#7: ABA: Always be Appreciating

👋 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? Happy Friday! 

I deliver this edition of the Weekly Rip with a whole lot of appreciation. 

I reflect on the time period where I got sucked into the Hobby funnel and quickly became all in on sports cards again.

I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, but had a willingness to learn.

I decided to watch everything, listen to it all, and join as many groups in the Hobby as possible.

I was drinking from the firehose that was connected to any source of Hobby information that was available.

I was Hobby hydrated and it took me a while, but finally relieved myself from all of the stuff that I knew wasn’t for me.

Sorry for the visual, but hope you get the point.

I approached the Hobby much like I approach my career and the industries that I’ve worked in.

Dive in head first, Be curious. Research. Meet the people. Identify problems. Have a blast working on them.

I realize that my journey back into the Hobby might be atypical, but the information I had to obtain was not:

• Licensing changes over the year 

• What sets are significant and what sets are not 

• The impact of grading 

• What sources to trust 

• How to communicate with others in this market 

The list could go on forever, but that is where the appreciation comes in.

Every day the Hobby expands and new participants enter. 

There are endless examples of people who are reading this newsletter that helped answer questions, validated assumptions, talked me off the ledge, and supported me through it all.

I don’t take this for granted because this is what we do for others in the Hobby.

Never forget the fact that you were new at one point and likely had similar experiences as me.

Look out for new people with good intentions. 

If we are all mindful of helping new participants where we can then we can rest assured that we are sitting on pieces that might change the trajectory of our future grandkids lives.

On with the damn newsletter.

💊Double Dose of Hobby Heroes 

I had a pretty special week in the Hobby. 

It wasn’t because of any mail days, auctions won, or cards sold. It was because I got to spend some time with a couple of Hobby legends..

First, was an unexpected Instagram Live with the one and only @spintron. He was celebrating hitting 10k followers by doing his first ever IG Live. I picked up my phone during work hours and saw he was live and had to tune in for a bit.

It was one amazing card after another amazing card. If you don’t know anything about Spino you should do a few things:

1. Follow him on IG 

2. Watch his IG Live 

3. Check out the Basketball Card Fanatic where Adam interviews him

He is the definition of collector and has one of the best Kobe collections that I have ever seen. After I was done with work I rejoined his Live  and he saw me in it and asked if I wanted to join.

Me? Talk to Spino? Never in a million years. I was a fan of his.

I anxiously ran up to my Hobby room, requested to join, and had an amazing conversation with him. He’s a true gem of the Hobby and we should all be thankful that he shares what he does on a regular basis. 

Less than an hour later I was recording today’s episode of SSP with The Architect of Exquisite Karvin Cheung. He’s responsible for bringing to market one of the most important products in our Hobby and he was on my show!

This was one of the more enlightening and fun conversations in recent memory for me.

Stay active. Connect with the Hobby. 

You’ll be amazed by the conversations that become available for you. 

🏈What do you get when you mix a Raiders fan with Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Patrick Mahomes? 

It’s becoming ritual that every week I dedicate a section of the newsletter to highlight an account and person I’ve met through Instagram that has changed my perspective on things. 

He’s been on IG Live with me, he’s been on the podcast, and now it’s only fitting that he be featured in this newsletter.

I’m talking about Kevin Randall aka @dacaptain37

I can’t tell exactly how Kevin and I met, but I can tell you that he had me by his Peyton Manning collection. He’s got without a shadow of a doubt the #1 Peyton Manning “shiny” collection in the Hobby.

As a matter of fact he’s got every Manning Topps Chrome and Finest refractor and parallel with the exception of only a few (it might be a couple at this point - he’ll correct me). 

Scrolling through his page is like scrolling through sports card history books of Manning and Brady. You add his Mahomes PC on top of it and I think it can be argued that he’s got one of the best collections of QB’s that this Hobby has ever seen. 

Kevin has an appreciation of the QB position like I’ve never seen. He’s a Raiders fan on top of it! Can you imagine being a Raiders fan and collecting Mahomes? Kevin is able to make it work and maintain his sanity, too. 

We all have people that we watch and admire their PC. Kevin is one of those guys for me.

In admiring his PC I’ve learned that it’s not all about the rookie cards and never let up on collecting players who you are passionate about.

He’s in a Peyton Manning group chat with me. So much knowledge and information is shared. When I do get the time to scroll through it I am better for it.

The football card market is hotter than ever. Make sure if you are participating or jumping in that you follow guys like Kevin.

You’ll learn a ton and be better for it. 

📜You can learn from the archives, too

I do content for a living. The best part about the majority of great content in our Hobby is that it doesn’t have a shelf life.

You can dig through your favorite podcasters archives or YouTubers channel and still pick up nuggets from things that were published months and even years ago.

I hope you could say the same for the stuff that I am putting out.

A few Saturday’s back one of my favorite collectors @rodmanpc was on Sports Card Live

If you aren’t already following Jeremy’s channel you should. He’s habitual about his content and his conversations are all really good. 

Rodman’s episode was special. It came on the same night of Goldin Auctions and everyone that I was connected to in the Hobby was there to watch it. It really felt like an event.

The next day when I woke up I wanted more Rodman content. He’s a collector I admire. 

I remembered quickly that Josh did an episode on Cardboard Chronicles nearly a year ago with Rodman.

I watched the entire thing back and learned more the second time I watched it than I did before.

It was a big reminder to me that just because something isn’t brand new doesn’t mean there isn’t value in going back and hitting play again.

Now I need to get Rodman on SSP!

🏀Bobby “Slick” Leonard: A Hoosier Hoops Legend 

When Elgin Baylor passed away I knew that I had to recognize his achievements and highlight at least one of his cards. I didn’t really know Baylor, but knew his contributions to the game were significant. 

I wasn’t expecting the next person that I was going to recognize for their passing to be Bobby “Slick” Leonard. Slick is a basketball icon to me and quite frankly anyone who lives in Indiana.

There’s too many Slick stories to tell and if you want to hear some directly from the source you need to listen to Kyle’s interview with him. I’m really glad he was able to share that with us before his passing. 

Nobody, not even Reggie Miller means more to the Indiana Pacers than Slick.

He’s the reason why the blue and gold are here. He’s the reason why I’ve had a professional basketball team in my city to cheer for my entire life. He means so much to my basketball fandom that it’s almost impossible to put into words. 

I’ll share just a couple nuggets to try to get you to understand what Slick means to me and many others.

He’s the voice of basketball for Pacers fans. 

Boom Baby! 

Ever heard of it?

That was a catch phrase to describe a 3 pointer going through the net. During the rise of the Indiana Pacers in the 90’s you turned the sound down on your TV and you turned up Slick and Mark Boyle on the radio.

(Boyle) Outside to Reggie for 3………

(Slick) BOOM BABY! 

Boom Baby is more than a catch phrase. It’s how we communicate to each other as Pacers fans today.

I have a Pacers group chat with my friends. It’s called “Boom Baby”. 

Slick was 88 and lived a hell of a life. He was full of life.

In more recent years Slick would just walk out on the Club Level concourse and mix it up with Pacers fans.

I remember being in college and being 3 sheets to the wind during the Playoffs. I went out to grab my next round during a time out and it was just Slick and I.

I was stars truck. I looked at him and told him thank you. His response, “Keep coming to the games”. 

I close out this newsletter by sharing his 1961 Fleer Chicago Packers card

The famous purple background brings Leonard to the front of the card. I can tell you right now he’s not passing the ball.

Step back. Through the net. BOOM BABY!

Rest easy, Slick. You will be missed.

I ask you two things in closing:

1. Do whatever you can to use your skills to give back to the Hobby - we need it more than ever

2. Please share this newsletter with whoever you think can benefit

Happy collecting,

Brett (@stackingslabs)