Writing about the Hobby from a Collector's perspective w/ Greg Bates E331

Sports guard Nations Hobbies the People Wheely News and Interviews. It's your number one song. Sports gar Nations hobby is the people. Sports Guardation.

What is up? Everybody? Welcome back to another episode of sportscard Nation, episode three point thirty one to be exact. And I hope at the time of this listening, I hope you are doing well, enjoying the hobby. And we have a great guest as always, or as I always say on the show, mister Greg Bates, who I've gotten to know through you know, our path crossing as writers for Sports Collectors Digest and seeing him at the National and talking to him there. But he writes for many different entities including fanatics, slashtops and others, and some freelance work as well, so very talented rights again for different entities, and a hobbyist besides, and you know, I always say, who better to write about the hobby than someone who's in it.

Right, Sometimes we get these these articles from outside the hobby, and not that they're not good, but sometimes you can tell by the way they're written and how things are worded that the person's not inside the hobby. I'll just be polite like that. And I think you all kind of get the gist of what I'm saying. Nothing wrong with that, it's not illegal, but I think you know, to get the inside scoop to steal an NBA term, it's better to have somebody who's already in the space.

And Greg Bates checks those boxes. So we want to talk about how he hobbies, what he collects, you know, what he writes in his process, and all that fun stuff. So with that being said, we're going to take a quick break and then we'll be on with Greg Bates. 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. Happy to speak with my next guest on the Sports Card Shop guest Line.

We have a few things in common. We both collect cards, and we both write. I don't know how my our collections matchup, but he's a much better writer than I am. I think that's a sainte bet.

So happy to have on Greg Bates easy Fanatics collectible senior writer writes, like me a little bit for sports collectors. I guess some other areas as well. That's why I say he's really good. You never know where his articles are columns you might seem so welcome, Greg, You get the tables turned on you a little bit.

Thanks John. Happy to be on all right. So, like I said, you collect cards. I know, I spoke with you at the last National in Cleveland there kind of where you know, for you, when did a hobby start? How did it all begin for you? I was a junk wax eighties kid, so you know, my height was basically eighty eighty six eighty seven until about ninety two, I was big, big into baseball.

I got into basketball like a little bit, you know, early on in high school and stuff like that. But then I dropped off probably about ninety four or so, so like I had or ninety three baseball. So I found some Jeters, like from thirty years ago that were bricked. That Jeter wasn't Jeter when I was collecting them.

So yeah, I kind of you know, stopped and got back into it probably twenty years later or so, and they've been you know, collecting and writing and stuff with the hobby ever since. What do you see, like what moves your meter? Like you're at a show, whether it be for work or or for for cards. You know, what are you on the hunt for? What kind of peaks your interest? I was growing up, I was a big Twins fan, so I collected a lot of puckets. I was huge in a pucket.

I had over a couple hundred puckets and I was like a you know, a ten year old. You're like, wow, this is a lot of cards in the mid eighties, mid to late eighties, and now I've kind of shifted two more vintage. Just I'm not looking at I want really cool cards, but cards that will like hold some value as well. I'm not into flipping.

I'm not into any of that. But you know, I looked for a I think a fifty two Bowman Mickey Mantles is undervalued, underrated. Obviously it's a second Bowman release card, and the fifty two tops is obviously huge two, but. That's what I thought you were going there for a second, like, oh, we smoked.

So I looked for the fifty two John, a fifty two Bowman for probably a couple of years. I would go on eBay. I wasn't like a you know all I'm gonna go on in the morning, I'm gonna go on in the afternoon and going the night. It was kind of you know, it wasn't this huge hunt, but I wanted to get a nice looking one with great eye appeal, you know, corners that look pretty good, stuff like that.

So I ended up pulling the trigger. Probably it would have been late summer, probably last year. I got a a PSA three and a half which looks really nice. Probably paid a little bit more because the premium on it because it look really nice and everything, But you know, I went for that.

And then then I started thinking, and I'm like, you know what, I'd like to do a run of vintage cards, probably post war from like forty eight ish to nineteen seventy, like my favorite card or sole from each TOPS release, or it could be Bowman, but you know, and I'm gonna kind of do that. I picked up a fifty four Aaron PSA four not too long ago, so I'm kind of piecing together. I'm gonna make a list at some point, you know, and kind of look at my favorite what my favorite cards are from each of those years. And I mean, obviously money's gonna play a factor.

I'd love to get a fifty two tops, but that's not gonna happen. The it's sailed on that, as you know, and probably with you as well, So you gotta be a little selective. Yeah, no doubt. Well listen an Aaron rookie and A four, A three and a half, fifty two bowman.

Man, those are no slouches. Like you're not kicking those. I say this, I'm not kicking those out of bed. So those are two beautiful cards.

And like you said, sometimes I think you'll agree too. I think sometimes we put too much Like I get grading, I do grade cards. I'm a bolk summer. I get the whole aspect.

Sometimes we put too much emphasis on the grade and not the I appeal or what the card actually looks like. You know, Like I got a card over my shoulder here. It's a Jackie Leaf Rookie, that's a one and a half. But anyone that's seen it really up close will tell you it looks much better than the grade.

And I love it. I love it. It's my grab card, and you know, and so sometimes we put too much, like we forget about the I appeal or how the card presents, and I think that's important too. And you know, especially if it's a card, like you said, you're not a flipper.

You're not buying it on Monday to move on Thursday and that sort of. So as long as we're happy with it as as the owners of our cards right at the end of the day, that's that's what it's all about. And the grades will speak when it's time, and that's so fully get And those are those are great cards. You showed me even before.

You don't have to show it or talk about but you showed me another a more minor card that you acquired that's really top of the line and made me a little jealous as well. Yeah, I picked up my first Otani autograph. I'm like, you know, it was right before the season. It was I think it might have been the first day of the Tokyo series, and I thought, he's just his autos are starting to get especially if this is a twenty nineteen tops Chrome update, so it's not a twenty eighteen, but the twenty eighteen ones are they just price you out.

I mean, you're already out you're ten twelve twelve grand for a PSA ten. You know, so I'm like, I like the rookie cup. You know, we like the rookie cup on there. So it's a twenty nineteen.

It's his rookie card. Yeah, orange orange to twenty five. It's a really cool looking card. You know, I kind of deviated from like I said, I don't I don't do a ton of modern but I kind of deviated from my vintage quest.

I guess of forty eight to seventy you know how you're looking And. They're like, well, there's some guys listen. Yeah, there's some guys right you you you'll you'll break the rules for And I don't blame you. He's one in my book.

And the other guy I love is Bobby. With you, I'm more vintage guy too, Greg. But you know when if I if I see a Bobby with Junior, that catches my eye. I've been known to pick those up or buy those.

So, you know, it's nice to have a rule or sort of a criteria. But you know what they say criteria, you can you can there's always a loophole, or you can break a rule every now and then, and I think, you know, I'll stick up for us. I think with O'tani and Wi Junior that those are not bad guys to break a vintage rule on because I think they're they're they're obviously five two ballplayers who I think, are you know, are going two years later. I don't think we'll regret any of those purchases.

So, uh, you know, I think when you look at it like that, that's I'm okay with breaking my vintage rule. And the awesome thing is with Witt obviously as a collector himself, it just makes it ten times. Yeah, that is pretty cool. Yeah.

I just did an email interview with him about a month ago when he when he got on with Collects and did his little partnership. So his agent was really awesome to get through. He's like, he can do an email interview, He's not because this necessarian spring training. Yeah, I'm like, that's perfect, let's do it, you know.

And he was awesome in answering the questions and just talking about his PC and everything else and why he wanted to get into you know, the card industry with his own money. So yeah, it was cool. When an email interview, I think I know the answered to this, but I'm not one hundred percent. So you'll you'll you'll email like the question you want and they'll just kind of take each one of those and then type, like have a type response for it.

Is that. Yeah, I sent him, like, I sent his agent like, I don't know, seven or eight questions. Yeah, yeah, and he emailed back and he would you know, each question was he probably responded with three three sentences each or so, you know, it was good, it was good content. I ended up using a lot of it.

But yeah, I'm not a huge email interview fan because you can't really ask follow ups, especially for like athlete. You know, I emailed I did an email interview with JJ Watt a number of years ago, and you couldn't. You know, you can't follow up. That's the tough thing.

So so it's one email to them or they're they're representative, and then one comes back with the answers to those to those questions, and that's it. Yeah, well listen along. If they give definitive answers, and I mean, that's that's half the battle. So it's better than than no interview, as you probably will well no, so yeah, speaking of you know, speaking of writing, you know, was that something even the younger Greg Bates, was that always something that you did or were into? In other words, like I wrote for my school newspaper.

I don't know how good or bad I was. I wouldn't say I even loved it. I just did it because I was kind of asked to do it. My writing kind of my fondness for writing grew as as I did as I got older.

I'd say, but for you, was it something from an early age you really had a love or a passion for or not necessarily. It kind of I like to write. I went to college at Saint Called State, and they were I was in communications. I was going to do public relations and advertising.

Didn't all necessarily want to go. And I always loved sports. I always want to do, you know. I'd always thought about, you know, sports pr for a you know, NFL team or or NBA or something like that.

But then I got into I did clubs and stuff for and I got an advertising populations emphasis when I graduated, and stuff, and then you know, I was looking for jobs and everything. And there was a newspaper job opening for a graphic designer at the town that I grew up in. In Minnesota. So I ended up taking that on for like twenty hours, and then they were looking for some like some sports writer, help covering games stuff like that.

I wasn't big into graphic design stuff like I knew like newspapers were really cool and I love that, so I transitioned into writing then and then that stuck from so I've been I was in started newspapers in two thousand and one and then you know, I've been writing ever since essentially just for publications, newspapers, online, you know, everything else. So yeah, it kind of once I got the bug, I guess, you know, I started doing it all the time, and that's what it became. But it wasn't necessarily I knew I want to do sports, sports type writing, I guess, but journalism per se maybe wasn't exactly you know what I thought right away. So but that's what it turned into, and it's it's been a lot of fun.

Yeah, I completely get that you're very good. I obviously read most of your stuff and you're very good at It's. Time for a quick brik thoughts will be right. Hi.

I'm Isaac Calpert, a longtime card collector. I'm the co founder of the Penny sleep My wife and I started the Penny Sleeper with a simple premise in mind to offer collectors top quality supplies at fair prices. We offer a full range of hobby supplies, and we'll get them to you fast. Whether you're looking for a two hundred and sixty point magnetic for that oversized hatch card or a slew of semi rigids for your next PSA submission, The Penny Sleever has you covered.

Shop now at the Pennysleever dot com and use the promo code sc nation to get off your first order. That's sc nation for ten percent off at the Penny Sleeper dot com. The Penny Sleeper top quality supplies, fair prices. We back.

Has the writing affected how you collect? Or even the other way around? Like what you collect affect your writing? Or are they kind of two separate entities in themselves that are sort of true leaks school? How would you answer a question like that. I'll tell you a funny story. So I used to do every year for Sports Collector's Digest before I went over to Fanatics. I'm still doing some SED stuff, but I would do every year going into spring training.

I would do like prospects to watch, and I would talk to a couple shop owners in Florida, and I was always talked to Lance Fisher, who is the president founder of on Ex baseball cards. It's just a great guy who anybody who's met him. They put out great cards just I mean they're so small, but he just what he does and everything, he's such a passion for it. So I would talk to him, and he used to be a Florida State football recruiter, so that's how he got into And the guy knows people and he got into that got into cards, so he knows you know.

He would go to he goes down to you know wherever and checks out all these prospects and gets to know these processes. He knew, you know, Wander Franco's name when Wander was probably a fourteen years old, and and other guys. So I would talk to Lance every year kind of late February early March leading into the year, and he would kind of break down who he was, you know, looking at every year as you know, we'd kind of look at the top one hundred prospect lists and he'd be like, you know, I love this guy. He should be moved up higher, this guy, this guy, And in twenty nineteen, I think it was he I said, can you give me a name? Because he's really good at this, can you give me a name out of the top one fifty people probably haven't heard of, but they're gonna know who he is in a couple of years.

And He's like, there's this I don't know, sixteen seventeen year old named Julio Rodriguez, not in the top one fifty. You know he's gonna be the number one prospect in a couple of years. So then, you know, I kind of looked. I went on eBay after that and it was, you know, he had his first Bowman Chrome twenty nineteen, so I looked, I'm like, well, I'm gonna take Lance's word for it.

So I ended up pulling the trigger. I bought it. It was unnumbered, but it was his auto Bowman Chrome auto for two hundred and fifty bucks. And when he went up, when he was called up a couple of years ago, those shot up to like three grand each.

I didn't sell, which I could have and made a nice profit, but I'm like, I'm gonna hold onto these. I think they're probably down to I don't know, twelve hundred bucks maybe now twelve to fifteen, I suppose. But just like he called that when this kid was sixteen, seventeen years old because he knew the makeup of these kids. He's like, Julio is gonna be the He's going to be the face of the Mariners, you know, and and and what Lance, What Lance is telling me? I'm just like, he's so believable because he's had such luck with you know, these players and stuff, and he he's really good at you know, finding these young guys and getting autos.

I think he was the first to have like Julio ottos. He was the first company to have Wander Franco and all these guys that people haven't heard of because they're sixteen years old before you know, Tops even dives in there or Panini or Lee for anybody. So it was pretty cool. Yeah, Lance has been on the show.

He like you said, you you profiled him, like perfectly knows this stuff smart kind of can you know, I know it sounds weird, but almost read the DNA and kind of see that guy before they pop. And he was right, you know with Julio and and you know, they may be down a little bit, but he he's got a lot. He's a five you know, we talk about five two guys tonight. He's he fits that bill too, and uh he's still very young, and uh he is right now.

I say he's probably the face of the Mariners, and uh, they're their best players. So I don't think you're you know, by holding. I don't think they're gonna go down anymore if any go back right back up. So he's down with a couple of injuries here and there, a little nagging stuff, nothing nothing of the Mike Trout variety.

Uh if you will, but uh yeah, I don't. I think you'll be all right there. But yeah, that's uh that I love that story, right because there's like, hey, I'm just picking this guy's brain for this piece. And uh now we now we've got that light bulb uh turns on and and you know, I've I've had people not named Lance Fisher, you know Newman look at this, or hey, let me let me tell you about this guy.

Sometimes you know, sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong. Sometimes you know, I do a little prospecting, not so much in recent years, but I used to do a lot more. And sometimes you know. I used to say, if I can be right six out of ten times, I'll take that.

Uh that's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, I'll take that. When you go five, when you get five hits and five misses or even worse, then you might come out on the short end of the stick. You know, we talked about interviews email.

You know you even do if you have to via email, you know most This is something I get asked every once in a while from when I do my Q and A type things for hobby quickets, and sometimes people will or even in person, someone will ask me John and if you can't say down the air, but what was like your most contentious interview, who was it? Or if you can't say, just kind of hit around or what happened? And I really don't have one. I've talked about it out. He's not a secret for me. Brian Gray.

I kind of called him out on some stuff that wasn't very becoming of a CEO at the time. I wouldn't say it was contentious, but it wasn't the most you know, friendliest of any interviews. If you will, I mean, for you, do you have one that kind of sticks out? And what you can share if you don't want to mention the name, and that's completely understandable. Yeah, it was probably six or seven years ago.

I was working on a story for SCD and I was calling out I don't remember what it was for, but I was calling out just in California shops. And I called this random California shop and said, Hi, this is who I am. I'm working on story for Sports Selectors Digests blah blah blah blah blah. And I just said, I'd like to you.

Would you have time to talk and stuff? And he, this shop owner, made the biggest deal that he wanted me like to like send him credentials, like he thought I was lying about calling for Sports Collector's Digist or like, you know, a publication, Like why would I lie about this? It wasn't. It was just a normal story too, And it wasn't like you know, it was so crazy. And I talked to him for a few minutes. I'm just like, this is ridiculous.

So I hung up and I made a note in my planner like bad talker, don't ever call this guy, wrote his name down, wrote the wrote the shop name down. I'm like, don't ever call that number again. And it's just like you know, and I'll write down really good you know, people who are really good to talk to, really good shop owners and stuff, and I'll talk to them on a consistent basis for stories and stuff. But that guy, just like, what did I have to win by by lying about who I was? You? I need to see your your badge, your badge, your badge number, your driver's license.

And yeah, that's that's a Let me ask you this. You don't have to mention him. Do you know, like are they still operational? Do they still are just still open? Oh? I checked and I still have it written out? Who it is? Sure? All right to me? That one? That's yeah, it's fun and listen even if like so you know what I mean, you you provide all that, which is an odd request. Like you said, it doesn't mean you like will write good or bad Like you could still write a bad review or or not be flattering.

It has nothing to do with the credentials themselves, right, I mean, all writers can can write a a nice piece about somebody or something, or they can if the facts tell otherwise, they'll they'll they'll see what the truth is, and it is what it is, like the credentials itself, you know, really doesn't doesn't sway that either way. You know, it's what the writer is gonna write, you know what I mean, whether your your licensed or unlicensed, it is. It is what it is. But maybe that was yeah, go ahead.

And most shop owners john are really happy these days because they know it's good publicity. It's your name is out there, your business is out there. It's like you know, most places when I call and say hey, I work for Tops, they're like, oh my gosh, that's awesome. You know, where are we going to be seen? And they get it like it's for epublicity, like you said, you know, and you usually don't have an issue, and they're more than happy.

And most owners are exceptional about wanting to talk and take that time because they know it's important. The only thing without knowing who it is or any of the other details like maybe maybe he just didn't want to do it, and rather than just be honest and say hey, I'm not interested, that was his way of like getting out, Like some people have a hard time saying no directly, and that was the way of saying no without say you know, I'm just trying. You might have gotten he might have gotten burned by an interview once. You never know.

Yeah, yeah, that's that's something. But yeah, you never know. Uh, you know. I get asked even on this show, you know, and I'm very open with this.

I'm not maybe not gonna mention everybody, but there's people I asked to come on that just you know, will either politely decline or not even not even decline, just won't respond to a request. That's actually probably the more common way of you know, whether a publicist does it forward it they don't see it themselves, you know. Sometimes it's just like crickets, you know, and that that comes with the territory. I don't One thing I've learned, you know, doing this six years now is like not to take any of that stuff too personal.

The only time I'll take some personal if someone says something negative. Even then like as long as they use some tact you know what I mean, Like, hey, I don't agree with what you said here John or on this, that's fine because they're both opinions. No one's really wrong. We can only be wrong or right on facts.

Opinions are our our own. So I've learned not to take stuff too personal, especially if it's not made person. Some people I think are better at it than others, and I just think it one of those things. Over over years, I've kind of gotten better at like that.

But you know, sometimes you know someone you might want them to come on a show, you might want them to do an interview for colum an article, and they just don't have that same want or desire, and it is what it is. And I've had Listen, I've had people, I'm sure this this might ring true with you too, Greg, I've had people say no and eventually they've come on for whatever whatever reason. No wasn't a permanent no, it was just no at that time of asking. So that's why you never really that's why I try not to even burn a bridge, because it may be a no in the moment, but you know a month later, six months later, year later, or even longer, like hey mcgreen to come on or or do just a you know, an interview for like a written much like you do.

So you never know. No, it's just a two letter a two letter word in the moment, right, They can always you know, always change. But you know, you do a little travel for what you do. But I mean, as a collector too.

You go to the shows. We've seen the National this year kind of change leadership. You've been to more than one Nationals. You've seen it in different you know, to you, is the National like your favorite show? Or even on a local level? Do you you know how many shows would you say you get to a year with the National? I mean I do a few local shows a year, and then the National is always the one.

You know, that's it's the one stop shop, right you can get anything that you want, Like like John Brose, you used to tell me, if you you know, if there's something you want and you can't find at the National, it doesn't exist, and which is so true. It's it's gotten a little crazy the last few years with the crowds and and just everything else. And just Cleveland was a little rough, you know, some areas and stuff like that. It Chicago's my favorite.

It's three hours dry for me. You know, it doesn't take you know, a whole day to fly there. Stuff like that. Atlantic City was not ideal.

So and I and I know dealers, you know, love Chicago because it's in and out a lot easier for them. You know, you always get the people on the on the West coast, saying, hey, come back to Anaheim, come back over here, come back to that. But you know, Chicago's that central location that works really well. Yeah, I've been to the last boy, I think the last one I missed was twenty eighteen? Was that? Like, was that.

Twenty eighteen Chicago? I believe? Oh? No, twenty nine was twenty nineteen Atlantic City? Then? Yeah, now that I missed, well, Atlantic City the one Atlantic City one was canceled with with COVID, right, and it didn't look like they were gonna go. Maybe it was Cleveland in nineteen yeah whatever, right, yeah, yeah, so I'd lose the track to all so I went. I went to fifteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, and then this year, so I need that's eight or something, so eight out of the last nine or something like nine or ten. So yeah, it's always I love the National just because you know, I ran It's it's so crazy because there's so many people there.

But I literally ran into you last year, right. Yeah, it was more than once. Once. It's crazy, like there's one hundred thousand people there and you run into people like.

Yeah, and trying to find and then you try to find somebody and then you can't, and then you change a message after the show like hey man, I missed you. Sorry we didn't, you know, Like so it's it's you never know, it's it's it's it's it's funny. And you know, I always tell people like make a if you know, make a like a rendezvous, like hey, I'll meet you at three o'clock in front of this, you know, food truck whatever, whatever landmark you want to use. Otherwise sometimes it may not happen, or it just like you just said, it'll happen by happenstance, just be one of those spots, you know, spontananeous things like you just I think we saw each other three or four times, to the point where we had talked so much.

We just kind of waved having a good day, you know. Yeah, So it's it's it's just yeah, it's odd how that works. And then someone else do you you're trying to look for fine and you're like, man, where is this person? So you know, it's like it's like where's Waldo? Awesome having Greg jump in, having the tables turned a little bit. Usually he's the one asking the questions and now he became the one answering it.

But I've gotten to know him. Really good guy, big music fan like me, So a lot of times when we meet up, we'll wind up talking about music more than sports or the hobby, but now we talk about everything. And so hope you enjoyed the conversation. I know I did, and we're not done yet and we were back for part two of our conversation on next episode.

So with that being said, we're gonna hear from our hobbies, the people Announcer of the week, and some closing thoughts to wrap up this week's episode. Time for a hobby is the people Announcer of the Weak. This is Zach Bern, one of many hobbyists who returned during COVID. Thanks to John for steering me in the right direction.

And remember the hobby is the people. If you'd like to be the hobby is the people Announcer of the Weak. To have one four MP three file and send it to Sportscott Nation PC at gmail dot com. Iron Sports Cards is your number one source for all your PSA and other grading submissions.

Their elite status improves turnaround times. Heck, they even provide the card savers. Their chat rooms provide updates on all your submissions. They also offer wax options and single cards to cover all the bases.

Check them out on Facebook at Iron Sportscards Group, or on the web parent Sportscards dot com, or even give them a call at one eight seven seven Iron PSA rob's got you covered. For nearly fifty years, Sports Collector's Digest has been the voice of the hobby, bringing you comprehensive coverage of the sports collectible industry from industry news, auction results, market analysis, and in depth stories about collectors and their collections. Sports Collector's Digest has everything you need to know about the hobby. SCD is also your leading source for listings of sports collectible dealers, card shops, card shows, and the latest from the industry's talk companies.