#16: Control your narrative, don't let others do it for you
👋 Hello, I’m Brett from the Stacking Slabs Podcast and welcome you each Hey 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?
The ideation and creation of content motivates me. It’s not because I like reading or listening to myself talk. It’s because building a platform like SSP has given me the fast pass to meeting some of the brightest minds in the Hobby.
The roster of guests that I’ve had on the show has been intentional and curated. Just take my guest on today’s episode, Michael Coleman (@coleman_cards). He’s been to the Miami, Wisconsin Dells, Dallas, Houston, Philly, and multiple California shows over the past 6 weeks. He has a pulse on what’s really going on in the market and I love being able to share his perspective. This is real information that matters.
Operators like Coleman are people who I want to learn from and in turn hope you learn from. I love having these conversations and sharing them with all of you. I don’t take this responsibility lightly.
My biggest feedback for everyone this week is don’t let a few accounts in our Hobby control the narrative. So much of what comes through our feeds these days is focused on inducing drama and built for the transactional mindset. These are two things that true collector’s couldn’t care less about.
We value the cards and everything that goes into the process of chasing the ones that make us happy. We value the relationships that we develop on Instagram, through content creation, and at shows. Of course we monitor and track the value of our cards, but most collectors value the passion over profit.
I’ve spent my fair share of career experience studying growing markets. All of them including hyper growth segments like technology have seen pull back. In each of these growing industries there are always actors that emerge that do 3 things:
Paint a doom and gloom scenario to drive people out
Use their platforms to to instigate drama and seek attention
Try to manipulate people to follow the next trend, which typically has self-interest tied to it
It’s sad the lengths that some individuals will go to stand out in the crowd. I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to save people and I certainly don’t think it’s worth the time to get caught up in unproductive dialogue with these actors. We all have access to buttons like mute, unfollow, and block that can help ease your mind and allow you to focus on why you are truly here.
Those here reading this newsletter are operators with passion and conviction. I know because I get the feedback weekly and appreciate it. I do this because it helps fulfill a bucket for me. It gets me closer to people like you and provides access to new relationships and more information.
Don’t ever lose sight of why you are here and what fuels you.
Markets will dip.
People will be loud.
There will always be the next subject matter expert.
Keep enjoying your pursuit. We need more people like you so make sure to tell some friends how much fun that you are having.
🏀Basketball Card Fanatic Fanatic
I’m a marketer. I love a good story. I love good copy.
The Basketball Card Fanatic has brought me great stories from great collector’s for 10 issues.
All of them have hit my inbox digitally and I’ve even received the last few printed in the mail. I can tell you that without a shadow of a doubt that this publication is significant to our Hobby.
Every time I get a copy of the latest edition it feels like an event. I cherish my time reading the new content. It’s important to me because I learn something new with each magazine.
In the last edition I got a chance to learn about @yamwax’s pursuit of a ‘48 Bowman Mikan card. I felt like I was the passenger in his car as he blazed through Minnesota looking for a piece of cardboard. I know Yam’s passion for our hobby runs strong, but reading this story only poured fuel on the fire for me.
I can’t think about BCF without thinking about Ji’s (@theluckyshow05) stories of collecting all Steph’s Gold Prizms or his Luka collecting.
The design work and stories of art by @blackgriffincards is something that I look forward to so much each month. He offers a different lens to collecting and it’s a perspective that I truly value.
I could go on about this magazine forever. I truly love it and will be a subscriber for life.
I can’t mention the BCF without mentioning Adam (@thereal27guy) the Editor-in-Chief. There’s not too many people as passionate about basketball cards as Adam. You can feel it when you speak to him. He has a reverence for basketball cards and it shines through in this publication.
If you have any questions about it you can catch Adam waiting in line at Crown Burger on Friday night doing a Q&A.
Sign up for 3 copies of BCF for $35 here or message @thebasketballcardfanatic for a free digital copy.
🚀To the moon...too soon?
One of the funniest and most relevant characters that WWE creative has ran with over the past 3 months has been the evolution of the character of Cameron Grimes.
The short version is that Grimes is a country boy who struck big on GameStop stock and now is the ultimate stonk! He plays the role flawlessly and recently completed a storyline that involved everyone’s childhood nemesis The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibasie.
Grimes went from despised heel to loveable babyface. A big reason for this is because he’s god damn hilarious, but audience members like me feel bad for him already. It’s like watching a train crash in slow motion.
I’m not sure if it’s spending the past 18 months in the most volatile version of the sports card market, but there’s no way Grimes makes it out of this with his stacks of cash.
This brings me to the current conditions of the market and most notably the last sale of the 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan PSA 10.
Remember when this card sold for $720k at Goldin Auctions in January?
Remember when sports card influencers said that this card was a surefire $1M card?
Well to borrow from AC / DC it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.
A PSA 10 copy of the iconic card sold this week for $180k. It took nearly a $300k reduction over the last 3 months. If you bought this card at the peak I can assure you that it probably feels like the sky is falling. Oh by the way, the card is still up $118k over the past year…
The narrative that you might not hear about this card is that this isn’t a rare card. There are 317 graded copies of the PSA 10, 2,786 copies of the PSA 9, and 7,972 copies of the PSA 8. I don’t even have to mention the lower grades or which are slabbed by BGS and SGC.
Although this card is iconic it is also extremely liquid. The biggest thing that I hope everyone has learned from this market pull back is that online influencers should not be the one controlling the story-telling. There’s too much self-interest and irresponsible communication going out from these platforms.
It’s sad, but it is rare that you hear people talking about protecting your investments by buying rare and scarce cards. The 86 Fleer MJ along with the 52 Topps Mantle are the most recognizable representations of what we collect, however, they’ve also been used to inflate the current market and we are seeing the air come out of the tires in real time.
I reached out to Chris from Card Ladder for a comment. His job is to be in the data day-to-day and he is a passionate MJ collector. Here’s what he had to say,
“There’s tens of thousands of copies of that card in various grades. MJ collecting has never been about the RC. I think that’s a point that feel on deaf ears”
I’ve learned a lot from people like Chris and other passionate collectors over the last 18 months. It has allowed me to have a more enjoyable experience in the Hobby and mitigate as much financial risk as possible.
Influencers will tell you that everything is going TO THE MOON, but refuse to recognize when the market tells them to kiss my grits like Cameron Grimes.
📹90’s nostalgia never dies
Did you grow up in the 90’s?
NBA on NBC, Blockbuster Video, 2-Pac and Biggie?
Getting a shot in the arm of 90’s nostalgia never gets old. I love listening to 90’s collectors talk about their MJ inserts, rare parallels, and chase of rare hits.
There’s nobody better in the Hobby at bringing these feelings out than my man Jake Roy who hosts the 90’s Basketball Card channel on YouTube. He’s a massive Penny Hardaway fan and one of the most passionate 90’s basketball card collectors that I have come across.
I had a chance to jump on his channel and have an amazing conversation with him last week. He was a great host and wanted to make sure I closed out with sharing his content.
Give him a sub. You won’t regret it.
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