"Hobby Money" Hobby Quick Hits E234

0:01 Hobby, not Quick Hits, delivering that breaking hobby. News directly loads. You want to know those hot joshat hardshap shafter you've got your copy. Here hosts John new Name h Right, folks, welcome to episode two thirty four of Hobby Quick Hits. As we approach the national here, I hope to see many of you at the Nashrope. You see me, come shake a hand, say hello. I love to meet as many of you as I can. Right. Like our our flagship show, right Sports Carnation, our tagline is the Hobby is the People. So it's not just words to me, it's it's mantra. So with that being said, this episode is titled Hobby Money, and I just wanted to do an episode kind of where we talk about some of the things I've observed over specially over the last few years, about what I've seen in the hobby and financial stuff.

1:22 And you know, whether you know, you have to see whether you agree with me. Did I am I right? Am I wrong? I always appreciate that feedback. Uh. So that's what today's episode is going to be about. Not gonna be long, it's Hobby Quick Hits, So we're gonna kind of tackle it and be done with it at least at this time. But so thanks everybody out there. Hope to see some of you very soon. Let's start the show. Okay, now, a quick word from our great sponsor, followed by the new product release schedule. Then we'll go around the hobby verse to tell you all the latest hobby happenings and news. Then we'll tackle today's topic of discussion. Hi, this is Pat.

2:06 Hughes, Cubs announcer, coming to you from the Sports Card Shop in beautiful New Buffalo, Michigan. The Gocher family has built an incredible place here for collectors to buy, sell, and trade cards and memorabilia. Be sure to stop buy and let them show you around the Sportscardshop dot com, connecting sports athletes, the hobby and collectors around the world. Hi, this is Alan Pinkett and I'm here to tell you the Gocher family has done it again. They've just opened up the Sport Card Shop in downtown Valparaiso, Indiana, and it is awesome. If you're a collector, you need to check this place out. Tell them Alan sent you, and get a free gift on your first visit.

2:58 All right, let's go over the product release schedule. Let's for the next two weeks, Starting with July twenty ninth, we have twenty twenty six Panini Contenders PFL, twenty twenty six Tops Tribute Baseball, twenty twenty six Upper Deck Artifacts Golf, twenty five Slash twenty six, Upper Deck Fleer Ultra PWHL twenty five Slash twenty six Upper Deck Ice Hockey. Going to the thirtieth, we have twenty twenty five twenty six Top Shuwi for club Competition's inception Soccer Soccer not as easy to say as you think. Going to end of the month July thirty first, twenty five twenty six Panini Prison Basketball, twenty six Pro Set Metal Football, Hobby and Jumbos, Pokemon Mega Revolution Pitch Black Building Battle decks, and twenty twenty five Tops Resurgence Football blasters, the Lights, Hobbies and megas.

4:12 Let's go to August. August fifth, we have the twenty twenty six TOPS Chrome Baseball, the megas, also Tops Chrome Update series Basketball blasters, the Light Jumbo Hobby megas. The seventh, we have twenty twenty six Leaf Seasons in the Sun Baseball. Also August seventh, we have twenty twenty six on Ex Track and Field Trading Cards, twenty five Slash, twenty six, Pannini Revolution K Soccer, twenty twenty six Wild Cards, Splat Summer Splash Baseball, Pokemon First Partner Illustration Collection Series three, Yugi Oh Legendary Arc V Deck. Also on August seventh of our deck Platinum DC Trading Cards. And that's your your rundown for the next two weeks. As I always say, uh, happy, happy ripping. Choose your weapon, happy ripping. All right and no, okay, So again, like I said the intro, I'm just going to share some of the observations that I've noticed, you know, in the hobby, whether it be in person, online, as a show dealer, as a show customer, as a content creator, the whole the whole ball of wax. Just things I've

5:46 observed and sort of I don't want to say put the puzzle together, but sort of, you know, connecting the dots if you will. One of the negative things I've noticed. Maybe it's not as new as I'm trying to make it out to be, but I think we're starting to see sort of and I don't like it. I'm not you know, excited about. It's not something I like to see, but I think we've seen like a caste system sort of develop right where we have the higher end of the hobby, which is the smallest percentage, truth be told, sort of look down at anyone that's not in that space rather than look at it as we're all under the same umbrella. We're all under the same fraternity. Sure, one person that might have more discretionary income than another, right, but instead of like supporting each other's hobby, it's sort of become sort of a flex fest, especially on that higher end, and a lookdown fest when someone that's not in that upper space, you know, post something or does something in the hobby. We've seen sort of a divide.

7:06 And even though that that top space or that top cast level is smaller, it still it still exists that riff and it's disappointing because I tried to whether someone will regardless of what level of collecting you're at, right, I view everyone as we're all in this fraternity fraternity together. We may go to different colleges, but our fraternity is the same. But unfortunately, I don't think a lot of people view it the same way. It's become sort of a competition to be better than somebody rather than to just enjoy cards in your own way and support other people who enjoy cards in their own way. I think it's become a flex fest. I think that's even on the content creation side. So that's one thing I've noticed.

8:06 And again maybe maybe it's not new, but it seems to have really gotten worse. Maybe that's the way to phrase it. Investing over collecting. You know, I got in again. Sounded like a broken record here, but I got in the hobby as a seven year old kid in nineteen seventy nine, and I just wanted to get as many cards as I could get. I didn't care about the values or what they're worth, you know, I put rubber bands around them, true confessions, And for me, it was about the love and passion of at the time baseball cards. And you know, as obviously I get older, and that really hasn't changed now. Obviously I do content creation. I did my first show at fifteen, so I don't want to you know, I'm not trying to be hypocritical with the financial aspect, but it was it's not It was the driving force then for me and even today, even though I'm a show dealer and sell online, it's still not the driving force today. It's you know, if if the financial aspect on the way, I'd still be collecting cards, I'd still be doing content creation. But I think for some it's just about you know, it is just about the dollar signs and money. There's no attachment to cards.

9:32 There's no nostalgia for certain people. There's no story that hey, my mom or dad, or my grandpa or my cousin or my buddy got me in the hobby. It's just strictly I'm gonna buy this for a hundred bucks and sell it for three hundred and that's the only attachment. And I remember at last year's National going downstairs in Rose at the Donald Stevens Convention Center, and there was you know, all the tables and trade nights and just walking around. Not a trade night guy per se. When I was walking around, kind of taking in the moments and just hearing some people, and it was a lot of younger people, but I even heard I don't want to like just make it out to be a younger collector or younger hobbyist deal I heard some older folks too.

10:22 The cards were just vessels to financial you know. I heard people say things like, yeah, I got this an hour ago, I could let it go for this, or if you wanted to, I'll take these two, if you wanted to take this. They were just strictly monetary items. There was no PC or you know, and that sort of thing. And again, to each their own, but I think we've really lost a good high percentage of people who you know, I don't want to say high percentage, but we've lost a little bit of that nostout and why that we're in the hobby, if you will, and you know, it's sort of disappointing, but again it doesn't you know, and that let me say this too as well. Right, rather you like that or you don't care, you do care. Right, at the end of the day, you control what you want to collect, how you want to collect, and that's again that's the beauty of collecting is you're your own CEO, right to whatever direction you want to go, and those folks really shouldn't affect you other than maybe having an opinion on it. You know, let's talk about the breaking aspect.

11:40 You know, we're going to do an episode on breakers coming up. I believe it. I don't know if it'll be the next one, but it'll be very soon. But we've seen you know, breaking, which I've always said, as you know, at the time, saved the wax industry. Right. We went from a time where products were collecting dust sometimes on shelves, certain products, and now everything sells out. You know, you can make a product that sells, you know, corn hole players on it. Someone's gonna buy it. Someone's gonna buy into a break. There's nothing that doesn't sell.

12:20 And you know, I think you know it's it's I think certain breakers, like any part of the Harby right, do it the right way, price it the right way, and then others are just see dollar signs and it's just about maximizing ROI not about building community and that sort of thing. And I think it's it's sort of fed into that flipper mentality. I'm gonna buy into this break at hopefully a low price, hit something big and then turn just sell the car. It's like day trading. And again not me, uh, but you know, it's definitely a huge part of the hobby in and a huge part of the money and a huge part of why fanatics slash tops and other manufacturers are doing so well.

13:14 It's it's the breaking part of the industry. And so for those breakers that are doing it the right way, kudos to you. For the greedy, ah un moral or in moral if you will, uh, you know that's that's on you and and you know that's it's too bad. I guess I'll say, let's talk about price manipulation. This is something there's two sides of the argument. People say it's it doesn't happen, and other people say it's happening. I'm a it's happening part of the camp. I think we're seeing people, uh you know, band together, if you will, or work together to try to set pricing, obviously at a higher price to maximize their earnings. Whether that's through shill bidding, whether that's on bidding on a card even with no intention to buy it, just so it looks like it sold for a price level. I firmly believe that is going on, and I think a lot of people who follow the hobby pretty closely. I think the high percentage of those people will tell you one hundred percent is going on. It's hard to how do you stop it? I think it just comes to people saying I'm not going to do that or I'm not going to participate, but you know, we got to have everyone

14:46 doing that, and that's never probably gonna happen, So I don't think it ever goes away. I think you just have to know, you know, if you're in the market to buy a card, I think you just have to have a budget. And if it works out where you can acquire a card you're looking for, you know, great, But if it doesn't, you know, don't overpay for it, and just be wary that some of these techniques and practices are going on to raise the prices of certain cards, maybe even certain players. Right see, you got to just be aware about it, be smart, hopefully not participate in that. You know. You know, I've done a show benning episodes.

15:28 I don't want to rehash that, but I've been asked to like bid on somebody's card to drive the price up, and I just I just won't do it. And I'm sure they weren't happy with my answer, but I'm just not going to just not going to do that. I'm not going, you know, I feel it's a problem. I'm not going to contribute to something that I feel is a problem. Another thing I get from people who correspond with the show, whether that's via text or PM or DM or email, is you know, someone saying, man, you know, my son or daughter like priced out of the hobby.

16:09 This stuff is just so expensive. They look they want to participate in the hobby, but it's just like just stuff so expensive. It's becoming very difficult. And my answer, you know, to to those correspondence is like, you know, I know it is tough. I get it, but there are ways to you know, for a son or daughter or anybody. I don't want to make it up just to be a kid's thing, but anybody can be priced out of the hobby, including adults. So how do you combat that? Right? But it's still ways to enjoy the hobby, right, you know, if you're going to a show, go to those dollar boxes, those those bargain boxes. You be amazed what you finding those. I do them at my own and I've had cards, you know, that are turned out to be come out to be forty to fifty dollars cards.

17:06 Someone will actually find them in my dollar box and in some cases they're like can you still sell this? Like this card's like works a lot more. I'm like, hey, good for you for finding it. You know, you reap the you know you did the work, you get it for a dollar. So go through those bargain boxes and you'd be surprised what you can find. Trade, right, if you know the whole hobbies, not just you know, cash money, right, make some trades with people. So maybe you can't afford a card cash wise, but you have some existing inventory that someone who has the card you're trying to get would rather have, and both sides can be happy with a potential trade. Right. So it doesn't always have to be transactional with currency, right, It can be transactional with cards for cards, So trading, hitting the bargain bins, you know, maybe going to some lesser known auction houses and maybe picking up some deals potentially that way, there are ways, you know, if you want to put in a little of work, there are ways to still enjoy the hobby and be you know, financially and fiscally responsible and save some money. Another thing, well, you know we've seen more so maybe COVID has something to do with this, But again I don't think it's just since COVID. I just

18:37 think it's gotten worse since the COVID crescendo, Right, is that flipper mentality again, going back to the non attachment to any cards, just the cards just represent dollar signs, like this card is fifty dollars, this card's one thousand dollars. Not this this player means a lot to me? Or hey do you see what this guy did this week in the league, and that sort of thing. So you know, there's all And again that's not relegated to just the card hobby. That could be real estate, right. We see shows where people buy beat up houses, demo them and then rebuild them and then just you know, to make a problem. It's a business's a legitimate business. So I'm not it's it is legitimate. It's not like anything illegal.

19:32 It's just not the way I hobby. And again, to each their own, I'm just saying it's it's to me, it's escalated, you know. And someone asked me a question, you think there's more flippers than collectors. I still say there's more collectors than flippers. But I will say this, the flipping population is growing, but so is the collector. Hopefully so's the collector of population as well. I'm gonna climb a clothes. On one more topic, right, credit cards and the hobby. And you might be hearing that right now, scratching your head, like credit cards in the hobby. You know, credit cards are a great tool. I have them, so I'm not gonna be a hypocrite. I have multiple, right, I have joint ones with my wife. I have some that are my own in my own for my business side of the hobby. And it's an easy pratfall to go down to. You know, we know credit cards easy.

20:32 You just put it in the machine or tap to pay, and you get an item and it's yours, and you don't feel like you bought it because no money. You didn't pull money out of your wallet or money out of your account, and now you're taking an item with you and then that bill comes. Right, It's an easy prat fall to fall into. And I've already told the story, but for those that don't know, during my heyday in probably the two thousand's, early two thousands, I was opening you know a lot of whacks and running up, you know, putting it. Sometimes I would pay cash or pay it in full. An other time I just charge and say, well, I'll just pay off my credit card whenever. And one day I opened the mail and that credit card bill was ten k and I kid you, not one credit card, which is what I use. I didn't have a bunch of them where I had big bills, but I maxed out that card I think at the time, at like ten thousand dollars. And I'm like, holy smoked, I didn't even realize. It kind of just happened and snuck up on me. And that's a really bad feeling. It's kind of scary. And I was also early in my marriage, and I'm like, I can't. I got to put a stop to this. And so I did eventually pay that credit card off. I stopped adding to it. And it took a few years to pay off that credit card

22:04 bill and get back to baseline and zero. And it taught me a very expensive lesson, right to be more wary of what you're doing and how you're doing it. And it hasn't happened again, and it will not happen again. Matter of fact, at the time of this recording, I have a zero balance on my credit cards, and I'll even go outside having say I have a very close to zero balance even on my joint of cards with my wife where we went to dinner the other night. We were talking about finances and my wife does you know, to her credit does a lot of the household finances and bills and that sort of thing. And she pointed out, hey, you know, we're very close to having our credit cards be at zero, which is a really great feeling. And even with my personal credit cards they are at zero.

23:03 So that's a good place to be. It allows you a little more discretionary income to take vacations with my family, do card stuff solo. And that's where I'm out. And I will say this, and you know you're seeing a lot. You know, I talked about we let off sort of with the flexing with some of that higher echelon. You know, if you will the two percenters that are you know, the high rollers of the hobby, and you'd be surprised. And I know this factually that a good percentage of those folks are paying for some of these big transactions with credit cards. And I'm not even talking just one but multiple. I know some folks are taking out financial loans against their credit card with the purpose like I'll pay it back and then we forget about the interest payments, right you know, that's how the credit cards companies make money. Right.

24:04 They don't make money if you just pay off your balance in full right away. They make money on the interest payments. They don't really want you necessarily to payoff those cards. And I know there's certain folks that are buying these big time cards on credit, and again that's their business. I'm not trying to but as someone who just told you ran up to ten thousand, and I'll tell you some of these other folks, it's more than the ten thousand. It's multiple cards at ten thousand or even more to acquire something to post and kind of flex it. And they don't realize that rabbit hole they might be going down that could lead to some financial trouble.

24:52 I don't want to say room pretending, but potentially that's always a risk, right. You know, I've heard people have to claim bankruptcy. When you claim bankruptcy, right, you don't get to keep your stuff. You have to generally sell it to try to recoup as many of the funds that you owe when you claim bankruptcy. So I'm not saying that's going to happen in every situation, but I think you're going to start to hear more about people getting into, you know, financial troubles, you know, if they admit it, if they make it public, which you know, I don't know if who will or how many people will be honest about that, least outwardly, you know, maybe internally or with family or spouse, but I think there's going to be and I think some people are already ready there right where they're getting those bills in the mails and you know, getting that sticker shock, like, oh my god, now I got to pay start paying these back.

25:53 And you know, when you have multiple of them, there's a minimum balance to and I've heard of situations where people can't even make when you add them all up. They can't even make the minimum balances on multiple cards. So I guess when it comes to you know, money and the hobby, just you know, be fiscally responsible. Know what that what could potentially happen, And obviously you want to avoid that for yourself. And if you have a family and married, you know that will be a hard one to explain to a spouse if you secretly ran up a six figure multiple credit card line, that that could be a that could lead to more problems than just financial that can lead to, uh, you know, some some problems on the home front. So just wanted to share some some observations, if you're will things I've noticed, things I know to be occurring, uh and just shed some light on it. So with that being said, we're going to wrap up this episode of Hobby quick at.

27:00 I appreciate all of you, hope to see some of you here at the National this week, and thanks everybody. We'll see you soon.