Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / MidLife Sports Cards Q & A - October 22, 2025
Transcript
- 0:10What's going on, everybody? When I started my channel over
- 0:16three years ago, crazy. That is crazy.
- 0:19But when I started my channel over three years ago, the number
- 0:23one thing I wanted was dialogue. I loved watching YouTube videos.
- 0:28I loved watching other channels. I love people going to card
- 0:32shows and people going to show off their collection and and
- 0:36teach about different cards. I loved all of that and the
- 0:40thing that I wanted to do was I wanted to hear from other
- 0:44people. I wanted to connect to them,
- 0:46hear their thoughts, hear their opinions because as we know
- 0:49there isn't a right or a wrong way to do the hobby.
- 0:53But I am always curious on how people are wired, why people
- 0:58have the opinions that they have, how they change their
- 1:01opinions, what their thoughts are on different events that are
- 1:04happening with the hobby. I've always been a sports talk
- 1:07radio person for my whole life. As a kid, I listened to sports
- 1:12talk radio and it was because I loved hearing people share
- 1:16ideas, having callers call in and share their takes and then
- 1:20and then seeing where the discussion went.
- 1:22And that's the foundation of why I even started a channel and the
- 1:28Q&A's that we do on Wednesdays, it's not really Q&A's, it's you
- 1:33bring up a topic. I share my thoughts on the
- 1:35topic. Doesn't mean it's an answer,
- 1:38just means it's an opinion. But when I do these, this is
- 1:42what it's all about. It's what do you guys want to
- 1:44talk about? What are you guys curious about?
- 1:47And I share my thoughts. And then I encourage you down
- 1:50below in the comments to share your thoughts.
- 1:52And the reason is because I am not the disseminator of
- 1:57information for all card collectors.
- 2:01I am simply a person who is interested in what people think.
- 2:08I have strong opinions. Many of you have strong
- 2:11opinions. Many of you are trying to form
- 2:14strong opinions. My opinions are always changing.
- 2:18So my question to you is, what do you guys want to hear about?
- 2:23Well, every week you all share your questions with me down
- 2:27below in the comments. If you have a question for an
- 2:29upcoming episode, I hope you share it down below.
- 2:33So with that said, without further ado, let's go ahead and
- 2:37get to the first question right here.
- 2:42This first one says howdy good Sir, what hypothetical cart
- 2:46hobby channel would you want to watch that doesn't exist?
- 2:50I would love one where people just do before and afters of
- 2:54cracking slabs for crossover and regrading.
- 2:57Another one would be a channel about vintage foreign non sport
- 3:00cards, another would be about iconic cards and a dedicated
- 3:05show on each specific card. And another all about one of
- 3:10ones would be pretty cool too. OK, this is a super interesting
- 3:16question. I mean, I was just talking a
- 3:18second ago about one of the reasons I started my channel is
- 3:21'cause I was interested in a back and forth in a place to
- 3:25share dialogue and a place to share opinions and a place to
- 3:29talk about what topics they wanted and, and share their
- 3:32thoughts on different topics. That was that was really the
- 3:35reason I started this channel is because there were a lot of
- 3:38great channels out there, but I didn't feel like there was a ton
- 3:41of that. So without doing only live
- 3:45streams, which I like doing live streams, but those are difficult
- 3:50to do and schedule. But one of the things that one
- 3:54way we can do that back and forth without it being a live
- 3:57stream is things like this Q&A and things like my Monday
- 4:02episodes were ask you questions and then you share your thoughts
- 4:04and then we talk about it. And, and there are a couple of
- 4:09things that aren't being done in the community that I think would
- 4:14be great. I'll share a couple of them.
- 4:18I like learning. I like learning not so much
- 4:22about the what, but I like finding out about the why.
- 4:27Why do people like what they like?
- 4:30Why do people buy what they buy? What is the strategy behind what
- 4:35people are doing? And there are some episodes that
- 4:37do that, but I've always been a documentary person.
- 4:41I love documentaries. And so I think something that
- 4:45would be really interesting is like a documentary from a
- 4:50dealer's perspective. Now there are dealer videos,
- 4:54there are dealer channels where they set up a shows and they set
- 4:57up a camera. But I would be curious to see
- 5:00the before what cards are they buying for the upcoming show?
- 5:05How are they buying them? What are they buying?
- 5:08What are they thinking is going to sell?
- 5:11What are they thinking they're going to have trouble selling
- 5:14when they set up their dealer booth?
- 5:17Why are they setting it up the way they're setting it up?
- 5:19Why are they putting the cards the way they're putting them?
- 5:21And then see the people show up and see what sells, see what
- 5:26doesn't sell, see the negotiations.
- 5:28Again, there are some great channels that do a lot of the
- 5:31negotiations, but I want to see leading up to it too.
- 5:35I also am curious about the post.
- 5:38So the dealer who what's he buying up for the show that's
- 5:43coming up, then setting up his booth.
- 5:46Why is he setting it up? How he's setting it up?
- 5:49Then see the negotiations. Then after the show, see kind of
- 5:53how it went. What did they think?
- 5:55Were they surprised about what happened?
- 5:57What were the sales they were excited about?
- 5:59What were the the sales or the the purchases that they were
- 6:02excited about? I think that would be
- 6:03interesting and sort of a documentary style.
- 6:06I think some sort of documentary about collectors on their way to
- 6:11a show. So a lot of the times we'll see
- 6:14people, you know, do videos where they walk around and they
- 6:17show the cases and I do some of those too, and those are cool.
- 6:21But what about before the show talking about what are they
- 6:25looking for, preparing for the show, Actually going into the
- 6:31show, seeing the negotiations and the back and forth of them
- 6:36making the purchase, then their thoughts after the negotiations,
- 6:39and then getting home and adding the cards to their collection
- 6:43again, sort of a documentary style.
- 6:45When I was a kid, I liked watching Mr. Rogers, and one of
- 6:50the things that Mister Rogers would have frequently is he
- 6:53would go to like different factories.
- 6:55Like he'd go to a pencil factory and it would take you to the
- 6:58beginning and it would show you the process of how they make
- 7:04pencils, how they get the lead in between the wood and how they
- 7:11cut the wood and how they add the erasers.
- 7:13And the whole process would be shown in like a Mr. Rogers type
- 7:19episode. And that process I think would
- 7:21be really interesting. Show me, what if Tops had a
- 7:25channel where they showed us the full process from ideas of the
- 7:32cards that they're thinking about trying out the design.
- 7:37What does that look like? The actual production of the
- 7:41cards? How are they inserted into
- 7:44packs? How is it done randomly?
- 7:46How do they make sure they get one auto per box or two or
- 7:49whatever? How does it then get
- 7:51distributed? I would love to see the process
- 7:54from inception sitting around a table of what they're thinking
- 7:59about using for different cards, new inserts or something all the
- 8:04way to the end of delivering the cases to a hobby shop.
- 8:10I think that would be interesting.
- 8:12So I would say more of a, a learning of how those things
- 8:18happen and from the dealer perspective, from the buyer
- 8:23perspective, from the production perspective, I'd love to see the
- 8:29process of a card from PSAI mean PSA has a channel.
- 8:33I'd love it if PSA just chose a, a box that showed up and they
- 8:40show us opening the box. Then what happens then where's
- 8:44it go? Then it gets identified.
- 8:46The research process, how's that work?
- 8:48What's that look like? Take us into the grading room.
- 8:51What's that look like? What does it look like when they
- 8:53encapsulate the cards and add the flip?
- 8:55And how is what's automated? I want to see the process of how
- 8:59things work. We all, I mean most of us have
- 9:03sent in cards for grading, but we don't really know how it
- 9:07works. Why don't we see from the time
- 9:11the package arrives, literally the delivery come in from the
- 9:16post office to the the card or the cards are packed back up
- 9:22into a box and then sent back out?
- 9:25I think that would be really interesting.
- 9:28I think that would get a ton of views.
- 9:31Now, I'm sure that there are certain things that they don't
- 9:33want to show and that's a whole different, you know, that's a
- 9:37whole different topic, but I want to see how things work.
- 9:42I want to learn the process of of what's happening in the
- 9:47industry, from production to buying to selling to all of it.
- 9:54Documentary style behind the scenes.
- 9:58I think that'd be interesting. My good friend Tony, Southern
- 10:02Collector 14, says the story of your Clemens purchase back in
- 10:06the day is awesome. My question for a future episode
- 10:10is the following. If you could only collect cards
- 10:14from one set for the next two years, what set would it be?
- 10:18This means picking one year of a certain set.
- 10:24Tony bringing a good question. You know, this is one of the
- 10:29things that I always find interesting is there are so many
- 10:34options in this hobby. There are so many directions we
- 10:37can go. There are so many targets, so
- 10:39many players, years, sets, eras, types of cards.
- 10:43There's so much. At times it's overwhelming.
- 10:46If you walk into the National and you're open to buying
- 10:48anything, that could actually be overwhelming, that could be too
- 10:52much. So by actually having a filter
- 10:55of I'm looking for this sort of thing, it allows you to actually
- 11:00make your way through the whole room because there is so much
- 11:04there. So when I think about this
- 11:06question, I think about what is a set that has a lot of cards
- 11:10that I'd like to have that I don't already have.
- 11:14Well, there are a lot of those. But then I also have to think
- 11:18about what are sets that are at a price point that I could
- 11:23afford to purchase more than one or two, Unless I'm OK only
- 11:27making one or two purchases 'cause I guess I could say
- 11:31something like the 33 Gaudi set and then I just save all year by
- 11:37one card from that set. I couldn't give that answer.
- 11:41That almost seems like cheating. So what's this set where I like
- 11:45a lot of the cards? I want a lot of the cards.
- 11:49It fits what I'm doing and what I'm currently working on, but
- 11:53there's enough there to be able to sustain me for a year.
- 11:58And I think it's got to be the T2O6 set and, and I know that a
- 12:02lot of people love the T2O6 set. A lot of people don't love the
- 12:05T2O6 set. I just have so many memories of
- 12:09a kid of seeing the Hannes Wagner going to cards, card
- 12:14shows, big card shows in the Bay Area and seeing in cases some of
- 12:18those and not knowing most of the players, but still just
- 12:22being like, those are incredible looking that I like having them
- 12:27in my collection. And it's interesting because
- 12:29I've kind of been changing my target a little bit.
- 12:32So when I started, I said I want to try to get one card from
- 12:37every Hall of Famer not named Wagner or Plank.
- 12:43And that's what I've been working on now for about 2 1/2
- 12:46three years. Just about the time I started my
- 12:48channel is about the time I started that project and, and I
- 12:53have several now. I, I, I, I probably should have
- 12:56looked, I, I'd say I have 30 of those cards, 35 of those cards.
- 13:01And some of them I have double ups.
- 13:03And recently I've been looking at them and I did a video a
- 13:08couple of weeks ago on cards that I think are some of the
- 13:10most beautiful cards. And I picked 2 cards from that
- 13:13set in my top 10 most beautiful cards in my collection.
- 13:18And both of them were portrait cards, which is interesting.
- 13:23And I've been looking at those cards because I've had a couple
- 13:27of a couple editions. On Friday of last week, I did an
- 13:30episode where I showed my pickups from the month of
- 13:33September and I had two new 2O6 cards that I added to the
- 13:37collection. And neither of them were
- 13:41portrait cards. And though I was excited to pick
- 13:45them up, I was kind of like, these aren't portrait cards and
- 13:50I don't know if I like him as much.
- 13:52So recently over the last like 3 or 4 days, I've been thinking
- 13:59maybe instead of trying to pick up one card of every player from
- 14:05the hall in the Hall of Fame from the T2O6 set not named
- 14:08Wagner playing for obvious reasons, maybe I go after all of
- 14:13the portrait cards from the T2O6 set not named Plank or Wagner.
- 14:21Now that's not to say that I won't own some of the action
- 14:27poses. I mean I love my hands at chest
- 14:31Walter Johnson card, I'm not getting rid of that.
- 14:35But instead of picking up all of the cards, I'm kind of now
- 14:40thinking I want to pick up all of the portraits because those
- 14:44are the ones that when I add a portrait to the collection, I
- 14:49get especially excited. There's something special about
- 14:52those at the National. I got the Ty Cobb red back
- 14:59portrait, I got the Cy Young portrait, and I was like, so
- 15:05jazzed to pick those up. So to answer your question,
- 15:10Tony, I'm going to say T2O sixes.
- 15:13I've been working on that project.
- 15:15I still have a long ways to go, even if I kind of change it to
- 15:18portraits. Let me know down below.
- 15:21What do you guys think? Should I continue on with trying
- 15:25to get all of them and, and again, that's like a lifelong
- 15:28type goal, or should I, I kind of narrow the scope a little bit
- 15:34and go over just the portraits, since those tend to be the ones
- 15:38that I like the best. And then I could pick up a few
- 15:41others of of cards that maybe if I, you know, like that
- 15:46particular card, like the Walter Johnson or, you know, a Sam
- 15:50Crawford or something like that. Let me know what you guys think
- 15:53about that. But T2O6, I'd say cracker Jack,
- 15:57Tony, but that's AI know you and your cracker jacks.
- 16:03I love them too. I just wouldn't be able to pick
- 16:06up many cards this year And and I like picking cards up from
- 16:09time to time. So I'm going T2O6 this next one
- 16:14says Greg. I've been collecting cards for a
- 16:17while now and most of them are ungraded.
- 16:20What price point or value of the card would you consider to set
- 16:25if you were to want to start grading some?
- 16:28Thanks. So my first question is, what's
- 16:32the reason you want to start grading them?
- 16:35Do you want to start grading them because you think it adds
- 16:37value? Do you want to grade them
- 16:39because you feel like it preserves and protects them?
- 16:42Do you want to grade them because you think they look
- 16:44better? Because depending on how you
- 16:46answer that question would depend on how I would answer
- 16:50that. I mean that those things matter
- 16:54in how I would respond. One of the main reasons
- 16:58personally that I am a fan of grading is I, I do think they
- 17:04look good. I think they look good graded.
- 17:06Some people don't. I think they look good graded.
- 17:08I think they make them more of like a museum piece.
- 17:11The way they're presented in, in a holder.
- 17:14I just think it's got information on them.
- 17:16They're they're kind of framed in, they look, they look
- 17:19awesome. And so I like them graded partly
- 17:22for that. Another reason I like them
- 17:24graded is the ease of being able to liquidate them because again,
- 17:29every card will be sold. It will be sold or it will be
- 17:33lost essentially. And so if they're graded, it is
- 17:40easier to transact cards because of the information on the card
- 17:44and because of the third party opinion.
- 17:46Even if the third party opinion is not a particularly great
- 17:50opinion, maybe you disagree with the opinion of the grade, at
- 17:53least it provides some more information about the card.
- 17:57So it kind of depends. Now, generally speaking, I think
- 18:03a price point is sort of like this.
- 18:07If if the cost of grading adds at least that amount of money to
- 18:15the value of the item, then it's probably worth grading.
- 18:19So for example, if I have a card that as it sits ungraded is a
- 18:25$40 card and I decide I want to send this to grading at PSA and
- 18:33we'll say it's $25. I know the prices are moving
- 18:36around and stuff, but let's just say it's $25.00.
- 18:38So I got this ungraded card, $40 ungraded, it's $25 to get it
- 18:46graded. OK, so now I would have a a $40
- 18:50card plus $25 for a total of $65 that would be spent on it.
- 18:57If if the increase in value of getting it graded is more than
- 19:02the $25, meaning the card is worth more than $65 now that
- 19:07it's in in a holder, then I would say it's probably worth
- 19:12grading. Because if you can create more
- 19:15value from grading it than it costs to grade it, then you have
- 19:22added value. You have a gain in value as a
- 19:26result. And I know a lot of people are
- 19:28like, oh, value, value. I understand that.
- 19:30But again, at some point they're going to be sold and they may
- 19:34not be sold to you. So you may not care about the
- 19:36value, but you do probably care about the person who is going to
- 19:41sell it. The person who is going to end
- 19:43up with the card, selling the card.
- 19:45You probably care that they get top value for it and they get as
- 19:49much as possible for it. When when I am gone, I hope that
- 19:54my wife and my kids, if they decide to sell the house, get
- 19:58the most money possible for the house.
- 20:01And so in the meantime, I'm going to keep the yard looking
- 20:04nice. I'm going to maintain the house.
- 20:06I'll, you know, clean out the gutters and paint the house and
- 20:10make sure that the roof is in good condition.
- 20:12I'm going to do all those things to try to keep the value of the
- 20:16house up even though I'm not planning on moving.
- 20:20So if I'm not planning on moving, who really cares what
- 20:22the house is worth? At some point it will matter.
- 20:26So I guess my simple rule of thumb is if you can spend $20 to
- 20:34make something worth $30 more, $40 more, $50 more, $60.00 more
- 20:41than it seems like a pretty good investment.
- 20:43Sort of like there's certain things you could do to your
- 20:45house that will make it increase in value more than it costs.
- 20:53So maybe it costs $8000 to recarpet your house, but
- 20:59recarpeting your house makes your house worth $20,000 more
- 21:04valuable. Well then that seems like a no
- 21:06brainer. You can spend 8 grand to add 20
- 21:10grand in value. That would make sense.
- 21:13So if you can do something to the card to add more value than
- 21:19the cost to do it, then you're at a net positive.
- 21:23Now we don't really know, and I know what you're thinking some
- 21:27of you are saying, but we don't know how much value it's going
- 21:29to add. It depends on how it's graded,
- 21:31depends on the grade that it receives.
- 21:33When I do that process, I tend to go very conservatively.
- 21:38I go worst case scenario, this card is going to get a six.
- 21:43If it gets a six, is it going to still be a net positive by
- 21:50spending the money for grading? And if it is, then it's worth
- 21:55it. And then if it gets A7 or an 8,
- 21:57you come out even further ahead, right?
- 22:00So that's kind of my rule of thumb is the cost to grade.
- 22:06If I'm going to gain at least or more than that, the amount in
- 22:11value is probably worth it. But again, if you like your
- 22:15cards ungraded, if you prefer your cards ungraded, then you
- 22:20can leave them ungraded. Of course, you don't have to
- 22:23grade anything, but that's sort of my rationale for what I do.
- 22:28But the other thing is, is maybe it doesn't increase it in value,
- 22:32but it increases your joy of that card more than $15.00.
- 22:38That's another reason to do it if you really like the way that
- 22:41they look holdered, if it preserves them, if you think
- 22:44that it adds a professional look to the card and and it adds $15
- 22:50or in this case I think I was saying SG or PSA was 25.
- 22:54If it adds $25 in value to the card in your enjoyment, even if
- 23:01the card doesn't go up in value $25.00, but you like it $25 more
- 23:07than grade it. This next one says thanks for
- 23:12answering my question Greg. I will give Card Ladder a try.
- 23:16Here's a new question for you. The last two years I went down
- 23:19the rabbit hole and picked up graded cards of all the Hall of
- 23:24Farmers in the 1961 Fleer and 1969 Topps basketball sets and I
- 23:30couldn't be happier with that endeavor.
- 23:32Most of those cards were quite reasonably priced as well.
- 23:37I know you are trying to put together all of the Hall of Fame
- 23:39player cards from the T2O6 set. Have you found that hunt
- 23:44rewarding, and do you find that it is frustratingly hard to find
- 23:49the examples you want? Also, since it is a much more
- 23:54expensive set to put together, will you be able to complete it
- 23:58someday? If and when you do complete it,
- 24:02what's next? Do you have any ideas of what
- 24:05rabbit hole you might go into next?
- 24:08Thanks. OK, I, I am.
- 24:13We're all wired differently and and some of us owning the card,
- 24:18having the card in our collection is our favorite part
- 24:22of the hobby. For me, the thing that is the
- 24:28fun part is is not necessarily owning it.
- 24:34It is the the hunt for the right item, The fact that it's hard to
- 24:42find T2O6 cards in the right price range that meets my I
- 24:49appeal thresholds. That's the fun part.
- 24:54I don't get discouraged by that at all.
- 24:57There are certain cards I have been searching for for multiple
- 25:02years, 234 years. I've been searching for certain
- 25:07cards and, and I started this T2O6 project about 3 years ago.
- 25:11And and that's the fun part, because then when you see one
- 25:17and it's the right one and the price is right, the payoff is
- 25:22fantastic. If something was easy, if it was
- 25:27easy to have, I mean, think about these people who like do
- 25:31an Iron Man and they've trained for months and ate their diet
- 25:38right for months. And they biked and they swam and
- 25:42they did everything and they rested and nutrition and weights
- 25:47and all this stuff. They worked and worked and
- 25:48worked and worked for so long. And then they crossed the finish
- 25:54line. Man, that's got to feel good,
- 25:58don't you think? It feels better crossing the
- 26:01finish line of a marathon then it would be running 40 in your
- 26:09front yard. I think that the payoff of of an
- 26:17Iron Man or a marathon is just incredible.
- 26:21It's got to be incredible when you're watching the Olympics and
- 26:29there's this athlete up on the medal stand and they're crying.
- 26:36There were years and years and years.
- 26:42Lucy had a game on Friday night and Lucy's been playing soccer
- 26:49since she was four. And Lucy has been a warrior.
- 26:56I mean, practices 3 nights a week, 50 minutes away.
- 27:02We would drive 50 minutes there, practice 50 minutes home for
- 27:08year after year after year after year, all with the hope of being
- 27:17a quality high school player with the big dream of maybe
- 27:24having the opportunity to make a college team.
- 27:28Like, that's really the goal because the number of kids who
- 27:32go on to play in the Olympics or play professionally is like such
- 27:37a small number. That's not even really a goal.
- 27:41The goal is I want to make my high school team and I want to
- 27:45be a good player on my high school team.
- 27:49Well, Lucy got offensive player of the year her junior year and
- 27:51her senior year she was a very productive high school player.
- 27:56And a Friday night she had a game about 3 hours from where I
- 28:02live and I took 1/2 day sub and I drove 3 hours to her game.
- 28:09And Lucy's team is very good. They're 14 or 15 and O and they
- 28:16were playing one of the best teams in their league.
- 28:21And Lucy gets some minutes. She doesn't play the whole game
- 28:25by any means. She probably plays about, oh, a
- 28:30quarter to half of the games now.
- 28:33Again, a very good team. So they're in this very tough
- 28:37game on Friday. This is last Friday, and it's 00
- 28:46and Lucy's on the field and she's in the right spot.
- 28:54A teammate makes a cross. Lucy sees it kind of get through
- 28:58some traffic, she sprints over. She hits a perfect shot up into
- 29:04the top left corner of the goal to go up 1.
- 29:09Nothing against the only team that beat her team last year and
- 29:16the excitement on her face and how high she jumped into the air
- 29:23with excitement and her team starts screaming and comes
- 29:28flying over hugging her. It.
- 29:33It was like the payoff for all of those long nights, all of
- 29:40those long road trips. It was arguably the biggest goal
- 29:45of her life and it was worth every second I spent on the road
- 29:53for that game. And that's the thing about
- 29:58cards, is when when you have these situations arise where
- 30:07there's the card, it's finally there, the right one that you've
- 30:14been waiting for and searching for, and you're able to acquire
- 30:18it. It makes it so much more
- 30:21special. If, if Lucy scored, you know,
- 30:27100 goals this season, that goal in that game, it would have
- 30:31meant something. If, if it was the first game
- 30:36when she was five years old, it would have meant something.
- 30:40But that goal was an accumulation of years of hard
- 30:46work to put herself in that spot at that moment.
- 30:53So I bet you're saying if you're still, if you're still
- 30:57listening, you're probably saying, oh man, I wish I could
- 31:00see the goal. Well, guess what, you're in
- 31:04luck. I don't.
- 31:19I mean, if you looked at the very top of the screen, the top
- 31:25right hand corner, there's one guy standing by himself who win.
- 31:29The goal goes in jumps up in the air.
- 31:34That was this guy super proud dad moment.
- 31:39The hunt the search makes that pay off when it happens so
- 31:47awesome. It it it makes it so much more
- 31:51special. This next one from my guy at
- 31:56Straight Race card says love the story on the Clemens Greg.
- 32:01Never get tired of hearing it. Question for next week.
- 32:05Can you share any more stories where cards or the hobby have
- 32:09had a profound impact on your life?
- 32:14Whenever I record any episode and I'm looking into the camera,
- 32:21my phone like this, I never know what I'm going to say.
- 32:26I don't have notes. I don't write things down, I
- 32:30just talk. I'm just me and for some people
- 32:35that's great and some people it's not.
- 32:38So I don't really know where this answer is going to go.
- 32:46So here we go. For me, this hobby, it's, it's
- 32:54so much more than cards. I hear people say, I mean, come
- 33:00on, it's just, it's just baseball cards.
- 33:03It's just sports cards. That's all.
- 33:05Like, what are we getting so worked up about?
- 33:08Or, you know, why do people get all bent out of shape?
- 33:12It's just cards. You know, my buddy Chris from
- 33:17Missouri, who loves collecting, he says it's just a hobby,
- 33:23collect what you like. I agree it's a hobby and I agree
- 33:30you should collect what you like, but in my opinion it's not
- 33:35just a hobby. This hobby is so much more than
- 33:43accumulating pieces of cardboard.
- 33:47This hobby is an escape from difficult times.
- 33:55Since my channel started three years ago, I've had some tough
- 34:00times. We got a phone call one
- 34:04afternoon couple of years ago that Megan, my wife, her dad had
- 34:10collapsed. The paramedics were there.
- 34:13He was unresponsive. Without any warning, he was
- 34:17gone. I went through that since this
- 34:23channel started and one of the things who that helped me get
- 34:28through that is this hobby is this channel are these carts.
- 34:36It's not just a hobby, It's it's like therapy.
- 34:41My dog, my best little buddy, the the endorphin rush I would
- 34:49get when I'd come home every day and she would be excited to see
- 34:53me. My good pal Mandy, I lost her
- 34:59since this channel has started and you know, I know people have
- 35:04different feelings about pets and the importance of pets.
- 35:09My dog, Mandy, she did a lot for me.
- 35:13She did a lot for my mental health and losing her was
- 35:22brutal. And I still at times come home
- 35:27and I'm like, and then I realize she's not here.
- 35:34It's been almost two years. It's been over a year and a half
- 35:37since I lost Mandy and this hobby helped get me through it.
- 35:44I went through some tough times in life.
- 35:46I've seen some people I care about go through some tough
- 35:49times in life. You know, when my parents split
- 35:53up as a kid, I don't find it coincidental that that's when I
- 36:01really got into cards. I don't find it coincidental
- 36:04that that's when my dad really got into cards.
- 36:08Cards were a massive form of therapy, I believe, for both of
- 36:14us during that brutal time. Another thing that happened
- 36:21right before I started my channel is my dad's wife passed
- 36:26away and my dad was he lost his wife.
- 36:36That was a absolutely excruciating time.
- 36:43And that's one of the ways that he got back into the hobby is I
- 36:49saw what he was going through. He needed a distraction.
- 36:53He needed a distraction from real life.
- 36:56And I dragged him back into the hobby and now he's back.
- 37:04I believe, I genuinely believe, that cards helped save my dad.
- 37:15I don't think that is just a hobby.
- 37:20I don't think that it's just cardboard with pictures of
- 37:24athletes or non athletes on them.
- 37:28This is more than that. This is a place that is safe,
- 37:36where we can go and escape the realities of the world.
- 37:44I've had some struggles with work over the last couple of
- 37:47years I've had I Another time I was heavy in the hobby was back
- 37:55around the year 2000 to 2002. I got kind of heavy into golf
- 38:00cards and I was going through some difficult times at that
- 38:04moment in my life, but cards helped get me through it.
- 38:12So for me, it's not necessarily a moment or a card that leaves
- 38:21an impression. This is not just a hobby to me.
- 38:27This is so much more than that. So whether somebody watches this
- 38:33channel, whether somebody finds me entertaining, it doesn't
- 38:39matter. At the end of the day, it
- 38:43doesn't matter because this hobby is helping me to be a
- 38:49better person. It is helping to distract me
- 38:53from negativity in this world, which there's a lot of right
- 38:56now. I did get a card and I pulled a
- 39:00card 'cause you asked for a specific card.
- 39:04But when my dog Mandy passed away, a friend of mine named
- 39:10David gave me a really special card, which is probably the
- 39:15first and one of the very few cards of a dog and his owner.
- 39:22And he sent me the card with a really nice note.
- 39:26And it made me cry because of how much it meant to me and that
- 39:32it was a way to honor and remember my relationship with
- 39:39Mandy. I know that we all are in this
- 39:45hobby for different reasons. And and people talk about values
- 39:48and people talk about investing and people talk about grading
- 39:53and people talk about added value like I was a few minutes
- 39:57ago. And people talk about modern,
- 39:59they talk about vintage. Everybody has a different set of
- 40:07reasons why they're here. I can just tell you that I don't
- 40:14think it's a coincidence that in some of the most difficult times
- 40:18of my life, I have been most involved in this hobby.
- 40:26I don't think it's a coincidence that in two of, if not the two
- 40:34of the toughest, the two toughest points of my dad's
- 40:38life, he was most involved in the hobby.
- 40:43This is not just a hobby. This community, this hunt for
- 40:52cards, this distraction from the realities and the horrors and
- 40:59the negativity that at times arise in life, at times can
- 41:05genuinely be lifesaving.