Stacking Slabs

The best businesses in the hobby are not built one deal at a time. They're built one relationship at a time. Mike from MC Sports Cards returns to Passion to Profession to share why trust has become the foundation of one of the fastest-growing consignment businesses in the hobby. We talk about what happens after the first transaction, why honesty wins over short-term revenue, how technology should...

Product knowledge gets you in the door. Systems determine how far you go. In this episode of Hobby Jobs, I break down why the next generation of sports card businesses will be built on repeatable processes instead of founder instinct alone. The hobby is getting bigger. Companies are hiring. Events are growing. Expectations are changing. That means the operators who build training, marketing, hirin...

WWE finally gave collectors plenty to talk about. Adam and Ryan break down Night of Champions, Oba Femi's King of the Ring win, Sami Zayn capturing the World Heavyweight Championship, and what those moments mean for the wrestling card market. Then the conversation shifts to something every collector should think about. Are you chasing the biggest cards in the hobby? Building the best player collec...

Chris Johnson reminded football fans why collecting is about more than championships. After sharing his ALS diagnosis, collectors looked back at one of the most electric careers of the last 20 years. Pack and Brett revisit what made CJ2K special, why his cards matter, and why memorable seasons leave a lasting mark on the hobby. The conversation then shifts into one of the biggest collector debates...

The sports card market keeps reaching new highs. Sales volume continues to climb. Record prices keep falling. New collectors keep entering the hobby. But are collectors making better decisions? In this episode, Brett and Chris McGill discuss what the data is telling us and where they see warning signs. They compare today's market to 2021, break down the record Tim Duncan sale that has everyone tal...

You spend years preparing for the grail. You save. You study. You build relationships. You pass on other cards so you're ready when the opportunity comes. Then it happens. The card is finally yours. Now what? This episode explores the part of collecting that rarely gets discussed. What happens after the chase ends. I break down why landing a grail can feel different than you expected. Why ownershi...

What does it feel like to collect a team with no history? This week, Katelyn is joined by Mark (@ramjamsportscards / @valkyriescardvault), a collector who has built his collection around the Golden State Valkyries from day one. They discuss what makes expansion team collecting different, why patience leads to a better collection, how emotional connections form without nostalgia, and why documentin...

What happens when experienced business operators build a sports card company instead of longtime collectors? In this episode of Passion to Profession, Brett sits down with Gavin Hoover, Chief of Stuff at Tombstone Collectibles, to discuss what happens when enterprise experience meets the hobby. Gavin shares how his background building large retail organizations shaped the way Tombstone approaches...

Growth in the hobby is easy to spot. More inventory. More content. More followers. More customers. The growth that matters is harder to see. As your business expands, your role has to change with it. If every decision, customer issue, hire, and piece of content still depends on you, you've built a bottleneck instead of a company. In this episode, I break down why leadership capacity is becoming on...

Who's right? Who's wrong? Adam Gellman and Ryan from RBICru7 put the biggest wrestling card opinions to the test. Are we at the peak of the market? Will Panini-era cards continue to rise? Is 2024 Flawless WWE already an iconic product? Are one-of-ones overrated? Has Topps already changed wrestling cards for the better? Along the way, they break down recent WrestleMania Patch Auto sales, Rey Fenix,...

What makes a football card iconic? This week Pack and Brett McGrath discuss one of the biggest Peyton Manning rookie cards ever to reach the market and why sales like this help define the hobby. From Calvin Johnson and Patrick Surtain to Bronko Nagurski and Mike Ditka, they look at the cards that shape collecting across generations. They also tackle a collector question that sparks a bigger conver...

What does the sports industry see when it looks at the hobby? In this episode of Built for the Hobby, Brett McGrath is joined by Scott Lock of InfernoRed Technology and Dan Kaufman, Managing Director at Sports Business Journal, for a conversation at the intersection of sports, collecting, media, technology, and fan engagement.  Dan brings a perspective few people can offer. He's a lifelong collect...

In this episode of Stacking Slabs, Brett continues the conversation around taste, conviction, and building a collection that reflects your point of view. This is not an episode about what to buy. It is about how to think. Brett walks through the questions serious collectors need to ask before making decisions: How do you spot opportunity before consensus forms? How do you separate overlooked cards...

Most collectors focus on the outcome. The card. The deal. The mail day. The auction win. But the best things in this hobby rarely happen overnight. They come from trust built over years. Relationships formed without expectations. Research completed before the opportunity appears. Conviction developed long before consensus arrives. In this episode, Brett explores the power of planting seeds as a co...

What does it take to build one of the largest hobby businesses in Canada? John Amendola, CEO of Mintink, joins Passion to Profession to share the story behind turning a pandemic-era card business into a national brand. John discusses the early days of Breaks After Dark, scaling livestream commerce, hiring and developing talent, creating community through retail, and why relationships matter more t...

In this episode of Hobby Jobs, Brett breaks down why “building for the hobby” is too vague to guide a real business. The sports card industry is not one customer. It is trust. It is convenience. It is liquidity. It is discovery. It is fandom. It is customer behavior. Brett expands on this week’s Operator Note and explains why the best operators in sports cards do not build for a category. They bui...

Ryan is back in the saddle with Adam for a loaded episode of Booked to Last. This week, they dig into the state of WWE booking, the impact it has on wrestler collectability, and why collectors are trying to make sense of a market that is moving week to week. They break down Topps Cosmic WWE, the ripping experience, the planet odds, and why product structure matters so much in wrestling cards. The...

One year ago, we launched The Football Card Podcast with a simple idea: create a place where football card collectors could gather every week and talk football cards. Fifty-two episodes later, we're reflecting on what we've learned. Pack and Brett revisit the cards they highlighted in Episode 1, discuss why patience remains one of the biggest advantages in collecting, and explore the growing disco...

What makes a card worth chasing? In this episode, Brett breaks down the purchase of one of the most important cards to enter his collection in years: the 2025 Topps Chrome WWE John Cena Superfractor 1/1. But this isn't a story about a big card. It's a story about the process behind the decision. From negotiating against a $10,000 asking price to identifying what makes a card canonical, Brett explo...

One of the biggest mistakes collectors make has nothing to do with buying the wrong card. It has everything to do with waiting. Waiting for a sale. Waiting for a content creator to talk about it. Waiting for the market to tell you it's safe. In this episode, Brett explores why waiting for validation is rarely about needing more information and often about seeking permission. Using examples from PM...

The Connecticut Sun are entering their final season. For many fans, that means more than a franchise relocation. It means the end of routines, memories, and connections built over decades. In this episode, Katelyn sits down with Steve (@showley2003), a lifelong basketball fan and dedicated Connecticut Sun collector, to explore what made the Sun unique and why this season carries so much emotion. T...

What does it take to build a sustainable card business in a market that is still finding its footing? This week on Passion to Profession, Brett sits down with Bryan from THZ Sports Cards to discuss his path from high-end NBA cards to becoming one of the most recognizable wrestling card dealers in the hobby. Bryan shares how years of buying, selling, and building relationships helped him uncover op...

Most people think opportunity in the hobby comes from knowledge. Know the player. Know the card. Know the market. Those things matter. But as the sports card industry becomes more sophisticated, another asset is becoming more valuable than ever: trust. In this episode of Hobby Jobs, Brett explores why reputation has become one of the most important forms of leverage in the hobby. From eBay authent...

Ryan is out this week, so Brett steps into the co-host seat alongside Adam Gellman for a wide-ranging conversation on the current state of wrestling cards. Based on the episode transcript.  The guys break down WWE's King and Queen of the Ring tournaments, Oba Femi's momentum, the global appeal of WWE, and why international fandom has not fully translated to wrestling card collecting yet. On the ca...

At some point, every serious collector learns the same lesson: You can wait for the perfect copy. Or you can own the card. This week, Pack and Brett discuss how scarcity changes collecting decisions. When a card only surfaces once every few years, grades start to matter less and ownership starts to matter more. The conversation spans:  Rare cards versus perfect grades   The psychology of chasing l...