Stacking Slabs

In an unregulated hobby, trust fills the gaps where rules do not exist. In this episode of Passion to Profession, Brett McGrath sits down with Michael Osacky, Founder of Baseball in the Attic and PSA’s lead appraiser, to talk about what really protects collectors and businesses today. They unpack why reputation functions as currency, how bad actors thrive in gray areas, and why most collectors ass...

Season three closes with reflection and a clear look forward. Brett and Katelyn talk through what changed this year, what surprised them, and why this season felt different. More restraint. More conviction. Less chasing. More meaning. They also pull the curtain back on what comes next. Season four becomes a collector narrated oral history of WNBA cards. Eras over hype. Stories over prices. Communi...

The wrestling card hobby is not built like the rest of the card world. It never has been. In the debut episode of Booked to Last , Adam Gellman and Ryan Bannister sit down to explain why wrestling card collectors move differently, think differently, and collect with a level of loyalty that rarely exists elsewhere in the hobby. They share their personal collecting journeys, how wrestling cards pull...

Episode 29 moves fast and covers a lot of ground, the way real collecting conversations unfold. Pack and Brett open with jersey number 29 legends before shifting into a deeper discussion on defensive players, why they remain undercollected, and how limited card catalogs can create opportunity for collectors paying attention. The conversation then turns to hobby resolutions, slowing down, researchi...

The sports card space keeps growing. Prices rise. Products multiply. New companies enter every month. Some collectors say the hobby is gone. Replaced by an industry. In this episode, Brett argues it can be both. And explains why the difference matters more than ever in 2026. He shares why 2025 was his best year collecting. Why research is the strongest edge collectors have. Why niche content stren...

In the first flagship episode of 2026, Stacking Slabs explores how curiosity shapes conviction in collecting. The episode centers on a missed card. A 2020 Crown Royale Tyrese Haliburton Crystal Platinum 1/1. The loss was not about price. It was about timing and understanding. As the research deepened, interest turned into attachment. Learning changed how the card was viewed and why it mattered. Th...

In this episode of Passion to Profession, presented by eBay, I’m joined by Drew Hester, Chief Operating Officer at Greg Morris Cards. We talk about what it takes to run a high-volume operation without losing the human side of the hobby. Why trust beats transactions. Why vintage behaves differently than modern. And why consistency and communication still win, even as the hobby moves faster than eve...

Episode 28 brings perspective to a loud football card market. We break down Jonathan Taylor’s real shot at a rushing Triple Crown, what the data says about running backs right now, and how collectors can stay patient as prices rise. We dig into 1998 Fleer Brilliance 24 Karat Golds and why awareness changed the ceiling on one of football’s most important parallels. Then we step back into the Kaboom...

2025 was not a random spike. It was a convergence. In this episode, Brett steps back from individual card sales and looks at the forces that pushed the hobby into a true bull market. Online sales hit record highs. Platforms evolved. Corporations moved in. New collectors showed up. The center of gravity shifted. This is a collector-first breakdown of what drove the growth in 2025 and why it matters...

This episode is a reflection on Brett’s five favorite pick ups of the year. Not the most expensive cards. Not the cards that performed the best. The cards that earned their place. Each one forced a decision. Each one required sacrifice. Each one shifted the direction of his collection. Brett breaks down why he wanted each card, what he ignored, what he said no to, and what owning it changed. The c...

This is the final episode of The Staging Area for 2025, presented by dcsports87. Brett and Tory break down ten cards that sold through dcsports87 this year and use them as a lens to read the market. Not as predictions. As signals. The conversation spans multiple sports and eras, from early Prizm basketball and vintage baseball to modern football, soccer, hockey, and NIL cards. Along the way, Brett...

Jayne Peressini returns to Passion to Profession for a second conversation. She works on product inside eBay Collectibles and lives this market every day. This episode focuses on signals that shape the hobby beyond headline sales. We talk about Supply and how to read it without emotion Liquidity and time to cash Velocity and why turnover matters Why comps lag reality How collectors build strategy...

2025 gave WNBA collectors plenty to react to. New products. Bigger prices. Louder noise. In this episode, Katelyn and Brett slow it down and reflect on what the year actually taught them as collectors. They walk through five lessons shaped by real decisions. Cards they chased. Cards they missed. Teams they rode with. Moments that stuck. You’ll hear why patience is not passive. Why one card can out...

In this episode of The Football Card Podcast, Pack and Brett step back and look at the category as a whole. They dig into recent rookie quarterback classes and what they actually mean long term. They compare Prizm and Topps Chrome and why one still anchors football collecting. They unpack why Kabooms live in their own lane. This conversation is about context, restraint, and conviction. If you coll...

In this flagship episode of Stacking Slabs, Brett reflects on how his relationship with collecting shifted over the past year. The change was not driven by bigger cards, higher prices, or chasing status. It came from slowing down, buying fewer cards, and spending more time with the ones that stayed. He shares why he stopped explaining cards through history or market logic and started focusing on w...

Trust is the foundation of the hobby. In this episode of Built for the Hobby, I sit down with Scott Lock, CEO and Co-founder of InfernoRed Technology, to break down what the Snype shutdown revealed about hobby tech. We talk about what happens when platforms ship too fast. How security gets missed when no one owns it. And why protecting collector data is a responsibility, not a feature. If you use...

Mike Nett, GM of Trading Cards and Memorabilia at eBay, joins Passion to Profession to share his path from childhood collecting to running the largest trading card marketplace in the world. We talk about how his experiences at Pepsi, Amazon, and PSA shaped the way he thinks about collectors, sellers, and trust at scale. Mike pulls back the curtain on how eBay makes product decisions, why sellers a...

The first year of a premium product always carries weight. This week, Brett and Katelyn sit with that moment. WNBA Impeccable is here. High price. Low card count. On card autos. Timeless Moments. But the real question is not whether it looks good. It is what a first like this asks of you as a collector. We talk through primacy and why firsts matter. The risk of buying without comps. The opportunit...

In this episode of The Football Card Podcast, Pack Nicholson and Brett dig into one of the hardest questions in the hobby. Who is the GOAT when it comes to defensive players and their cards? They break down real sales data, look at names like Aaron Donald, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Lawrence Taylor, and Reggie White, and explain why defensive players still lag behind quarterbacks in the market. You also...

Card Ladder Confidential is back. This episode sits at the intersection of data, taste, and decision making. Chris and Josh break down recent football card sales that stopped them in their tracks and explain why some prices make sense while others raise real questions. You hear how defensive players stack up from a card market view. Why scarcity and set context matter more than hype. This conversa...

Most collectors chase what other people want. Hot players. Fast flips. Short term noise This episode pushes back. When you narrow your focus and collect for yourself, value follows. Not because you chased it. Because you built with intent. In this flagship episode, Brett walks through why focus changes outcomes in collecting. You will hear about • Why buying fewer cards often leads to better resul...

This episode is a look back at the year through the lens of volume, behavior, and decision making. Tory from dcsports87 joins the show to break down what actually mattered this year and what sellers should pay attention to heading into next year. We talk through  • Why volume changed the business  • How technology shaped the consignment experience  • What repackers changed in buyer behavior  • Whe...

In this solo edition of Passion to Profession, Brett shares the full story of how Stacking Slabs moved from a passion project to his profession. He takes listeners back to his earliest days as a collector, walks through the moment he lost his job, and explains why the search for purpose pushed him to go all in on the hobby. He breaks down how fifteen years of professional experience shaped the way...

This week’s episode centers on one card. A card that took time, sacrifice, and a lot of reflection to land. Katelyn walks through her journey to the 2019 Donruss Optic Gold Napheesa Collier Rookie out of 10. We talk through the delay, the negotiation, the sacrifices she made, and why the moment the card hit her mailbox everything felt worth it. This conversation goes deep into intention, focus, an...

Pack and Brett kick off season three with real talk about the hobby and the season. They break down the Brady Superfractor sale, the Mahomes Gold Vinyl run, and why collectors are giving more attention to early parallels. They talk through the Colts chaos, the Philip Rivers shockwave, and what it means when a whole fan base goes through it at the same time. They close with market trends, personal...