The Card Diary by Hobby S. Thompson

To the brave men and women who have served the United States of America, Happy Veterans Day!  For a very special Veterans Day podcast episode, I bring on the pod Alex Tressler (@armyatc22 on all social media platforms), an Army veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan for three tours and has traveled the world while breaking boxes in the early infancy of social media (btw, he PC’s Pat Tillman).  We...

“First”* 2-time guest Dan The Great Curator pops back into the podcast studio (in the first of a mini series of “Where Are They Now?” with my Season 1 guests) to share his thoughts on being a content creator and the current landscape of content in The Hobby.  We talk about the concept of people who don’t call themselves influencers but who influence others to not like influencers. *Sports Card The...

Two weeks after the Chantilly Card Show, I give my thoughts on the show by way of showing cards that I picked up along the way during my time there on Friday and Sunday of the show.  Moments I talk about:  transacting with the dealers, unofficial Trade Night at the Holiday Inn (where Dennis Rodman was walking through the lobby while I was trading for one of his cards), Kids’ Trade Night, dinner wi...

Can you imagine being a dealer at your very first National?  Well, that’s what happened to vintage basketball card collector turned dealer, Jim Doyle, who won my giveaway contest on Instagram to be a guest on this podcast.  Thank goodness he was such a great interview.  We talked about his cardboard journey as I am wont to do, and we talk about his experiences as a dealer, why it’s so important to...

On the heels of an episode called Hobby Casino, I take some time to share my thoughts about why The Hobby is not a casino.  The most important question though is - do you think The Hobby is a casino?  I also talk about how there are different types of collectors, specifically quiet ones and loud ones and that there’s enough room for all of us in this big tent we like to call The Hobby.

Do you believe that breaking wax is a gamble, like playing slots?  If you do, then what about other aspects of The Hobby and other table games in a casino?  In this bonus episode, I talk about my poker playing past and how the transactional side of The Hobby, specifically  buying, selling, and trading singles feels more like a game of skill, rather than a game of chance or luck.  And oh yeah, chec...

Continuing the experimental bonus episodes, this is the audio from a YouTube Vlog I made before going into Day 1 of the Chantilly Card Show on October 20, 2023.  This was the first time I ever made this type of content, since usually my video content is short form and optimized for Instagram (portrait vs. landscape orientation), but I wanted to try something new!  There are two parts to the episod...

This is the first bonus episode and it is so different from the other past episodes.  It is not optimized for audio, because my guest, Mascot CEO Ezra Levine’s (IG @withmascot), audio is lower than mine because I was recording video with my phone.  If that is the case, I would encourage you to check out the YouTube video version, or better yet, scheduled your free demo with Mascot.   You might not...

I explain the reason for bringing Season 1 of this podcast to a close, what you might be able to expect from me in future podcast episodes and also from a content perspective. I honestly don't know how I went 42 minutes talking about this.....

The mini Meet the Grader series comes to a close and I provide some of my thoughts arising out of what I learned from the series.  This is a monologue episode and so I just share my general thoughts and opinions about the grading space in The Hobby.

Meet the Grader Series continues with Aaron (on IG @aarroyo_22), Operations Manager for AGS RoboGrading (on IG @agsgrading).  Aaron talks about growing up in the Wu Tang District in Staten Island, the trading card scene there, and why it’s important for him and his company to give back to the local community.  We talk about how big The Hobby is, the difference between a LCS and a LGS and also the...

Meet the Grader Series continues with Shaun from Card Boss (IG @cardbossgrading)!  Card Boss has a trading card grading app that utilizes patented AI technology, where you don’t have to submit your card to get your raw card reviewed. Our conversation takes us down a meandering road, talking about Urban Meyer, Jeni’s ice cream, the card scene in the Midwest, before we get back on track with Card Bo...

Meet the Grader Series continues with Sophia from CGC Cards (on IG @cgccards)!  Sophia (on IG @sophpelago) is an avid Pokémon collector who has been with CGC for the past couple of years.  She shares how she became a grader, the training it takes to become a grader, and I’m just so appreciative that she was so open and transparent with her work experiences and expertise.  We talk about the quality...

It’s an interlude episode, one that doesn’t neatly fit into the chapter/guest structure, for those of you who are new.  It’s literally just my stream of consciousness, and so you’re either going to love it or hate it.  It’s fine either way, it really is.  Also, age is nothing but a number.  Thanks for listening.

My second guest for this mini Meet the Grader Series is Brooklyn’s own son, Eddie, who grew up a parallel life to me, just a brother from another borough!  He is currently the President of C3 Grading (on Instagram @c3grading), and we start our conversation out about how he found me on social media.  We talk about what makes his grading company stand out against the competition (custom labels, hori...

Have you ever wanted to hear a podcast where a grader was a guest? Well today's your lucky day! Craig from Forensic Card Grading (on Instagram @fcggrading) stops by the podcast studio/basement/laundromat to share what the life of a grader is like. Craig talks about how he creates grader notes for the cards he grades, which I personally think is a fantastic wrinkle with FCG. Craig dispels the m...

This is Part III of my chat with Ryan Stuczynski from GemRate (@gemrate on Instagram and gemrate.com).  In this part of the chat, we just get silly with questions from Instagram.  But first, I botch a Formula 1 analogy on the different tiers of grading companies, because like many people, I suddenly feel like an expert about F1 after watching Netflix’s Drive to Survive.  We also talk about crossov...

This is Part II of my chat with Ryan Stuczynski from GemRate (@gemrate on Instagram and gemrate.com).  In this part of the chat, we talk about declared value, why that is a thing and why are we ok that this flawed process is a burden we as consumers are ok bearing.  We share our zany self-admitted conspiracy theories with the way we approached our personal submissions based on absolutely nothing. ...

Ryan Stuczynski from GemRate (@gemrate on Instagram and gemrate.com) is a self professed data junkie who was first a Cleveland sports team collector submitting cards for grading and wanted to learn ore about the grading space.  So he used his finance and data analytics background to turn his love of The Hobby into a full time job.  He now provides pop report information on four major grading compa...

Apologies for the delay! I explain why at the start of this chapter (monologue) episode about grading that sets up my next few episodes about the grading space we are currently in as The Hobby. In this episode, I talk about going back to my childhood home and where my old LCS used to stand, being a natural introvert (a surprise for some who follow me on Instagram, I'm sure), my experience with...

YouTube video link here: https://youtu.be/kbc2mHvs5CE Because one hour was just not enough, I had Rob Girard (on Instagram @sportscardtherapist) on again.  I think this counts as a repeat appearance?  I start this episode with having an individual hobby therapy session about how to handle online criticism with putting my face and voice out there and Rob does an excellent job talking me through thi...

YouTube video link here: https://youtu.be/r-N2TRr-OJ4 After an amazing time at The National in Rosemont, Illinois, I thought it would be the perfect time to have a sports card therapy session, and who better than Rob Girard, the Sports Card Therapist?  There is no intro monologue to this episode, and instead we just get right to the special guest. Rob and I talk about his origin story, fatherhood,...

If my voice is the only thing I lost during The National, then I consider myself pretty lucky, especially since I hope to get it back by the next episode. This is another interlude type episode, neither a chapter episode nor a guest episode. What do I talk about? I'm glad you asked, not that anyone really reads these descriptions right? Right. I talk about the many hats I wore during my time o...

Despite having a raspy voice after an amazing National, I wanted to publish this episode for those of you in travel status going back home from The National.  I hope that you enjoy the discussion Courtney and I have, with this second half really getting into an important topic:  Women In The Hobby.  I learned so much from this conversation, and I hope some of you do as well.  Humans are like onion...

Courtney Reckless of Reckless Cards (on all social media platforms @recklesscards) is the first woman in the hobby for this podcast, and it was just so long overdue.  We first get into Courtney’s personal origin story with The Hobby, her love of art in and out of The Hobby, and how Reckless Cards started with their social media.  We take detours along the way with talking about online and in perso...