#4: Enjoy, but stack responsibly
👋 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?
I’m authoring this newsletter as I get ready to hit the beach for a week.
It’s been a wild and exciting start to the year for me.
Starting a company is no joke.
It’s the most rewarding and draining thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’ll be better for going through this experience. I realized a month ago that my gas light was on E and it was time to recharge for a week.
I’ll still be producing Stacking Slabs content because it’s an escape for me. I truly enjoy sharing my thoughts and starting conversations around topics that mean something to you.
I lead this edition by understanding that there is a lot of perspective on graded cards.
I know slabs aren’t for everyone. I talk with a lot of people who have no desire to grade their cards and that’s commendable.
The best part about the Hobby is the choices that we get to make on a regular basis.
We are the CEO of our PCs. You’ll continue to hear that phrase from me a lot because I mean it.
We need to think like owners and operate with intention. This newsletter and my content is meant for the underground collector.
This is the collector that doesn’t let Hobby headlines influence your decision making. It’s the people who view sports cards as the noble pursuit of buying collectibles that make you happy. It’s people who see the value in buying players that no one else cares about, but are significant to you.
I really appreciate all of your messages of support for what I am doing.
I do it for the Hobby. I believe in this industry.
I believe in the opportunity that it presents for everyone.
I believe in the people behind it.
I believe in the happiness it brings me.
Do whatever you can to give back and protect it.
It’s on us to keep making this thing move forward.
On with the newsletter.
📉JUNK SLAB ERA WTF?
We gain perspective by being members of the online Hobby community.
Then there is real life validation from people who go to shows and document the experience.
I dropped an episode today with Max (@putnamcards), Shai (@shaiwayvlogs), and Greg (@thepackprophets) to gather in person insight from the Dallas Card Show a couple weeks back.
Those are 3 great contributors to the Hobby that we love and always appreciate interacting with them. Make sure you hit follow on their pages. I promise that you won’t regret it.
It’s amazing how closely we can follow what is happening at these shows through IG and Twitter.
I saw Max put out a tweet during the show that helped validate some of what I was feeling about the Hobby.
I thought this was interesting so I retweeted it.
Then Joe dropped in the thread wanting more information.
Everybody is getting everything graded and now we are seeing it at shows.
Should we call it the Junk Slab Era as many people have pointed to?
I’m not sure if I am ready to go there, but I think we are seeing some stark evidence to support this claim.
Check out the total PSA population of 2009 Chrome v. 2019 Prizm 👇
2009 Topps Chrome:
2019 Panini Prizm:
It’s undeniable that the popularity of grading cards is at an all time high, but should I be grading everything?
Probably not, but I get why it’s happening.
Product is expensive and people are trying to capitalize on margins.
I don’t think anyone reading this newsletter wants this trend to continue. Quite frankly, I’m burned out on it.
I was the part of the problem when I first got back into the Hobby and now I’m getting back PSA subs that I couldn’t care less about.
It’s not fun. The prices on these cards of prospects aren’t dropping like it’s hot. They are dropping like it’s junk.
Speaking of 2009
What can we do?
It might sound crazy, but I think the first thing we can do is applaud the price hikes at PSA.
We need the junk to let up or we are going to be flooded with crappy PSA 9’s of prospects flooding our feeds.
I’m never here to tell people what to do and not do.
I will challenge readers to think hard about sending in your next card.
If it feels like a gamble hold back. Your money that would have gone towards that junk wax slab would go further in a piece that you adore.
😎SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER TIME
I love featuring people that I appreciate and have never met. My hope always is that someone passes this along to that person so they can see what kind of impact that they are making in the Hobby.
I want to call out my man @summertimecards for this one. He’s someone who I know a lot of people that I communicate with appreciate.
Maybe I’ll get him on an episode of SSP?
The reason why I am calling him out here is because he documented his experience in acquiring a grail of his.
This involved the card being flown in internationally to a point of contact and several flights.
I loved the authenticity behind the series and think this type of content really matters for people who might be in a similar position of trying to move up the ladder.
While I’m at it I’ll plug The Courtside Card Show in Miami on May 1st and May 2nd. Hit that man up for details.
🥱T-MAC on the Attack
I don’t know how you all feel, but whenever Tracy McGrady comes up in conversations the first thing the first word that comes to my mind is significant.
His career spanned from 1997-2003 and brought so many significant moments that just made me feel something.
This era of the NBA was a fun period in my life and T-MAC was a BIG reason for it.
Remember when he scored 13 points in 33 seconds against the Spurs?
Or how about watching him throw down in the 2000 Slam Dunk Content?
If you were playing any basketball video game during this era chances are that you were trying to square up on the sticks with T-Mac on your squad.
He might not have ever won any championships, but he matters.
I opened by Card Ladder app like I do every morning and saw that his 1997 Bowman’s Best Atomic Refractor PSA 10 (Pop 46) just sold for an all time high of $950.
That’s it?
How it could this card with that grade with a population that low go for under $1k?
Go check out some of the prices of 2019 PSA 10 Prizm rookies and compare it to this card.
It will leave you feeling twisted.
I wanted to take this as an opportunity to reflect on players that were significant to you during your life.
Identify those players and dig into their cards.
You might find some game winners like this T-Mac and many others.
🏀An Ode to Elgin
It always sucks when you have to talk about someone because of their death.
Elgin was way before my time and quite frankly I didn’t know much about him.
I did know that his jersey was retired by the Lakers and he was a Top 50 greatest player of all-time, but that was about it.
Since his death I’ve been digging into the archives, watching film, and trying to understand what made this man great.
I was listening to Wax Museum like I always do and Kyle had on Lakers collector Kirk and they reflected on Elgin for a bit.
I think the beautiful thing about cards is that’s where they can step in a play a significant role in keeping someone’s legacy alive.
Check out the 1961-62 Fleer Basketball Elgin Baylor Card.
We all can make our own interpretation of what’s going on with Elgin in this card.
I love how the red background helps pull him to the front of the card and I can’t stop looking at his eyes.
Is he waiting for a defensive switch? Is he waiting for the pass? Is he getting ready to say something to a teammate?
We’ll never know, but relics like this are opportunities to leave our mind up to interpretation and I think that is pretty damn cool.
RIP #22
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)