This is a monologue episode about my ever evolving thoughts on the megabid/shill bid situation from Rob G., the Sports Card Therapist and the early stages of grief, or at least in this case, hobby grief.

What does 10X-ing The Hobby mean?  Is it the number of cards, corporate profits, number of participants, or something else altogether?  I bring on the pod someone who was in The Hobby as a kid, but never came back into The Hobby, even during the pandemic.  My very special guest, TK, is my friend from outside The Hobby and I wanted to have a candid discussion with him about The Hobby in this experimental bonus episode.  Because if 10X-ing The Hobby means having ten times the number of Hobby participants, then Fanatics will have to do their best to court people like TK.

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 talk about his service in the military, how serving in the military helps him in The Hobby, especially setting up as a dealer.  We discuss a deal we made that I alluded to in Episode 48, and how it is sometimes hard to make deals with friends.  We even talk about whether he gives a military discount when he sets up as a dealer!  Thank you Alex for your service, and thank you again to all those who served.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/gdWv3l47fRU

“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 Therapist, Rob Girard, was technically the first 2-time guest. =)

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 with fellow creators, meeting and interviewing athletes for the first time ever. Just an overall fun experience that I am grateful for having had!

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 develop a network and relationships as a dealer, and how he came across being a dealer at his very first National this past July.  We wrap up talking about the strangest place he ever made a deal and also the 1977 Star Wars Series 1 set.  We could not open a pack of those cards because he was holding his laptop looking for a good wifi signal though, so apologies for the technical difficulties and slight delay in the questions and answers!

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/uE49zuGL6TM

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, check out Cage Lawyer’s Luka Tigers Lebron Episode 953 from March 28, 2023, called “Is breaking just an unlicensed casino?”  Let me know what you think, because I doubt that this is the last time I talk about this subject and this concept of The Hobby as a casino…..

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 episode, the first being a recording just before hitting the road on my way to the show and then the second being a recording just before going into the show.

Topics discussed in Part 1:

My love for creating content

Table equity

Hobby time and balance

Plan for the show

Media Access Badge

Topics discussed in Part II:

Podcasts I listened to on my drive

Limitations with doing only short form content

Showing Cards (which I understand won’t translate well into audio only)

Thanks for taking a listen! - Denny

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 get their CEO to be the one to do the demo with you, but along the way, you might learn how helpful Mascot is for inventory management and quicker selling on multiple online platforms, all for free.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/wcRyEGXnoXM