Being An Open Minded Collector!! Extra Innings With @MidLifeCards & @returntocollecting ​

What's going on, everybody? I am Greg of Midlife Sports Cards. I am with Darren of return to collecting. And this is off topic on Extra innings on the Sports Card Clubhouse. For our first time, I mean, Darren, we, we're hitting new platforms, we're hitting all sorts of new thresholds in our lives. Yeah, this is great. I feel important because this is the first time I've been on Sports Card Clubhouse, so, so. Well, we can change that. I finally feel like I, I belong with. You made it. All my friends have been on it, but this is my first time, so this is, this is good. Oh man. Part of the crew again. Now I feel terrible. I, I, I, Yeah, you're right. It is it. That is true. It's funny because when we started this whole concept of extra innings, I think it was Adam Splendid sports and, and he said, you know what would be fun? If we got a bunch of duo combinations. Duos and trios and things of, of guys who do their like once a month show or whatever and have like a little bonus clip or a bonus section here so that people can discover each other better. And, and I was like, that's great. And we started going through, we got, you know, Petty and we've got Tony and we've got, you know, we start going through them all, you know, and I'm like, can we. Me and Darren. And I like you and Darren. No, no, no, no. Everybody was like, yes. And then I am this person where I literally feel guilt, Darren, every time I ask somebody to do something for me. So if I say, hey, I'm doing a live stream. Are, are you, are you cool doing it? And, and you'll be like, yeah, dude, of course that's, they're fun. And I'm like, okay. Like, I feel every single time I feel this kind of like anxiety to ask somebody to do something for me. So I was like, I don't want to put more on Darren's plate. But finally I, I guess it was a week or two ago I said, when we do our next off topic, what do you think about doing? And you're like, yeah, I'm down. And I'm like, well, that, that went well. I, I didn't have to, you know, so that's just my own issues though. I've got, I've got all sorts of issues. You don't, you don't want to see what goes on in this say I, I'm trying to remember the last time I sh. A request. But it doesn't mean that I don't feel like I'm asking for someone else's time. It's just, it's a guilt. It's a me thing. It's a me thing. All right, so again, appreciate this and, and I'm excited to start doing this regularly on, on the Sports Car Clubhouse. Again, if you're not subscribed to Darren return to collecting. Check them out. We have our off topic. We do one on his channel each month. We do one on my channel, Midlife Sports Cards, which is at midlife cards on YouTube. So, okay, so I have a topic and again, these are kind of short 15 to me, 15 to 20 minute little segments. I have a topic for you and I am a person that I think a lot of people think that I'm constantly talking out of both sides of my mouth about this topic because on one hand I believe it's really good to be focused and on the other hand I believe it's really good to be open minded to other things and other areas to explore. And part of that I think is because I have had a lot of fun going into new hair areas, new kind of like genres in the hobby that I didn't previously explore. And so I do think focus is good and it brings a lot of. It helps streamline things, it prevents waste, it prevents buying and then regret. But at the same time, I think it's important to go, I haven't gone over that way yet. I haven't gone down that road yet. But I shouldn't just have a stop sign. I should have like a yellow signal. Sure of maybe I should check it out. So to review your collecting, since we've been buddies and we've been doing off topic for almost three years now, my, my exposure to you is you were almost predominantly baseball and then about a year ago you opened up to some iconic, important, I wouldn't even say iconic, but like early important football cards, some of the bigger early cards that, that were staples in the evolution of, of football cards. And you've been going down that road a little bit. I know you have a couple, you have a couple of Jordan cards. I know that you have a basketball card or two. So I want to take those areas out. Okay. Okay. And I want to look at everything else that's out there which there people would say, what do we have left? Hockey and soccer? Oh, I think there's way more than that. So my question, my question to you after this long three minute intro to my question, here's the actual question. Other than baseball, football, in the couple of basketball cards that you have and you're interested in what is a genre or an area or a lane of this hobby that you would be open minded to stepping into? I mean, I would be open to stepping into any, at least at this time, any sport. I don't think I've fully come around yet to the non sports stuff yet. I do think some of it's really cool, but I don't think I would necessarily start down that path collecting yet. I am very focused on certain things in the, primarily in the baseball card space. So I don't know if like I'd be looking to, to veer off that at all, but if I were, it would probably be within other sports. I mean, I've, I, you know how if, you know, if you're a member of psa, you get that magazine every month. And when I first started getting them, I'd read them. I think how I get them, I just throw it straight in the trash. Don't even take them out of the plastic bag. But I, I, a couple months ago I got it and I decided to open it because I don't know why, I think I got the mail when no one was home. So I'm like, oh, whatever, I'll just take a look at this because I have nothing else to do. And they talked about Formula one cards. I'm a, I'm a big car guy. I love cars. And I, I, I've, every time I've gone to Italy, I've made, who's ever gone with me go with me to the, to Modena to go to the Ferrari factory and then into actually to Marinella or the Ferrari factory, then into Modena for the other Ferrari museum. And since I was a little kid, I've always had a thing for Ferraris. And there was a card that actually, they were talking about the Formula one cards and they showed a card, it was a super fractor. So it's like a gold super fracture Formula one card. And it literally just had the Ferrari Scuderia shield on it. So like the shield with the prancing horse. And I saw that and I was like, holy, what's that? And then my wife got home from work. I'm like, baby, look at this, I kind of want this. And she's like, how much do you think it's going to sell for? I'm like, well, it's a super fracture, so probably like a lot. And she's like, you seriously would spend a lot of money on that. I'm like, maybe not this one. So then I started looking into it. I'm like oh crap, there's like a, you know, like, like a black chrome black one where there's I think 10. They were significantly less expensive than, than the super fractor and there were some other ones that were a little less rare also. And I was for, for a minute there I was like I should pick this up. And then I thought about, you know, where my goals are right now with some of the baseball cards, some of the old baseball card stuff I'm looking at and I didn't want to take budget away from that. But that being said, like, you know, I, I rarely get excited by other stuff outside of like my lanes and that I thought was pretty cool. So I'd definitely be open to it. I mean I, I like even if it's a sport that I don't follow, you know, I have no, no issue picking up cards of the greats from any sport. Okay, now I'm gonna, I'm gonna dig a little bit deeper into some of what you just said because I am a person who as you know, really likes non sport cards and I'm not going to take any offense. I'm, I'm genuinely curious because you are not alone. You are in the overwhelming majority of a lot of people who are going to be hearing this are I'm a baseball card guy or I'm a baseball and football card guy or I'm a basketball card guy. There are very few people where they're thinking thing is going to be a non sport type of thing. And so what I'm curious about now is tell me the perspective like you're not going to hurt my feelings. I'm being dead serious. Share with me what is it about non sport cards that that isn't very interesting to you to at least to where right now it's not a road that you're interested. You just see that road and you go I'm not going to go down that road. I'm going to look for a different road like I want take me through why that is. Sure. And I wouldn't say that they're not interesting to me. They are interesting to me. I love history and a lot of the non sports stuff is very historic. Right. So I actually like that stuff a lot. I just, I'm at a point now in my collecting where I want to get my collection to, to like I have goals of where I want to get my collection to and I've learned over time obviously that being focused on the goal will help me achieve the Goal quicker. Right? Like, and it's not that I don't like that stuff. I just don't want to go down those routes because there's so many. To be honest with, there's so many interesting, you know, rabbit holes there that I could very easily spend all of my budget that I have set aside for some, some bait, some like, key card pickups I want from, to like, help round out a big chunk of my collection. I could spend all that money going down those rabbit holes because it is interesting to me. So it's really more of like a, it's me trying to have self control around, around my, my spending and not so much that I'm not interested in. It's just, you know, at some point I'll feel like my baseball card collection is where I kind of want it to be. And then to, you know, a step further, my general sports collection kind of where I want it to be. Like, I don't have a huge desire to buy like tons and tons of, you know, basketball and, and football cards. I, I have a desire to pick up very specific key cards from basketball and football. And I have a lot more focus on, you know, some interesting old rare baseball stuff. But at a certain point I'll say, look, I, I'm. I'm getting close to. You're never done, right? It's like impossible to be done. That's a weird thing to say. But like, when I start feeling like, hey, I'm closer to like right now, I could buy, you know, I could spend. I mean, I don't want this to come out wrong. I can't do it because I don't have the money. But if I, if I did, I could spend a half a million bucks and be like, I've made some progress, but I'm not. But there's still so much more stuff that I'd be interested in going after, right? So I think it's. Someday I'll be like, hey, look, like I, you know, I, I fine tuned it. You know, I'll sell more stuff. I'll, I'll consolidate more. I'll get down to where I'm like, this is like, when my collection of sports stuff is like, this is what I wanted. This is the, this is what I've been. This is, I'm close to, you know, 90 of what I would say is a goal, then I'd probably be more open to like going down those other paths to a. Continue my collecting journey in general. But also at that point it's like I, I have all the key stuff, right? Like, you know, if I were to go after, you know, some of those, like, you know, the Duke tobacco, like, you know, the president's cards from back in the day, those are all really interesting to me. But you know, if I picked up like three or four of the key ones and you know, nice eye appeal, that would basically be like, oh well there's, there might be like a Ty Cobb card or something from like, you know, something from the 1800s that I was chasing that, you know, I can't get now because of, because of that budget. Baseball 1800 is not president. But so that's, that's the reason why. So I have nothing against them. I think they're really interesting when people send me pictures of their stuff they picked up that's non sport. I think it's great. Like, I really do enjoy it. Like, and I love history and I love American history and that stuff's, a lot of the non sports stuff is big time American history. It's just, you know, with, with, you know, we all have financial limits on, on our collecting. And I've just been trying to be, is focused. Especially this last year. I'm just trying to be as focused as possible. Yeah, I think I, I respect that focus. And again, when I talk about conceptual things personally, I'll say, you know, here's a reason why it's, it's good to be very focused. And then a week later I'll say, here's a reason to why it's good to be open minded. And I think both of those things definitely have fruit. They definitely have, you know, value to potentially looking through things from that lens. Like it's not one or the other. There's different ways of collecting and navigating what you're doing. The one thing that, you know, you said and then you kind of poke fun of yourself about it is like you, you said, well once I'm closer to where I want my collection to be. And then you kind of said, well, you know, we're never done, you know, and even our buddy, iconic Al, you know, he, he has said a few times, I've heard him say, yeah, my collection's about 97 of where I want it to be. And I'm like, no, it's not. You're going to, you're gonna change stuff. You're going to want this card instead of that card. You're going to change your focus and you're going to blow it up and then you're going to go in a different direction. I, that's what I think. I mean, I don't know for. Alright. Like I love Al actually. Yeah. If you're watching, he's great. We haven't hit up a card show in a long time and I missed card shows and lunch with Al on Saturdays. Let's say he gets to his hundred percent point. I think what he means is where his current direction, he's 97%. He'll hit that 100%, I hope soon. And then at that point he could reassess and say okay, check now directionally, what do I want to do? Do I want to stay collecting cards or do I want to do some other hobby or do I want to collect something completely different in the space? Right. Like, I don't think he means he's done done. I think he means that based on his current, on his current collecting strategy, he's getting very close to where he feels like he's, he's completed that specific collecting goal. Does that make sense? Yeah. And I know his particular goal not to just go down a, you know, iconic owl rabbit hole, but his iconic goal is an, an autograph and a card that he likes about each of the top. I think it's 100 players. It's either 50 or 100 players. And, and, and he has a lot of those autographs and he has a lot of those cards. So volume wise he, he'll say to himself, volume wise he's 97 of the way to that. But value wise he's nowhere near 97% because some of the things that he doesn't have are very expensive items. Yeah, I find it interesting because it, it's fun for me when I meet a, a person who goes, I, you know, you introduced me to pirate cards and, and now I'm collecting and building the set and it, it's, it's fun to see the excitement in people's eyes when they find this whole new lane that they hadn't previously participated in. And, and, but at the same time I have, I have so much respect for focus. So again, I know I contradict myself a lot. And it's not, it's never to say that one way is right and one way is wrong. It's just to say, where's your head at and why is your head there? Because if we're analyzing what we're thinking and how we're thinking, it helps us to see the direction in which we potentially might be going. Or for me, I learn when I hear you say what you're saying. I'm, I'm Absorbing that very much. And I'm going, yeah, like if, if I am going down seven lanes, I'm not really going to make progress on my two most important lanes. So he's making a good point here. And I mean, I ask you these questions to have this self analysis and go, man, I'm not, I'm not really, I, I had this goal of, of hitting this card and this car this year and I haven't, I mean on our off topic on my channel, which I don't think is aired yet, if you're listening to this, it's probably going to air tomorrow. You know, we look at our goal cards for the year and our progress. Well, your progress is really, really good and my progress is really, really bad this year so far. And part of that is because I've added a couple of lanes and one of the lanes that I added was, was Derek Jeter cards from the late 90s, early 2000s. And that has eaten up. And I've bought in a couple Barry Bonds cards from the 90s and, and it's eaten up a fair amount of, of my budget and it has prevented me from making more impact on those original goals. Now that doesn't mean I shouldn't have done that, but what it means is it is, it is, it is trying to fill up the, the bathtub with the plug out of the drain. You know, you've got, it's hard to ever fill the tub when you have a bunch of drains open and the more lanes you have, the more drains you have open and it's harder to actually make progress. Yeah. And that's what you just described. And I agree. And what you're saying, it's not that I disagree with it at all. You're making great points and it's making me think, and that's the part I like is I like thinking about myself and how, how can I apply it what you're saying to me and, and what direction do I now want to go? Yeah. And I think again, the changing lanes and having different lanes, it's relative, Right. Like this was my lane for a long time. Right. Collecting. Yeah. The Nolan Ryan the, the tops Nolan Ryan run. Right? Yeah. So then I finished that. So then my next lane after I finished that was random, right? Like, yeah, this whole bottom row and some of this middle row, is that the Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Jordan Alvarez home run leader card, like all the different versions of it. Right. Like I did that afterwards. That's not to me, like when I did that, I could have just as Easily done. Like a Pirate card lane or a, you know, like the Duke President's lane or something else. Right. Like pick Mickey Mouse card lane. Like, honestly, because this was just, to me, random. But then, you know, I did the. There it is. My top row. There is my Jeter run. I did that after the Ryan before. I did this one. But, like, I still shift lanes, but I don't. I would say this. I'm on the Sports card freeway, and it's like, I can't remember what. Which highway it is. It's the one outside of, like, the one in between, like, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills that goes north and south. It's got, like, 10 lanes wide. That's my sports card freeway. And I'll change lanes on that. But I haven't exited yet. Right. So I know you like analogies there. Yeah, that's my lane change analogy. I'm still on the same freeway. I just haven't exited yet. Onto something completely different, friend. It's a great analogy. Mookie. I. I don't know why he's picking on you for your Mickey Mouse card. Love. I. I don't think you deserve him. You just. I'm pretty sure I didn't pick on him. I just said that would have been something else that I could have. I mean, I bought. I actually bought like, a super old Mickey Mouse card at the national last year. Did you? Yeah, like, it was like his rookie card. I got it home. I thought it was cool, and I got it home. And my daughter thought it was cooler than I did, so now it's in her collection. Gotcha. Well, very cool. And I love it. Again, subscribed. Darren is at return to collecting I am Midlife cards. Appreciate the guys over at Sports Card Clubhouse are some of our best friends in the hobby. And this was fun. I'm glad we did this. So. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for finally having me on. I apologize for the delay, buddy. All right. To talk to you, but.