1552 - Father/Son: Graig Miller, Mid-Life, and father Michael, Part 2

Foreign. Welcome, Dr. James Beckett. Sports Card Insights. Another Father's Day episode. Thanks sponsors Beckett Media, Beckett Grading, beckett authentication comp. C.com, burbank sports cards, Mike Stadium Sports Cards, Heritage Auctions, Hugs and Scott Auctions, Upper Deck, Topps and Panini. I did Greg Miller midlife cards and his dad Michael, and we had a great time. Two part without further ado, here it is. And thanks, Millers. Let me tell you part of my collecting love. I remember going on field trips as a kid and we'd go to a museum and there'd be an artifact there. We live in gold country, where the gold rush all took place is right where we live. You'd go to these museums and you'd see, this is the nugget that John Marshall pulled out and said, eureka. I saw that nugget. It's not that big of a nugget, by the way. And seeing that connection to this artifact, it always blew my mind. And I was always amazed that some of these things still exist. And one of the reasons I like the really old stuff is you think about the journey that card took. Like when I have an 1888 N76 Thomas Edison card, someone who was in the Civil War may be the person who pulled this out of a pack of tobacco, and now it's in my hands, in my home. That journey of the card is such a big part of it for me. I love beauty, I love photography, I love Ansel Adams. I love cards and objects that are beautiful. But I also like artifacts and so the pre war stuff and the turn of the century stuff. I bought some cards of some stage actors the other day. I don't know who any of them are, but I was at a show and they were like three bucks each, and they were early 1900s cards. And I'm like, I have to own these. I have to have that. How do they still look that nice? So that's a big part of the hobby for me. I'm buying artifacts that are part of pop culture. And Thomas Edison, for example, he was a superstar when he was like 35 years old. He was it. And owning the guy, that was it at that time is really amazing to me. And it's something I just absolutely find love in with my dad being a Golden Era collector. That's his lane. My dad was a superstar tennis player, so I wasn't going to play tennis. I had to find my own thing. My brother, he got heavy into musical theater. He wasn't going to try to compete with me with sports. It Was like, instead of competing with each other, we let them have their thing and then we find our lane. Because there are a lot of lanes out there. There's no reason I have to collect what my dad is collecting. I'll find a different lane. What I'm trying to say is, Michael, I totally get his lane, okay? I don't even think you have a lane. You don't want to even have guardrails. You're pushing the boundaries by going where other people are not going. You're off track in a good way, in the best way. When you share your passion, they go, wow, I never knew that you take them along the journey. It's why you have a very successful channel. But you have no lane. You. No, I don't. Hence nobody really can copy you. I'm just saying here's a father and a son that I'm talking to. One is super focused and the other one is not going to be limited by focus of what everybody else is doing. And I find it very refreshing. Both of you guys don't seem to be hung up on the value of it as much as, say, the connection or the memory. We never used real money on cards, money from our budget on cards like family budget. So we were always playing with house's money. We found ways to acquire the money that we used to acquire our collection. So the value doesn't really matter because we were never really connected to the dollars in question. Now people who go into their savings account, they are going to probably care a little bit more about the value because they spent real hard earned money on it. But my dad was doing different things. He was selling cards to Marshall Fogle that got eights and nines and then he would use the money from those to buy other cards and my channel and some of the cards and the moves that I've made and the trades that I've made and some selling has freed up money for me. So I think that's part of the reason that the value isn't a big deal because it's all free to us. Yeah, definitely. My whole collection is done with hobby money. And I had my weird little ways of picking up money. Early on I got into the population thing where I would go through big dealers commons and I knew which ones were low population. And I would buy them at small amounts of money, send them and get graded. And then I was able to sell them for high dollar amounts. And again, I could buy a couple of cheap 59 commons and buy a Mickey Mantle card with the profits. There's a job for you waiting at PSA right now. You have that ability. They are hiring Newport Beach. It's a nice area. But. Greg, do you have two daughters? I do, yeah. They're 20 and 19. What have they learned about the hobby from their granddad and dad that has helped them in life? I learned a lot from the hobby about life. I remember getting to high school econ and going, I already know all this stuff. I already know supply and demand because I've been learning it for the last 10 years. My daughters are so sweet and they're so patient with me because I don't think they have much interest in this stuff at all. But some of the cards, I'll show them. I collect the sandlot cards, the Auto'd from Heritage that they did a few years ago, and they love that movie, so they get excited for those and they love Goonies. And I collect the Goonies cards autographed by the actors, and they like those. But I think the thing that they probably take away is that I treat these cards with care. And when I'm showing them to them, I'm like, this is what this is worth. One of the things they've learned is that some things, if you keep them preserved, over time, they can maintain, gain, hold value. It's like I would go to museums and see things and go, that's an amazing artifact. Out here in California, we have all the California missions. And a big part of fifth grade for the kids in these schools is the missions. I remember taking Lucy's class on a field trip to one of the missions and her looking at these artifacts that were original to the missions and just being amazed at the artifacts. I could see a piece of meat in her appreciation of those items. So they definitely have an appreciation for what I'm doing, even though I've tried to buy them some cards and it's just not their thing. But is that the antidote for them resisting what has become a disposable culture? That's a good question. The disposable culture, when it breaks, you don't fix it, you throw it out. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out with things like cards. But, yeah, they see me open a pack, which I don't do often, and you immediately put the card in protection, and then you look at it. You're right. That might be a counter to this philosophy that these kids have where they don't treat things with respect. My kids are pretty good, but my students, they don't treat their textbooks well. And they don't treat their bags and stuff well. When you have to treat something, carefully take care of it. That's a great point. That could definitely help turn that tide. For sure. Do you guys have some questions for me? There's a million things we could ask you. Dr. Becky, you're the guy who the magazine showed up each month and we'd race out to the mailbox to figure out. And you corrected me that it's not the arrow, it's the triangle and figuring out whether it went up or down in value. Curious on your thoughts on the Pokemon explosion. Is that helping or hurting sports cards? We have to make it help, but you know where my loyalties are. And even Greg, when you're doing some of this non sports stuff, Pokemon is such an ecosystem. You can get totally immersive in that. And I don't know that it's mutually exclusive, but it's a separate world. It's that world. You're not helped by playing the sport or coaching the sport or teaching the sport. But we have to find a way to build bridges. Your golf analogy, it's like a different player out there. And if they can shoot under par every time and you're just a scratch golfer, but you're not a plus handicap, and they're crushing you every time, and you're playing well. In fact, playing with better people makes you better a lot of times in golf. So if we're seeing the success of Pokemon and the enthusiasm there, then let's try to capture some of that. But I don't know. But they can't read the sports page and get a connection there. So somehow they're doing an awful lot of things right. Yeah. I was talking to a student not that long ago, and I said to this student, why are you into Pokemon? Why aren't you into sports cards? And he goes, an athlete could get hurt. And so an athlete tore his acl, then the card would go down. But Pokemon. And he goes, Ms. Milly, no, they're not real. And I'm like, yep, I'm pretty aware of that. He goes, so they can't get hurt or they can't get into trouble. So it's risky to collect sports cards. It's not risky to collect Pokemon. And I was like, oh, my gosh. What you're talking about is economics and the macroeconomics. The existential threat is the same for sports cards and TCGs is that people will not find them relevant in the future culture. And then the demand will go down, and demand can go way down. For some of these huge prices people are paying for the Pokemon, shorter print and special characters and things. So there's an existential threat to both. Again, the disposable culture. The people just wanted digital music. Some people want LPs, but the majority of people don't want to have tangible stuff. That's the existential threat to cards as well. In fact, instead of showing you my cards by coming over and looking at my wall, you just look at em digitally and is that good enough? Yeah, I look at my cards a lot digitally now. Dr. Beckett, when you're known by a fair amount of people and there are a lot of people who have admiration for you, I remember seeing you at a value box national and I was like, am I going to bug him right now? And I'm like, yeah, I'm going to bug him. I'm going to go up and say hi. And we had spoken a couple of times. So I was like, he might know who I am. But you have thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of people who credit you a lot with where this hobby is deservedly. But then occasionally you'll have some people that will kind of go at you a little bit for maybe something you said or maybe something that they heard that you said, or maybe the communication caused them to hear something different than you were saying, and then they kind of come at you. How do you handle when you've got people who are nervous to approach you at the national because you're Dr. Beckett and you're the guy, and then you'll have a couple of people that'll kind of come at you. How do you not let that bother you? How do you focus on the many instead of the loud? First of all, they don't come at you physically. No, I know they come at you digitally and they hide behind the keyboard. But what I'm doing, Greg, is making myself accessible. I won't say pedestrian, but I am sitting down or visiting with other collectors and going through a dollar box. What that says is, I'm here. I'm one of the guys. I'm really enjoying this hobby and I hope I'm communicating that's not less than. You shouldn't be judged by the average price of the cards that you buy. You ought to be judged by the enjoyment that you get and hopefully leaving the world a little better place. So, yeah, if I were making huge deals, then no, don't interrupt me. But if I'm buying a dollar card and you tap me on the shoulder, don't tap me on the shoulder. In a scary way or a creepy way, but just say, hey. And I love that. So I'm trying to make myself accessible without being overbearing. I love this hobby. And of the people in the hobby, 99.99% are really good. Do you know what America's national pastime is? It's baseball. It used to be baseball. Now it's piling on, criticizing people that you used to think were okay, because that is a thing if you get a chance to take somebody down, especially if you can hide in anonymity. So I'm trying to think after 50 years of being a public figure, if they've got one thing takes that of context and another thing where I platform somebody they didn't like, then I'm doing more right than wrong. I've never said I was perfect, but nobody cares more about the hobby than I do. And I want to help build it. And I am not done. I'm not fully retired from having some sense of a life purpose with that. You guys are probably like that too. You love the hobby. There's some bad people in the hobby. They need to be punished and kicked out. You're not one of them. Your dad's not one of them. I'm not one of them. But I've taken some positions on things that people disagree with and all our teachers and whether it's middle school, high school, college, whatever. Definitions matter. And a lot of the political discourse, the religious conflict that we have is about definitions and the deeper meaning of things. And it gets people to put up their dukes when they really ought to not get out their dictionary, but they ought to think, what are we saying? That's different? You said a word. What do you mean by that word? And not to slice it and dice it too much, but people are against immigration. What does that mean? It means something different in California. It does in Texas than it does in Chicago. Let's discuss what we mean. I'm not running away from any discussion about something substantive. But I've always said any criticism, any job review gift needs to be constructive in the sense that it's not, you did a terrible job. It's you need improvement in this area, or I don't agree with this. That's helpful. I welcome that, just as you would, too. If somebody said, I don't like channel, what can you do with that? If they say, you know what? I don't like it when you do this. But they may say, I don't like it. When you answer everybody's questions, they are wrong because Those are some of your best episodes. They didn't like one of the questions that you dignified with an answer. And that's happened to me. It's probably happened to you, too. Yeah. That's good feedback. Michael, what do you do right with Greg? What's the advice for other dads out there that want to see their sons blossom and flourish? Both my boys are amazing, and I like to think that somewhere along the line I was helping out a little in that regard. Just be fair, be consistent, don't be lax, don't be a helicopter parent that's around every little move they make and trust that they're going to make good decisions. Fortunately, they both did a very good job of that. If you're doing middle school and middle school parents, you've got plenty of bad examples, I think, and especially around youth sports. Greg, what'd your dad do right that gave you the confidence to blossom because your book explains the journey. But were there pivotal points there where your dad just said, greg, you got this? Yeah, I'm glad you asked. My dad was always there and my mom was always there. And whether it was an assistant coach on a team or the dad who was in the dugout who did the scorebook for the team, my parents were always there. They weren't the parents who were trying to get out of stuff. They were trying to get into stuff. And I tried really hard with my girls, especially when they were little. Lucy was playing competitive soccer at a young age, and I would drive 45, 50 minutes each direction, and I wouldn't just drop her off and go down to the saloon. I would sit there in the rain under an umbrella during practice and be there. Because kids knowing their parents are going to be there for them, I think is the biggest deal. I take my job as a dad very seriously. Both of my parents were fantastic parents and were very present. And I think that's the secret sauce. I will wrap up with this. I'm truly honored to be here with you. For you to ask me to be on your show and then have my dad and me join you, it's a very humbling thing. I don't get nervous on streams anymore or interviews anymore. I did early on in my YouTubing, but for this one, I was a little nervous for it because I have so much respect for you and everything you've done for the hobby and that you read my book, that is an absolute highlight to me that you took time to read it. You're not just an up and comer. You're already there. I look at what you've done the last few years, I think you've blossomed and flourished, and Michael doesn't get all the credit, or even your mom. It's a team effort, but done a lot of things right. So y' all were a package deal today, and apparently you're going to be a package deal at the national, so I look forward to seeing you there.