#10: Mental Health and the Power of Positivity
👋 Hello, I’m Brett from the Stacking Slabs Podcast and welcome you each week to my newsletter the Weekly Rip. The goal of this newsletter is to elevate the people who make the Hobby better.
How’s it going?
Hopefully, you’ve had a productive week and feel good about what’s going on in your life.
If not, make sure you go talk to someone. It’s mental health awareness month and there’s not a more important thing that you can do then to take care of yourself.
Colts owner Jim Irsay launched a nation-wide campaign called, Kicking the Stigma with the intention to drive awareness around the topic of mental health. If you are looking for more education hit the link. There are some great resources there to help you out if you need it.
I hope you’ve been enjoying this newsletter. I can’t believe this is issue 10 already. The best way that you can show your support for the Weekly Rip is to share it with your friends.
Know someone interested in getting back in the Hobby?
Share The Weekly Rip and drop them a link to the latest Stacking Slabs episode. The organic growth of this platform is real and I have all of you to thank for helping spread the word.
I don’t take this for granted. It’s one of my favorite elements of human psychology...reciprocity.
You know what this is, right?
Think about walking into the grocery store (pre-Covid) and the nice lady is standing in the aisle handing out candied bacon. You haven’t eaten breakfast yet and that bacon smells wonderful.
You can’t fight the urge so you ask for a sample. When you put the delicious candied bacon in your mouth the nice lady begins to talk to you about the product and what aisle you can find it in.
She’s selling you, but it doesn’t feel like sales because it satisfies an urgent need for you. It’s the same reason why your waiter puts peppermints with your bill. They want you to tip them.
Reciprocity is powerful. We should all find ways to reciprocate in the Hobby.
Do you believe in good karma or mojo? Start giving back.
There are so many incredible people who send me thank you notes and cards in my mailbox regularly. It floors me, but it’s simple reciprocity. I create content that they find valuable and then members of my audience find opportunities to show their appreciation.
The more that we can do to operate with intention and outside of our own personal silos the better.
There are all people in the Hobby that we admire.
Find ways to show your appreciation to them. There’s so much passion in this Hobby. The more you give the more you will get back on the other side.
Ok, on with the damn newsletter.
🤥Myth Busting in the Hobby
I’ve been stacking paper trying to get these grades
I’ve been stacking paper trying to get these grades
It’s incredible that Hobby Hip Hop is a subgenre of music that represents our Hobby. I’ve got nothing, but love for the RPS Crew. Peter Packman, Rip Hamiltopps, and Slabby Sosa are pouring a ton of passion into this Hobby and any opportunity that I can to plug them I am.
I want you to hit play on Grades and let it serve as the official anthem of this section of the Weekly Rip.
I had a great time talking grades and busting myths with David (@guessthegrade) a week ago on the podcast. He shared his background in grading cards and why he’s using his account to help educate others on the grading process. I loved learning how he’s a teacher by trade and an educator on grading by night. This plays into the theme I’ve been discussing a lot about using our professional super powers in the Hobby when we can.
I bring the topic of grades and grading companies back up because apparently we didn’t do a good enough job of busting all of the grading myths out there.
Shortly after the episode went live I started seeing conversations on Twitter about how:
PSA had a bunch of new graders and they don’t want to give out 10’s to make sure their bosses know they are grading cards right
It’s getting hard to get 10’s because PSA is controlling pop reports
Not going to grade my cards now because it’s impossible to get 10’s
I don’t work for any grading company. No one in the Hobby pays me to say anything.
Everything that I put out there comes from a place of passion and comes directly from me.
I sense that the myths, misinformation, and fake news about grading companies in this Hobby is growing. Not a day goes by that I don’t pull up a social stream and see someone sharing something that is just not true on their page.
There are going to be bumps in the road with grading as our Hobby continues to expand. There are going to be new participants that enter during this time. The last thing that we need as a community is for people to start believing things about grading or any other topics in the Hobby that just isn’t true.
The Hobby doesn’t need to be utopia. I’m not a watchdog.
I am a person with a whole lot of passion for this Hobby and I refuse to sit back and let people create their own narratives around what’s happening with businesses that support our Hobby.
Don’t attack people when you see this. Do whatever you can to engage in a dialogue where facts are represented.
Education matters now more than ever.
🗣️More Voices on the Grand Canyon Forming Between the BGS 9.5 and PSA 10
I love creating content in the Hobby. I might love consuming good content in the Hobby even more.
My tastes much like many of yours are very particular. I’ll give everyone a go at least once and think we should all do our part and support content creators when we can.
The best is when I start consuming new content from a creator and their work starts to validate some of what I’ve been talking about. This is a community and I don’t use my platform to be the end all be all. I NEED other people who are podcasting or creating videos to share different angles on topics that I am covering.
Not everyone listens to my show. I’ve been on record saying it’s not designed for everyone in the Hobby. It’s a beautiful thing when I hear someone else riffing on topics that matter to me and hope matter to you.
This happened this week when Cardi-C slid into my DMs and shared a video he created in January on the BGS 9.5 and PSA 10 gap.
I loved the thought and support that he put into this video and felt compelled to share with all of you.
Go subscribe to his channel and show another content creator in the Hobby some love.
😀The Power of Positivity
New Day Rocks! New Day Rocks! New Day Rocks!
Nobody knows the Power of Positivity better than The New Day. They’ve built their platform on it and will go down as one of the most transcendent teams in wrestling history.
You all know how much pro wrestling I watch, right?
Any opportunity I can take something from the wrestling world and fuse it with the Hobby world I am going to do it.
If you are spending the time to read these words that means you have embraced the Power of Positivity. You know I chose to be optimistic about our Hobby’s future rather than to be a Debbie Downer.
Negativity sucks. No one wants to be surrounded by negative thoughts when we are all on vacation exploring the Hobby!
I decided to take to my stories and ask one simple question to the community:
What excites you most about the Hobby right now?
I figured what a great way to close out this newsletter by giving some roses and highlighting some fellow Hobbyists and their responses.
@vintagepacers: The prospect of grading companies and COMC getting back to normal
@lukanation_conrad: Everything
@rvsportscards: Going to my first show next weekend
@beardown_boilerup: The enthusiasm of the new collectors is acting like gasoline to the fire of old collectors
@blemished_gems: The power of technology to find the cards and the people who want them
@cardicsportscards: New blood. New opportunities to connect and think differently
@dt_sportscards: All of the people coming into the hobby
@gggsssggg: The relative dip in prices and card shows starting up again
@kinney_cards: Selling to consolidate. It’s a lot of fun watching auctions I put up.
@thecardmessiah_19: Perseverance through adversity = passion that maintain it..this excites me
@theblvdofcards: I think with market corrections, you get to see more people sharing passions v. profits
@thepackagingboy: Variety. There’s something for everyone
@mourningcardtoons: 90’s marvel cards! Diving into the artwork I remember as a booger
@maniacsportscards: 2021 Score Football - I love the annual reset!
@recklesscards: Difference of thought and opinion
@udblackcollector: The idea of countless people zagging into their own lanes, expanding the diversity of the hobby
@goudeygum: A portion of the flippers moving to NFTs
@adam_mcnany: Seeing some of the truly rare cards surface at auction
@revolutionruss: All the new people entering for the right reasons, not monetary reasons
@drakes_pc: Making new connections with other collectors every single day
The excitement in our Hobby is incredible.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you this place is going down.
This kind of passion and positivity keeps this thing rolling.
There’s no one more passionate in the Hobby than my guest on today’s SSP Hobby Hustle, Sierra (@california_card_collector).
Enjoy the weekend and conversation.
I ask you two things in closing:
Do whatever you can to use your skills to give back to the Hobby - we need it more than ever
Please share this newsletter with whoever you think can benefit
Happy collecting,
Brett (@stackingslabs)