
21:55
being wheeled out in a wheelchair to wave at the fans
21:58
have getting help standing up. And, you know, I watched him
22:02
play, man. So I watch him now.
22:06
You know, he's gone. But he just got in the Hall of
22:08
Fame. I appreciate his older cards,
22:11
all that kind of stuff. So you look back with fondness.
22:14
And so the more that kind of stuff happens to me, you turn
22:18
into somebody who wants to look back in history, you know, in in
22:22
human DNA. It's the older people who tell
22:27
the younger people about the past.
22:30
It goes way back, man. When Cavemen were sitting around
22:33
drawing things on the walls, they were trying to tell the
22:35
kids, hey, back then we killed this antelope over that hill
22:38
over there. You know, in the Jewish culture,
22:41
it's the older people at Passover who talk about the
22:44
Passover meal. You know, in, in churches, it's
22:47
the older people who are the elders of the congregations.
22:50
You know, in, in Indian tribes, it was the older Indian men who
22:55
sat around and they were the chiefs and they would pass down
22:58
the history of their tribe. It's just who we are.
23:02
And, and so people say until they're blue in the face, all
23:06
these young kids, these young kids, man, they've been saying
23:09
that since my mom was young and her daddy wouldn't let her watch
23:12
Elvis because he shook his pelvis on TV.
23:14
So it's just what it is, man. I mean, we're built the same.
23:20
I I agree and, and I also think and, and, and I'll share some
23:25
experiences here. For me, I think that there are
23:28
seeds that are planted and, and, and they don't root in for a
23:33
while, but the seed is there in the soil.
23:36
When I was in, it was like 4th or 5th grade, there was my, my
23:42
class read a book together. Like you'd go through different
23:45
books for the, you know, you'd all read it and the teacher
23:47
would read and you'd follow along or you'd go around the
23:49
room and take turns reading or whatever.
23:51
And the book was called in the Year of the Boar and Jackie
23:55
Robinson. And it was this little kid book.
23:58
And it was about this little girl who came to America from
24:00
China and she felt different than everyone else and she felt
24:04
like an outsider. I mean, I remember it.
24:07
And that would have been 35 years ago that I was in 4th
24:11
grade or whatever. And and she ended up getting
24:16
turned on to baseball and she would sit by the radio and hear
24:19
Jackie Robinson playing and he became her hero.
24:23
And it was the year of the boar because in the Chinese culture,
24:26
every year has a different animal and it rotates through.
24:29
And it was the year of the boar. And it was 1947 when Jackie
24:32
Robinson went to the major leagues and she lived in
24:36
Brooklyn. And that was the first time I
24:39
said, Dang, like this, Jackie. I mean, I'm getting chills just
24:43
talking about right now. Jackie Robinson left an imprint
24:48
on little kids, little boys and girls growing up during that
24:53
era. And that left a seed.
24:56
Now, I didn't run out when I was in 4th grade.
24:58
I was collecting cards. But I went, OK, cool, let's go
25:01
now get my Garbage Pail Kids and and try to get my 87 tops.
25:05
You know, Mark McGuire. Yeah.
25:07
But it left an impression on me that Jackie Robinson was
25:13
important not just as a baseball player, but to the culture of
25:19
America and to the Society of America.
25:23
A couple years later, I'm sitting there in my 6th grade,
25:27
my 6th grade class, and my teacher, Mr. Morgan, he played
25:32
us a movie one day and it was Brian's song and it was about
25:36
Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers. And I remember going that Gale
25:41
Sayers dude is awesome. I love this dude and I Gale
25:47
Sayers, he's my guy. And ever since I've been a Gale
25:51
Sayers fan. Now I didn't buy a Gale Sayers
25:54
card for 30 more years, but the seed was planted that I knew
26:01
that Gale Sayers was different. And I knew that Gale Sayers was
26:07
an impact on me, on me on how you treat people and Brian
26:13
Piccolo and how he treated Gale Sayers and Gale Sayers, how he
26:16
treated Brian Piccolo. And that left an impression on
26:20
me. And I knew that they they left
26:22
an impression on others and, and now I've got a bunch of Gale
26:26
Sayers cards. I just picked up a Gale Sayers
26:28
card a couple of weeks ago. I I've bought a couple of Jackie
26:32
Robinson cards in the last six months.
26:35
And so I totally agree with what you're saying about looking
26:40
back, but I also think that there are seeds that are planted
26:45
and it just takes a while for the soil and the nutrients and
26:51
and for it to take root and for it to actually develop into an
26:56
outward expression, which is card collectors.
26:58
It's acquiring the card. Yeah, I really think that these
27:03
young kids, we're kind of going, we were different.
27:07
Well, were we? I mean, I, I took on the Gale
27:10
Sayers thing and I took on the Jackie Robinson thing, but I was
27:14
still buying Garbage Pail Kids at the time.
27:17
And here I am now buying those guys who left an impression on
27:21
me from a long, long time ago. And those guys weren't playing
27:25
then. This is after they were playing.
27:28
So I think that there's some some of that.
27:32
Are there players other than your experience with Mantle and
27:35
and meeting Mantle and all that kind of thing?
27:38
Do you have some experiences of memories where you were sitting
27:42
around or you read an article or you interacted with someone that
27:46
left an impression where it's now affected what you collect?
27:52
Yeah, yeah. But first, before I jump into
27:55
that, I somebody said something the other day, this kind of
27:58
going back what you were just saying about when you get a
28:02
little older, it's hard to root on guys that are your kids age.
28:08
And I never really thought about that that way.
28:11
So like Shohei Otani in them, I got a daughter that's 31 years
28:16
old. And so I can't look at those
28:20
guys as heroes. When I was a kid and I watched
28:25
Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in the World Series, that
28:29
dude was a hero. He was older.
28:32
You could look up to him. I can't look up the show.
28:35
Hey, Donnie. I think he's amazing.
28:37
So it kind of changes the way you view things.
28:40
So all of a sudden your heroes are dying, they're getting old,
28:44
and they ain't playing no more. And and now you just that again,
28:47
that's another way of looking back.
28:49
And so you just asked a question.
28:51
Yes, that has happened. I've I think I've shared this
28:54
with you before. Well, just give me a quick
28:57
little a little Cliff note version then.
28:59
Yeah, it was a Willie Mays. Tim and I went to a card show to
29:04
get his autograph and I had a baseball.
29:08
I didn't. I didn't have a Willie Mays card
29:10
because I wasn't collecting at the point at that point.
29:13
But I did love autographs. I go to shows, just get
29:16
autographed when I was in my early 20s and he just was a, he
29:20
just was an honorary old man. He wasn't nice.
29:23
There was somebody there was a sign and it said it and that
29:26
person either disregarded or just didn't see it, I think.
29:30
And it was like sign only flats or balls or something.
29:35
And somebody tried to give him a bat.
29:37
I don't remember what exactly happened.
29:39
It was something like that. And he snapped at them and they,
29:43
it was like 2 people in front of me and I'm like, whoa.
29:46
And you know, he shouldn't have done, he should have let his
29:48
handler do that. But I mean, it was kind of, and
29:52
that's Willie Mays, man. And that, that person recalled
29:55
now I got up there and I was like, thanks, Mr. Mays.
29:59
And he didn't even look up, wouldn't make eye contact.
30:02
And he was like that the entire time.
30:04
So I don't, I, I, I don't collect Willie Mays cards.
30:07
I don't like them. No and and.
30:11
I That's how I looked at Barry Bonds, too, because that's his
30:13
godson. So, so it, it went all the way
30:17
down to the God son you, you felt that way.
30:20
Well, I know you have other issues with bonds, but I, I, I
30:23
really think that, you know, I think that younger kids that are
30:28
collecting right now where we think that they're not paying
30:31
attention. I think that they're paying
30:34
attention to things and they're picking up things more than we
30:37
think. But right now they're into the
30:40
the now and they're not yet into the past.
30:45
And and I think you give a great explanation as to why.
30:49
Eventually we start looking toward the past.
30:53
And I think some of those kids will will change.
30:56
But you know, if they don't, that's fine.
30:59
But again, they've been saying this for a long time now.
31:02
One of the things also that I notice is as we get more and
31:07
more into the hobby, people tend to be more.
31:11
I mean, if you look on YouTube, for example, and you look at the
31:16
most veteran collectors of guys on YouTube or that have podcasts
31:21
or Instagram, the guys that have been doing this the longest,
31:26
they seem to be most intrigued by the ultra rare stuff and they
31:33
seem less intrigued by the more common stuff.
31:37
Even though some of the common stuff are absolute iconic cards,
31:44
You know, they still tend to be, they get, they get fired up when
31:50
they see something that they don't see very often.
31:54
And you know, you look in Orlando's eyes and, and he pulls
31:57
up out a Venezuelan that he just bought and he gets pretty
32:01
excited. You know, he, he gets a
32:03
Deportivo card and he gets pretty excited, but he doesn't
32:07
get super excited for a 68 tops card.
32:11
What do you think that's all about?
32:14
Well, it's just something new. I mean, it's, you know, I I'm
32:17
not a bird watcher, but some people do that for a hobby and
32:20
if they're out there looking and just there's a dove right there,
32:24
Robin, but they see that purple headed Nutcracker something
32:31
bird. I don't know where I came up
32:34
with that, but but you know, they're going to get kind of
32:36
excited. So yeah, it's the chase, man.
32:38
It's all about the chase. And it has to do with rarity.
32:42
You know, in the modern hobby today, that's what they're
32:44
doing. They're chasing one of ones or
32:45
one of fives. And, you know, with us, we have
32:48
our own chases. And so that's one of the reasons
32:51
I like the sign cards. You know, I pick up a a 1955
33:01
Jackie Robinson, but to have one that signed now, man, there's
33:06
what, 12 of those or sixteen of those in in the world.
33:09
So to have one of those, it's just just that extra level, you
33:14
know, It's just cool. Now we, we when we were growing
33:18
up, it was all about set collecting.
33:20
And then we kind of went away from set collecting.
33:24
Yeah. But now I just finished building
33:26
a set. You're in the middle of a set
33:28
build. Yeah, it is that for the same
33:31
reason. Is it the hunt?
33:32
Is it the trying to find something?
33:35
Because I went through a stretch where I was like, man, why am I
33:38
buying? Why am I buying cards of guys
33:40
I've never heard of, like just to build the set, finish a set
33:44
like this does. Why am I doing this?
33:46
But then I went out and bought a bunch of pirate cards of guys
33:50
that pirates I'd never heard of either.
33:51
I'd only heard about two or three of those pirates in that
33:54
set of 50. But is is it the chase?
33:58
Is it? Is that what was the intriguing
34:00
part? I mean, you're doing a set
34:01
build. What are you doing a set build
34:02
for? Why?
34:03
Yeah, it's absolutely the chase and it's a lot of fun, man.
34:07
Every day I look to see if one popped up on eBay.
34:10
You know, I've got to save searches and it comes up on my
34:14
on my e-mail and then I look and see what the new ones are.
34:17
And then so yeah, I'm building that 1915 Cracker Jack set.
34:21
And man, I've been looking at that a while back.
34:25
Dane's, which they're outrageously expensive.
34:28
They had full sets. You could buy the Cracker Jack
34:31
or you could downgrade and get the full set without the Cobb
34:35
and the Joe Jackson and the Wagner or you get the whole
34:38
thing. And it was crazy expensive in
34:43
inside toyed with building a set.
34:46
And I thought, same thing you're saying, well, I don't want a
34:49
bunch of dudes I've never heard of, you know, but man, I got I
34:53
just fell in love with that said, it's beautiful.
34:55
The dudes I've never heard of got some really cool looking
34:58
cards. And so, yeah, they're expensive,
35:02
but I'm spreading that bad boy out over a couple of years and
35:05
gives me something to look for in a chase and I'm 84% done now,
35:09
man. And just to lay those out and
35:11
look at them, it's just cool as crap, man.
35:13
When I get my new card room, I'm going to have those bad boys all
35:17
displayed and I'm building a bookcase just for the Cracker
35:20
Jack set and they're going to all be laid up there and man,
35:23
it's going to be cool. Yeah, yeah.
35:26
I mean, one of the things I've been working on for, I don't
35:29
know, three years now is I'm trying to get every T2O6 Hall of
35:34
Fame card, not Plank or Wagner. And for a while I just wanted
35:39
one of each guy. And.
35:42
And now I'm just like, no, I'm just, I'm just going to get
35:45
every card except for those two. And, and I mean, spoiler alert,
35:52
I just bought 2 today. Then I haven't even, yeah, I
35:55
haven't even told you that. But it was like a, a Facebook
35:58
post, which I dug into like a comments area and ended up, and
36:05
there were a couple of beauties that were really well priced.
36:08
And I'm like, I mean, 'cause I'm pretty picky.
36:11
And that's The thing is like, those cards aren't that rare.
36:15
Cracker Jacks are pretty rare. The pirate cards are pretty
36:18
rare. You got to get them when you see
36:19
them, but with the T2 O 6 is where they're, they're pretty
36:23
plentiful. The thing that's rare is finding
36:25
them centered and finding them not look like your dog got after
36:29
them. And and so when I find one, it's
36:33
just, it's fun to just add another piece to the puzzle.
36:37
One more thing before we wrap this up because we've been going
36:40
about 3637 minutes so far. I was listening to my buddy
36:45
Shane, Shoebox Legends this morning and on the way to work
36:49
and he had a great video and Shane is a fantastic guy.
36:54
And he was talking about how he never really paid attention to
37:00
the values of his cards, but some of the cards that he's had
37:04
for a while have gone up in value so much that they're more
37:12
valuable to other people than they are to him.
37:15
So he's like, yeah, there were these cards he was talking about
37:17
these buyback cards. He was like, yeah, I bought
37:19
these for like a dollar two each.
37:21
Well, there's some collector trying to pick them up and
37:25
they're rare and guys paying like 30 to $40 each for him.
37:31
So he's been selling them off and he's like, I still like
37:34
them. I still like these cards and,
37:37
and I like having them, but this guy going to give me 30 or 40
37:41
bucks and they're just sitting in a box and, and, and how do I
37:46
justify keeping a card that this other person really wants and
37:53
values way more than I than I value it and is willing to pay
37:57
big money for it where I can, I can sell some of this and get
38:01
some stuff I never thought I could get.
38:03
And, and I guess that brings me to the question of when we get
38:09
to the point with cards where other people value them more
38:13
than we do, or even though we might like them, even though we
38:18
still like the cards, but somebody else likes them more
38:22
and they're willing to pay more than we would pay for them, how
38:30
do we give ourselves permission to move on from them?
38:33
Yeah. So yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
38:36
No, no, no, I'm. That's pretty much it.
38:38
So the value part, we're not talking about dollars and cents
38:42
here, really. We're talking about if I don't
38:46
look at that card, am I really valuing it?
38:48
You know, you, your wife, you don't value me.
38:51
You didn't give me roses in the last year.
38:54
So that has nothing to do with money.
38:56
It has to do with, you know. Appreciation.
38:59
Yeah, exactly. So want to make sure it's clear.
39:02
Been a lot of talk about value. So anyways, so yeah, money's
39:06
involved there. I you know, when I first started
39:09
collecting, everything I bought was my collection was really
39:13
small. I valued right and I was
39:16
building a collection. I built the mantle run and then
39:20
I finished it and I'm like, yeah, you know, that's awesome
39:24
yeah. I kind of feel like Chevy Chase,
39:26
you know, when they went to the Grand Canyon, like, OK, now
39:30
what? So.
39:32
Well, yeah. So yeah, it was like, cool, I
39:34
can keep looking at the same cards over and over again, but I
39:37
know I can go out and grab another 65 mantle, you know?
39:41
But there was some other cards out there that I would value
39:45
more than those. And if I could sell those, I
39:49
could land something big, you know, and that I value.
39:53
And so I found myself willing to part with cards, man.
39:57
So I, you know, it's pretty documented what I did.
40:01
But, you know, there are other people that wouldn't do that.
40:04
Like there, I wouldn't call him a hoarder.
40:07
But, you know, they're trying to build a collection.
40:09
And it's about the quantity of a collection.
40:12
And they can catalog all these cards and they got them.
40:15
And, you know, if you want to ask.
40:17
Oh yeah man, I mean I watch Moynihan and Yogi.
40:22
Chris from Missouri do the the showdown, yeah, the showdown
40:28
thing. And I'm in awe.
40:29
Like, man, a lot, dude. They got every Hall of Famer.
40:32
And I know. I mean, that's cool that they
40:35
can do that, but with me, I'd rather if there's a card over
40:39
there in the corner that I never look at, then yeah, I'd sell
40:43
that and get something I look at for a while and conquer another
40:46
hill. I it almost feels like you're
40:49
right. And I think you nailed it on the
40:50
head when you said it's not really about value.
40:54
I don't think value is the right term.
40:56
I think the right term is appreciate when someone else
41:00
appreciates it more than you appreciate it because value has
41:05
the term, you know, the, the term value has a financial
41:09
aspect to it and then it has an appreciation aspect to it.
41:14
But if I've got a bunch of cards that are sitting in a box and I
41:17
never look at him, I'm, I'm just like, Oh yeah, I mean, I got
41:19
that, you know? And there's this other guy who's
41:22
searching everywhere and really wants that and he's willing to
41:24
pay up for it 'cause he really appreciates that.
41:27
And I don't really appreciate it.
41:29
But the thing I would really appreciate is that thing over
41:31
there, maybe what you do is you set it free to the place it's
41:36
going to get appreciated. And then you go get the thing
41:40
that you appreciate. And that's kind of I think what
41:43
which Shane was saying today and and I just thought it was a
41:46
great video and it and it kind of got my head kind of you got I
41:50
got my wheels turning a little bit about I started going maybe
41:55
maybe what I need to start doing is regularly, like once a month,
42:01
maybe go through my cards 1 by 1 and just sit and look at it and
42:07
go, does this one still get me excited?
42:09
This one still get my juices flowing.
42:11
And if it doesn't, maybe I put it in the pile where I'm going
42:14
to think on it, on whether it's still the right card for me.
42:18
And it it's not necessarily because the financial value of
42:23
the card went up, but it's maybe that the appreciation value of
42:29
the card isn't as high as I once was.
42:32
Maybe I just fell out of love with the card for whatever
42:35
reason. Maybe I got bored with that set
42:40
or that player or that era, and something else gets me really
42:44
excited and I just need to give myself permission to go.
42:49
It's not that you don't like it, you just don't appreciate it as
42:53
much as this other thing. And if we have a fixed amount of
42:56
assets, shouldn't we be spending our assets on the things that
43:00
we're going to appreciate the most?
43:01
Yeah. So but I also do respect those
43:04
guys that have the volume and they love having everything.
43:08
Like I respect that. I just don't know if that's for
43:12
me and that's for them, and that's cool.
43:15
Yeah, I know we're up against it, so I'll just say this real
43:17
quick. The way I look at it is you
43:20
talked about when you were a kid how you would trade cards.
43:24
You use something for trade bait.
43:25
So the way I look at it is I'm basically trading cards for one
43:29
card. I'm trading 10 for one big
43:32
bigger one. I'm trading.
43:34
So I asked myself what I trade these cards for that card.
43:38
It's that's all I'm doing. I'm just trading.
43:40
I'm doing like I did when I was a kid.
43:42
It's just, you know, because those cards, the great thing
43:45
about collecting vintage cards, they typically hold their value.
43:49
It's like a savings account in your card room.
43:52
So you spend a little bit overtime getting these, and then
43:54
you're like, yeah, you know, but I'd really like to have that
43:57
one. And you just cash in your chips
43:59
and you trade and you get a bigger one.
44:02
That's what it is. Yeah, well, I appreciate you
44:07
jumping in. You were the best bullpen call
44:12
of of the of the spring or whatever you fall.
44:16
You did a great job. I had an absolute blast talking
44:20
to you, Mike. We hope he feels better soon,
44:23
but you know, everyone's replaceable.
44:26
Well, I mean, you remember Wally Pip, so yeah, remember that is.
44:32
Mike, Wally, Pip, that might be the question out there.
44:37
That's awesome. All right, buddy, I appreciate
44:41
you. Thanks again for spending some
44:42
time with us. To those of you out there, if
44:45
you've not subscribed yet to us, consider it.
44:49
And if you've not subscribed to Tony Southern Collective 14, I
44:53
highly recommend it. And remember, we are available
44:56
on Spotify and Apple and I think Amazon now too.
45:00
So we're we're, we're taking over.
45:03
Big Tony. Yeah, all right, buddy.
45:06
Thanks man. Bye.