The Weekly Rip 7.14.24 [The Deal]
Brett shares the key elements to making one of the most significant deals of his collecting career.
A big thank you to the Card Ladder team for being the official data sponsor of Stacking Slabs. Card Ladder makes me a better creator and collector. If you’re looking to make more data-driven collecting decisions make sure you give the app a spin.
The biggest deals take time and patience.
We make transactions to acquire the cards that we desire, but the hobby doesn’t have to be transactional. I’m a big believer that there’s a multitude of segments that make up our great hobby. Each of the segments has different interests and approaches. One segment might covet money over cards while the segment that typically resonates with me is the group that would rather have the cards in their collection over money. I say it a lot, but there’s no wrong way to do the hobby. We’re here for many different reasons. I do think the front page of the hobby news is consistently crowded with stories about the highest selling this or all-time highs that. It’s good to have knowledge of the transactions. Nic and I cover those stories on Auction Talk regularly, but I don’t think the entire hobby as a whole is all transactional. There’s pockets across the community where incredible collections are being built and relationships are established. I was fortunate this week to create a one of a kind moment in collecting that I won’t soon forget.
I’ll set the stage by saying that I thought my 2023 Andrew Luck collecting campaign would never be topped. I acquired a series of cards including his 2012 Gold Prizm RC, 2018 Optic Gold Vinyl, 2014 Black Finite Prizm, 2016 Select Black Prizm 1/1, and many more. I was actually having a moment reflecting on the year after I posted my latest pick up of his 2013 Spectra Gold. The Luck PC was significant, but just hadn’t seen the same type of momentum as the previous year. Little did I know that my entire Luck collecting landscape was about to change in a hurry.
I had been in semi-regular communication with a Luck collector over the last year. I was given a lead from a hobby pal about his collection. The individual wasn’t posting his cards regularly on Instagram. Quite frankly, I’m not even sure the collector had Instagram. I’d regularly ask about what cards he owned and every now and again he’d send me videos. Every time he sent videos my mind would be blown away. I couldn’t believe that one individual had amassed the type of collection he had over a decade’s time. It could have literally been any player and I would have been blown away. I’d always ask if he'd be open to selling and I’d regularly get a response that was something like, “Maybe, down the road, but not really right now”. I didn’t want to be pushy because I didn’t want him to not respond back. I chose to slow play it. I wanted to make sure that I was top of mind for him if he ever decided to move some of his stuff. I’ll be honest this wasn’t easy for me. I struggled with spending my money on cards for months because every time I acquired significant hobby funds I just wanted to spend it with him. Suddenly, everything changed and for the first time I realized that I actually had a shot at acquiring some of my favorite cards from his collection.
The communication wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. It had been a while since I asked about making a deal and felt like enough time had passed. I asked about a certain group of his cards and his response gave me the sense that the door was opening. There was some more back and forth on others. I won’t share all of what was said to respect the privacy of the deal, but we quickly came to numbers. The next thing I knew it we had cards, price, date, and location for the deal. I didn’t think it was a reality until I was pulling away from the casino parking lot where the deal went down. First, I’m going to share the cards that I acquired and then I’ll share the biggest lessons that I learned from this deal.
The Cards:
The volume of cards from this lot was insane because rainbows were involved and a lot of other miscellaneous cards. I’m going to just highlight spotlight cards for sake of brevity.
These are all Andrew Luck cards:
2015 Prizm Black Pulsar 1/1 [The one year they replaced the Black Finite 1/1]
2016 Prizm Black Finite 1/1
2017 Prizm Black Finite 1/1
2018 Prizm Black Finite 1/1
2016 Optic Gold Vinyl 1/1
2017 Optic Gold Vinyl 1/1
2013 Spectra Atomic Black 1/1
The Lessons:
Use cash spikes as a trigger to reach out: I might have got this deal done quicker if I would have followed my advice at number 1 earlier. I’m constantly moving cards to acquire other cards. Typically, whenever I receive a big consignment payout that money is already accounted for with another card I just purchased. I think about all of the cards that I’ve acquired since I started talking about the Luck lot and none of them measure up to this exchange. A month ago I sold a lot of cards to trim fat and to be in a good cash position in case anything I wanted popped up. I waited for a couple of weeks and remembered I already knew what I wanted to spend the money on. I just needed to make it happen. We’re constantly hearing “not now” or “maybe later” from collectors who have cards that we want. Next time you’re flush with cash make sure you try your luck again.
Make the offer: I hate to be the first to make an offer and knew that I needed to be adaptable to acquire these cards. The seller was swimming in great Luck cards and wanted me to strike first. Typically, this puts the buyer at a disadvantage, however, it’s the moment where the deal starts to move forward. The seller came back with one reasonable counter and the rest is history. I’ve learned that sometimes you need the first to offer to get things going for unicorn type situations like this deal.
Stay Consistent: One of the number 1 things the previous owner told me when we met in person was that he valued the fact that I was consistent with the communication and that the cards were going to a collector who appreciated Luck. I would have moved mountains to acquire these cards and it was nice to get some feedback directly from the seller.
Play their game: The seller did not want to give up anything without selling off the entire rainbow of each key card. I’m not a rainbow collector, but can appreciate the work that was put into the acquisition. The benefit of buying the entire rainbow as a non-rainbow collector is that it gave me access to some Gold Vinyl that I didn’t previously own. Also, I was able to double and triple up on some of Luck’s true Golds. This will allow me to attempt to score higher PSA grades for my collection.
Ask Questions: Obviously this deal was a monumental moment for my collection, but I wanted to learn more from the seller. When we met in person I asked him a ton of questions to gather more information. I wanted to learn from someone who had built something this significant. It was cool to gather information, but more importantly it was awesome to connect with another human around Luck.
Many of you will be heading to Cleveland to attend The National to acquire the cards of your dreams. I’ve called this experience my National show this year and couldn’t have dreamt of a better result.
The hobby isn’t transactional when it’s broken down at the human level.
We’re here for the cards, but what we can find on the other side is so much more.
Collecting Luck has helped fill the void of his sudden retirement for me. I’m still not over it, but the cards certainly help…
Especially cards that are one of a kind.
A Weekly Content Roundup
We kicked off the week with the second episode in the partnership with PSA. I welcomed Collectors CTO, Dan Van Tran on the podcast for a conversation around technology and its impact on the hobby. I’ve received a ton of great feedback on this one and would love to have Dan back on the pod to talk tech and cards soon!
On the flagship episode of SSP this week I drafted off the coattails of last week’s newsletter. I gave advice on how to communicate on a card that’s “kinda” available. A lot of the lessons that I shared in this conversation came directly from my Luck acquisition.
We’ve hit 20 episodes of Auction Talk. Seems absurd to me. Nic (@thewharfsportscards) has been an amazing partner and has changed SSP for the better. This week we take a look at some cards that made the Card Ladder Headlines and dove into the weeds of each sale. "
Chad aka @blackhat_cards joined me for the collector conversation this week to discuss his one of a kind collection around the bad guys in sports. I loved learning about his mentality when building the collection and the qualification criteria to make it in his PC.
Joining the Stacking Slabs Patreon is The Best Way to Show Your Support
Collectors are joining Stacking Slabs Patreon to consume exclusive content, connect with other collectors, and promote their cards. I’m putting out new collector focused content in the group on a daily basis and it’s the hub for all of SSP’s video content. If you’re enjoying what I’m putting out on the main feeds check out what the group has to offer. I appreciate your attention and commitment to helping grow the damn brand. Join Today
This week I recorded an exclusive episode for SSP Patreon members on 2015 Prizm Football. It’s such an interesting set that I don’t think gets talked about enough.
Auctions to Follow
I reserve space in The Weekly Rip to share auction listings from members of the group. This week we have a trio of Net Marvels coming at you. When I saw these listings I instantly got transported to collecting during the pandemic. It’s weird that the nostalgia is already setting in for that era of cards.
2019 DONRUSS NET MARVELS GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO #11 PSA 10 GEM MINT
2019 DONRUSS NET MARVELS LUKA DONCIC #17 PSA 10 GEM MINT
2019 DONRUSS NET MARVELS STEPHEN CURRY #18 PSA 10 GEM MINT
A Collector To Follow
Yes, I’m promoting a Jacksonville Jaguars team collector in this spot this week. I understand the irony of a Colts fan giving a Jags fan a platform, but hear me out. I love the way @jaxjagsmuseum curates his collection. He’s highly focused on grabbing every Jags Gold Vinyl /5 Prizm which is no small task. The more I meet focused team collectors the more inspired I get.
I appreciate your support for Stacking Slabs.
Thanks for reading.
Take care,
Brett