Brandon Edwards of Bobbles and Ballcards E345

Sports Guard Nations Hobbies the People, Wheely News and Interviews. It's you on number one soul Sportscar Nations hobby is the people, sports gar Nation. What is up? Everybody? Welcome to episode three of sports Card Nation. First one to thank my great sponsors Upper Deck Iron sports Card scd Hobby Hotline, and got a great guest that.

His name is Brandon Edwards. He was doing a SDC folk submission service like myself. He's also a card collector dealer, and you know, when the news broke about the folk subbing rates going away, we kind of, you know, and I knew of him, he knew of me. But when that happened, we kind of touch base and compared notes and that sort of thing.

And I'm like, well, let's have you on and kind of do an on air show as well. That's not gonna be the only thing we talk about. We're gonna chop up some hobby. How he got in the hobby, all that fun stuff.

So he is today's guest. So without further ado, let's get to it. Happy to talk to the next gentleman on the Sportscardination guest line. He's we have some similarities when it comes to SGG grading.

We're definitely gonna get into that tonight, but we're gonna talk about chop up some hobby kind of where he got to start and that sort of thing. But we're joined by Brandon Edwards of Babbo's Ball Card. Brandon, Welcome to the show. Thank you, John, glad you invited me.

Yeah, thank thank you for being here for you. Kind of when where did the hobby all start? For you? I know, I know it's it's for a lot of us. It's a similar story. But you know, anytime the first time on the show, I always kind of start with that question.

So it's it's your your normal, Like you said, kind of a similar story. A lot of people like to joke around the gray Beard and everything, and I just got used to him play along. But I was born in eighty I got into the hobby right around eighty six. You know, I was big into sports.

We as kids, and then you know, back then, we'd go outside. I lived in a neighborhood. We were you know, after getting off the school bus, we were outside playing basketball, baseball, whatever, you know, whatever we could find. And UH just got into playing sports, which then led to watching and you know, back then we didn't have the Internet and all that stuff, but we had the newspapers and the box scores and all of that good stuff.

So friends in school taking the binders in the backpack, or you know, wearing the coats with the pockets on the inside and stuff on your top, loaders as full as you could get them. In trading and selling, buying and all that stuff, so kind of your normal. You've heard it probably a million times by now. Yeah, it all started when I was a wee little lad.

Now did you have a period for me? I was seven? I told the story many times, But did you have a period where you kind of got out and came back? Or did you? Are you one of the few that kind of stuck with it the whole way? So I've actually this is my third iteration of building So around ninety six, I believe it was. You know, at that point, I was sixteen. I was a junior in high school, I believe, because I graduated when I was seventeen. But Magic the gathering, the Kamee popp and a lot of my friends that I you know, were trading sports cards and stuff with They were starting to show interest in that and of course, you didn't want to be the lone wolf.

And it's kind of hard to trade when your friends aren't doing sports. So I actually had traded part of my collection then for magic cards and so we could play. You know, we weren't really collecting them. We were more building decks and playing in the h in the cafeteria and stuff, and so at that point that's kind of I didn't buy as much sports cards.

But also obviously I graduated, I went to college. Right two weeks after I graduated, I started business school, and then in nineteen ninety nine, I moved out to Indiana. I became a father in two thousands, so obviously, you know, you can do the math that I was twenty years old, new father. So there was a lot of other important things on the table.

But I did pick back up in around two and I remember distinctly because I was buying Tops Finals basketball, trying to get the redemption carts because they had those those pre rookie redemption for the drafts. And this one stung because I hit the number two pick, and you know how that three draft went. You had Lebron, James Carmelo, Anthony, Dwayne Waye. You know, you had a good crop of rookies there, and unfortunately, I thought I was set great.

I couldn't lose at number two, and dark o' milichick was drafted by the detroit. But as soon as you said number two, I knew who the number two. I think a lot of people know who the number two pick is. That's for good reason, right Obviously, like you said, I mean even even the third pick would have been would have been better.

Well, then the two pick. The thing was is with the number two, there was talks that Carmelo because he was up in Syracuse one that's the championship and everything. People thought that Cleveland might pass on Lebron and take Carmelo because of that, and then Lebron would go number two. Well obviously neither happened.

And you know, but I thought I couldn't lose. I was in Lebron or Carmelo, and yeah, but so that was a very distinct point. And then I moved back here, and I'm from Virginia. So I moved back to Virginia in twenty twelve, and I had a bad relationship and so the collection I had built obviously went by the wayside, and so I'm on my third iteration because when I move, I skipped a part there.

When I moved to Indiana, obviously, like I said, I had gotten into magic cards and so I left all that stuff behind. You know, I was nineteen when I moved halfway across the country. I was just learning life, learning how to become an adult. So this is my third go round, and I'll tell you I wouldn't expect it to be where it is to so you know that's also a blessing, you know, continue building on it.

So yeah, you're always drawn back in right there, the draw it has on you. You know you can. You know, I always tell people you can always take a break or pause and come back when when you're ready. Life happens right.

Like you said, you had a bad relationship that took your attention away from it. You had to get that straightened out. You can always come back whenever you feel like the time is right. Nothing wrong with that.

You don't have to but you didn't apologize. But you don't have to feel bad or apologize for anything like that. I get sometimes I'll get messages Brandon and someone would be like, hey man, I'm feeling kind of burnt out. Any kind of advice, and I'm like, yeah, don't do take a break, don't do anything hard and I don't even And sometimes they'll respondble how long were a break? I'm like, I can't answer.

You have to answer that question. It could be it could be two days and you miss it. It could be two weeks, it could be too much, maybe it's even two years. One that question, you have to it.

But like, take a break, get away from the cards. And when you feel like sometimes you know the old the old cliche, right, absence makes the heart profounder when you're when you're away from it and you miss it, you know when you can come back. And so I always said, none wrong with taking a break. I've done this for forty years.

And there's sometimes I'm like, I'm not doing anything card related this weekend, right, whether it be content creation, looking at a card, picking up, but I'm just kind of gonna take sort of a respite from it. If you will retreat from it, and then none wrong with that. It makes you, you know, sometimes if you don't do that, that's where you get in that space where like you sort of get burnt out or you start resenting it. Hey, I don't want to do this anymore, I'm not having fun or so there's really there's no wrong answer.

I've told even people Brandon, like, hey, you know, try something different. If some way you're collecting is not moving your meter or it doesn't get you excited about it anymore. You're you're the CEO of your own hobby. You can you know the permission you can.

You can do whatever, pivot and different. Like you said, you had a stage where you did magic together and you came back the sport. Nothing wrong with that that you're your own boss, so you can make uh those those calls and so you know, there's nothing wrong with that, and better that than the like get so upset or burnt out hobby and you never come back period and you're gone. Yeah, I don't like to hear go ahead.

I actually I've had this conversation with folks because, like I said, this is my third iteration of building a collection. And during the pandemic, things were so wild and it was so easy, like especially if you were already in and you know, you had inventory or whatever, it was so easy to make money. Like I had stuff sitting here that I'm I never thought it would be worth anything that people were paying twenty thirty one hundred dollars for and it was like, take it. You know, it's just sitting in a box, right.

But I also realized that I was going in so many different directions that I allowed myself to get away from who like, not necessarily who I am, but what I am most like what is most enjoyable for me in the high And so I didn't get out, but I kind of hit pause. I wasn't buying much, you know, I was still keeping my finger on the pulse, but I was reevaluating, like where was it that I was having the most fun? And I identified it pre pandemic. Back in twenty seventeen, I started building a Nationals Collections that's a completely different story of how to get in there. But I went back to that and I was doing that and I was like, that is where I was having a lot of fun.

And so I have actually I haven't quit, but I've adjusted my collection to get it back niched into where that fun was for me instead of just being scatterbrained and thinking that I needed to buy everything you know this and that. So you know, I think as a collector, you know, and people always talk about a true collector and this and all of that, and it's always coined, you know, even in your little band er there it says the hobby. There's no true definition of what the hobby is, because the hobby is really what you as a person, you as a collector, you as a dealer, enjoy. So, you know, I think we all will evolve, will change, will take breaks, you know, but I don't know that it'll ever go away, you know, of being something that we enjoy.

I think most people, Brandon and s if you agree with this, I think most people have some sort of collecting gene, whether it's sportscards, you know, maybe someone collects plates, collects watches, sneakers. I think inherently, as humans, we there's things were drawn to where we like to accumulate more than one of something. Whatever that's something is for each of us, right for me and you, it's obviously cards and cardboard and chrome for someone else, and it could be more than one thing. There could be more than one thing.

I'm not really a sneaker head, but I have like a wall where I line up all my sneakers in like boxes, and I'm like, man, I have way too many like, that's ridiculous, So I don't. I wouldn't say I even collect sneakers. I haven't bought one, and probably a pairent over a year. But I like, I like having different options there, right, So I think we all have some sort of a collecting gene.

Maybe wait, maybe sometimes we might not even realize it or not till till until after the fact, but I think we all have something along those Oh definitely. I mean you can kind of just see in my background it's a little a collect I mean there's like Lego sets up on the shelves, There's some vhs and stuff over here. What else, there's cards, there's some comics up on the shelf over there. See.

I mean, I know you were kind of interested in and explaining the name. Where did I get the name Bibbles and ball cards? And I can actually explain that now because it was a good so when I was coming up with the channel, my channel name, you know, it can be difficult sometimes you want something unique, you want something fun, you want something that represents you well in the term of collecting. Me and my wife also collect Bibblehead. So my name is Brandon.

Hers is Becky. The b and b and it worked to do the bibles and ball cards and she claims, you know, most of the bibleheads that she loves them. Our first minor league game that we went to as a family happened to be a bibblehead night and she just fell in love with it. So we have almost all of the Nationals bubbleheads that have ever been So that's where the name came up.

And a lot of people wonder because you know, ball cards isn't always dominant phrase. It's either sports cards or TCG or whatever. But it fit with our names being Brandon and Becky and then collecting bubbleheads and sports cards. I like it.

It works. It's a literation, right, there's a little English term for people who actually like school and paid attention in English class. Right, alliteration and and I love alliteration when you can incorporate it into whether it be a channel name, a business name. And it works right, and it covers, it covers both things.

You collect both aspects. Like you said, you and your wife's name both start would be it just it just makes all it's it's it's a layup, you gotta, you gotta, or it's a slam duck, you gotta dump it. And for five years we went with it, and h you know, it's kind of grown on everybody. And even if people don't know my name or hers, it's it's mister and missus Bobbles.

We actually a friend of ours, Like they've seen how how the channel was and how our Facebook group and the great they they you know, it heard all the stories and everything. They've seen our bibblehead collection, and they actually got a custom and it's really well done, a custom bibblehead of me and her and it says mister and missus Bobbles. So that's that's really cool. I had a fan of the show speaking of bibles.

Now, I'll just take a minute here a fan of the show. I've told this story before, Brandon, but I'll give the cliff notes version for a fan of the show. You know, the show has been on now going on on the seventh year. About three or four years in, a gentleman emails me and says, hey, I need a headshot of you.

Doesn't tell me why, you know, because I noticed it's gonna sound creepy. I need a headhe out of you. And you know, trust me, I'm not a creeper, you know. And so I'm like, I don't know, do I send one? Well, he said, I'm a fan of the show.

I need a headshot for you. I'm doing something. Believe me, it's not anything weird. I notice is a weird email, but just go with me on this.

So I went ahead and sent him a headshot and he said, hey, you send me your address. You're gonna get something in about four weeks, about a month, and I'm like, okay, you know, I didn't know it is he did like a painter, is he painted a picture? You know? He didn't go into details. And about a month later, sure enough, this shows up with a nice note and letter like I love the show. You keep it real.

You must listen in my rotation. And so he too had a custom bubble head of me. So there's my hobby quick it. There's another show where it's just me talking, no guests.

So that's the hat. There's a sports Cardnation logo on the shirt. And he even ask and not in that first email, He's like, give me a picture of your favorite sneakers at the time, and so these are Nike air Maxes. And even it's even like to the sneakers and there's my other logo.

And when I got this, I'm like, holy crap, you know, and I obviously I thanked them and that sort of thing, but like, you know, it's it's crazy. I've gotten a bat. There's a bat behind me. I won't say.

It's right near the lighted sign. A fan of the show that was for my first anniversary of the show that made a custom bat in Cooper's town. And again they just asked for my address and said, hey, look for something in the mail. And so I'll get stuff like that now.

Obviously Brandon, I don't do the show for those kind of reasons, but people like the show and appreciate, like every time it happens, like I'm still humbled and shocked and surprised by it, you know, And so it's it's it's cool time. To hear from one of our great sponsors. But sports guard Nation will be right back after that. Hobby Hotline is the Hobby's only live, interactive call in show.

Join some of your favorite hobby personalities every Saturday eleven am Eastern eight am Pacific to discuss the hottest hobby topics. If you miss us live, catch us after the fact on all major podcast platforms follow us on socials at hobby Hotline, Let's go. You are listening to the sports Cord Nation podcasts. I'll tell you.

You mentioned like I had watched YouTube and stuff and you would see like people do, oh, you know, fan mail and all of this, and I was like, man, people go to that effort, you know. And when I started my channel, I never expected anything from it. Like I just was on there, honestly. Just it started off, I was opening just packs and just kind of have a fun recording.

They were awkward videos, trust me. But I will never forget. And I have every letter that been sent to me, any card that's been given to me, I'll never forget. The first time I got fan mail, if you want to call it that.

It was a teenager and his name was Connor, and I'll never his Instagram was collecting with Connor and like that. I just never imagined it. And I never imagined that a young person would take the interest of like watching or listening or whatever of what I had to say. And so you know that that was really cool.

And then obviously, you know, five years in, there's been a lot of letters and appreciations and know all that stuff. It, like you said, humbling is I'll tell you the first time somebody see me at a show, I had to like go back later and find him and say and apologize because I was awkward. I didn't never expect anybody to come up to me, you know, recognize me, and I didn't know how to react, so I wouldn't apologize to him. Hey, sorry, you know, I just wouldn't expect.

Yeah, no doubt. It's it's a great point you make because I get the mail to or the notes, like love the show. I love that you don't curse on the show. I can listen with the kids who also collect, and I got an Accordion files over there in my in my bookcase there Brandon with all those letters and notes, and I keep everyone in the seven years and it's it's not to sound cocky, there's quite a bit of them, but I keep.

My thing is if someone took time out of their day to write that and then send it and buy a stamp and put a stamp and mail it to me, like I want to keep it. And then you know, we all have those hobby days right where maybe we're feeling a little low we're feeling a little down or even with the show, maybe the show it's getting into the little grind. I'll go into that cordion file, open it up and pull some those things out and read them, and just as a reminder, like people care, people like the show, people enjoy what you do, and it's just another kind of kind of a way to reset and kind of realize, you know, like I don't like even missing like episode. I think in seven years I missed five episodes, whether it be sick or traveling or whatnot.

And you know, and that's the thing, the rare occasion when I miss one, I'll get five or six or seven, like everything okay, because it's almost like that newspaper on your doorstep. People kind of expect it. And when it's not in there, like you know, podcast platform, if you will, they like, is everything all right? And that tells you, right that you mean something to them. So you know, like you said, when I started this seven almost seven years ago, I had no expectation.

I didn't know how many people would listen. I didn't know how it will receive. And then i've see didn't start out like that. It just built to the crescendo and you built up that following and it's you know, it never gets I never get complacent with it, never like I'm still amazed even seven years in.

I'm not like, you know, like someone someone once said, you're you're a celebrity, and I'm like, a not a celebrity. I'm like, until I go the only time I'll be a celebrity if I ever go to my like supermarket shopping and someone says, oh my god, it's Genue. That's a celebrity. You know, Brad Pitt's a celebrity.

Maybe I'm a hobby known if I can go that far, but I'm not a celebrity. And even if I was, like, I don't really like That's one of the biggest compliments someone will tell me is like when you when you tell stories, it's just you tell them. It's not even like you tell bad one, like something like negative happened to you or something positive, Like you keep it real, and I appreciate that. It's not always w's all the time, right, it's real easy, like yeah, I bought a car for ten bucks and sold a four hundred.

And that guy that every story he hits a home run, right. I talk about the strikeouts, the swings and misses, and people appreciate that. I think it's important to know, for people to know, like, hey, you're not gonna you're not gonna bat a thousand. That's okay, that's that comes with ye and the content I listened to.

I appreciate the folks that are the same way that, Hey, man, I made a mistake. Hey I thought I got this and then this happened, and that sort of thing. It means we're human. We don't know everything.

And you know, I've been in the hobby forty years, Brandon and I learned something every day. I don't know everything, and maybe you know someone. Sometimes when I'm on another show tour, they introduced me as like hobby expert John Newman. I always like kind of smile because I don't feel like I'm an expert.

I'm experienced. I have a lot of experience, but I don't I don't believe anyone's an experts. Kind of what I say about golf, I don't think anyone's really good at golf. I think some some tournaments they play really well and they win.

I kind of think like that with with hobbyists, right, so we're just more experienced, where it doesn't mean we're expant. So I always kind of bristle at that, but I mean they're being nice and I appreciate that. But I learned something every day in a minute. I don't learn something every day.

I'm just not paying attention that day. And so you know, I try to stay humble. I think I do most more days than I don't, and I think it's it's a good place to be. And you know, you know, going in the national very approachable pack.

My cell phone numbers on most of my content. If anyone ever wants to call or text right question. I try to be available. And you know, people were available to me when I was a young kid getting in the hobby and helped me.

And I try to pay that whole thing forward even now into my fifties. So that's just the way I was raised and brought up. And I'm not going to change now just because you know a bunch of people listen to the podcast, which I appreciate immensely, I'm not, but it doesn't change who I am. You know, there's no shtick.

I might use funny sound bites or something like that, but it's always be being myself. I appreciate it. I'm sure you're the same way. So I think it goes, it goes along, it goes a long way.

Yeah, definite appreciate that. Yeah, I know, just like you said, it's not always uh, it's not always wins. One thing. You know, I think most content creators have realized, you know, if you're doing it and become you know, I don't want to say popular, but known around the space or whatever.

We talked about all the people that are appreciative and everything, and it doesn't matter how real you are, doesn't matter how honest you are, there's always going to be hater. And I realized that as well. You know you you can be, you can be honest. True, Well listen, not to cut up.

Some people are and it's not fair, but we both know. Listen and people out there listen. I'm sure we'll shake there. Some people will just look at you and make a judgment.

You don't have to say nothing, do anything. They're gonna look at the cover, so to speak, and judge the book and haven't read the book yet, and they're just gonna look at you and there's nothing you can do. And I don't worry, and I guess will sound harsh, but I don't worry about those kinds of people because there's nothing I can do anyway that the verdict is in without a trial, right, They're just they've already looked at you and decided I don't like that guy, or I do like that. I've always felt it takes way less effort to just be who you are as a person, living your life, who you want to be, than it is to try to be something else to please other people.

And if you make the decision to just be yourself, and I've always had his mindset, you're either gonna like me or you don't. And that's not my decision to make, that's yours, and you know your free will to make whatever decision you choose. And that's just how I've always been. And you know you're you're gonna have a handful of people that like it.

You're gonna have a few people that don't like it, and that's just the balance of the world and just human nature. So I don't I don't worry about it. I'm gonna be who I am and just tell it like it is, so no no sense in sugarcoating it. Yeah, well said, And that's a good that's a good way to be, right.

My grandfather said. I was raised by my grandparents, Brandon, and my grandfather told me something when I was real young. It's five six, seven years old, Johnny. If you if you always tell the truth, that you don't have to remember the lie, yep.

And at the time, you know, I'm a little kid, I got it, but I didn't get it as much as when I got older. Right, And even that even applies to content, as far as I'm if, I just when I turned the mic on, whether I'm interviewing or talking to somebody or I'm just doing the show and it's just me and I just tell the truth and be honest. I don't have to remember the story because the story comes from in here and it's what's real, you know. And so maybe when I get older and dementia maybe sets in, I might not remember.

But if you're honest and sincere, you don't have to remember what you say because you said it because you really feel that way. And it's not an act. You're not playing a role in a script. And that's the way I've always been, And you know, it was kind of instilled at me at a very young age, and so I've always tried to be like that.

And like you said, if someone appreciates that and says, hey, I like Newman because he kind of you know. I've had people tell me someone that, you know, we talk about fan mail or feedback. I've had people tell me, like John, I don't agree with this one point you were making about this topic, but I still love you because, like that's how you feel. That's your true opinion.

Like we may not agree on every thing, and some things and something's not, but I know, like you're not just saying it to get clicks or just to grab attention or just play Yang to someone's Yang. You're just being yourself and giving your true opinion. And sometimes I agree with you, sometimes I don't, but I still like you. Even when I don't agree with you.

I like you because I just know you're keeping it real even though we we might get off at a different exit on that particular topic or opinion. And that's one of the best compliments. When someone can say, hey, I don't agree with you, but I still respect you and your opinion. That's one of the biggest compliments you get.

That's a big issue within the hobby, especially in content space, because it's almost like this this need for everybody to be right and their way to be the right way. But the thing that I think people forget is we're literally doing something that is supposed to be a hobby and we're supposed to be able to do it our way. And on top of that, most people are doing it within sports, which we all don't root for the same team, we all don't have the same favorite players, we all don't like the same brand, or wear the same shoes or you know whatever. We all do things differently, So why can't it be that if I and I still remember, and I know we're gonna get into scu but I still remember when I started doing it, and the hounding and the trolls and the you're wasting your money, you're wasting your time, blah blah blah blah blah, And it was like, this is what I like, this is what's working for me, this is what I'm doing.

Why does it matter to you? Like that was the whole thing. It was like, you know, if it's working for me and this is what I enjoy what I'm doing, why do you care? Like so? And that happens a lot, not just with ingrading, but you know. What happens, Listen, it's a it's a it's a symp them of society too. It happened in politics, it happened, and we won't we won't go there.

But I'm saying it's not even just relegated to the hobby it it's really almost in anything. Everyone wants to be right and anyone else that's wrong if you don't agree with them, And it doesn't have to be like that, like you just said, all right, good catching up with Brandon's Bibble's ball cards. We're gonna really get into the weeds with SGC on part two which is next week, and again we have a lot of stuff in common, uh, and we talk about the decision to eliminate the bulk, right and maybe what the future is for SGC. But uh, all right, that's gonna wrap up.

Well, we're gonna hear our hobbies and people announcer the week and some closing thoughts and then could have put a bow tie on this week's episode. But more with Brandon again next week and we get a little more into the weeds about SGC. Time for all the announcer of the week. This is Mike, This baseball card life.

And remember the hobby is the people. If you'd like to be the hobby is the people announcer of the week, Do a or MP three file and send it to Sportscard Nation PC at gmail dot com. So much.