The National Isn’t Over: What Did You Really Bring Home?

Foreign. What's going on everybody? Welcome back to Stacking Slabs. This is your hobby content alternative. I am Brett. Flagship episode time coming at you. Hopefully you are doing well, enjoying your collecting experience that this fine hobby offers. So much to do all the time, so much to think about. What we like to do here on the flagship episode is dig into a topic that I think a lot of us are thinking about or feeling and explore it. And we're going to do that today. It is been a while since we all saw each other at the national. Maybe not that long, but still we had a hell of a time getting together as a community, buying cards, trading cards, selling cards, building our relationships. And I want to talk about what goes on after a big show like that. I think we spend a lot of time in the preparation. We do a lot of content while we're at the show talking about the experience, but what about the aftermath? That is what we're going to get into today. Before we do that, gotta shout out Inferno Red Technology the official sponsor of the flagship episode, Inferno Red Technology is the engineering team behind some of the biggest names in sports and collectibles like DC Sports, 87. Com, C collectors, Upper Deck and eBay. From Yu-Gi-Oh powered solutions for startups to full stack platforms for industry leaders, their team can tackle your toughest technology challenge. They build awesome software for the hobby for leagues and fans and everyone in between. See what they can build for you@infernored.com so the national ended a week ago, or I guess two weeks ago. I record these in advance and sometimes keeping up with the whole timing of it all gets confusing. But it is ended. We have unpacked our cases, we have our cards where they need to be. We have posted our pickups. The hobby has moved on to the next release, the next auction, and maybe even thinking about the next show. This is how it always works. There is a drumbeat of content before the national. Then the event starts and the volume gets louder. Pickups, deals, booths, Donruss trade nights, interviews, reactions. All of the content coming at us fast and furious. And for a few days it feels like the entire hobby is in one building. Then everyone goes home. The content slows down, the excitement fades in real life starts again. But I think that is where the second half of the trip begins. We spend a lot of time talking about how to prepare for the National. We spend almost no time talking about how to process it and that doesn't make any sense to me. Think about what it takes to Whatnot a show like this. You spend money on travel, hotel, Food tickets. This is not even talking about the money we're spending on cards. We all take time away from work. We take time away from our family. We walk miles. We talk to more people in four days than we might talk to in a month. You see more cards in your mind than you probably ever think is possible. Then you come home tired. I know. I have felt like I'm trying to catch up on sleep deprivation. And then we just move on. If the only question you ask is, what cards did I bring home? You're measuring a small part of the return. I think the better question is this. What did the experience change? What did you see that gave you confidence? What did you see that challenge your plan? Who did you meet that you want to know five years from now? What caught your attention that you didn't expect? This is what I want to talk about today. The personal return from the National. Not only financial return, not a scorecard that forces every conversation to turn into a deal. I'm talking about the return that comes from clarity, conviction, relationships, opportunity, and, of course, action. The trip is over. The value of the trip is still being decided. I think there's a difference between having an experience and learning from an experience. We tend to assume the learning happens on its own. We saw the cards, we had the conversations, we felt the energy. Therefore, we learned something. I'm not sure it works that way. An event gives you inputs. Reflection turns those inputs into judgment. And there is research behind this. A group of researchers from Harvard Business School H E C Paris in the University of North Carolina studied the role of reflection in performance. In one field experiment, employees spent the last 15 minutes of each training day writing about what they had learned. A control group kept working during that time. The group that stopped to reflect scored 22.8% higher on the final training test than the control group. They did better after spending less time on the task. The lesson was not that effort has no value. The lesson was that experience becomes more useful when we stop to make sense of it. This applies to the national. You spent four or five days collecting inputs at a rate that is hard to process in the moment, moving from table to table, conversation to conversation. Your phone was filling up with names, pictures, notes and messages. Your mind was responding to whatever sat in front of you. You did not have space to ask what it all meant. But now you do. Weeks later, the distance helps. The first emotional rush has settled. Some moments still have your attention. Others have disappeared. And I think that matters. The goal is not to preserve every moment. The goal is to identify the moments that contain information. This is also where you need to be honest with yourself. A crowded table is not proof that a category is staying power. A card that you wanted on Saturday is not proof that it belongs in your collection. A conversation that felt very exciting at midnight with someone that you've maybe been connecting with on Instagram about something isn't necessarily a business plan. Big events distort scale. When thousands of people, millions of dollars in inventory, and a flood of content sit in one place, everything feels important. Weeks later, you get to test that feeling. What is still with you? What still feels true without the crowd around it? I think this is where the useful work begins. So we can start with cards. The most direct return from the national is not always the card you bought. It might be a clear understanding of what you no longer want. I have a specific taste in cards that makes a show like the national both exciting and overwhelming. There are cards for everyone. Most of them aren't for me. That isn't a complaint, but it's useful information. When you see that much inventory at once, your reaction becomes easier to compare. Which cards made you stop? Which cards look better in person than they did on the screen? Which cards had a price that made you realize your interest was weaker than you thought? Which purchase felt urgent at the show but has lost its pull since you have come home? What card did you pass on but can't stop thinking about? Those answers tell you more than a pickup post. They help you separate attraction from intention. Before the show, you might have had a list of 10 cards you wanted. After seeing them in person, that list might be three. That's a return you did not fail because you came home without buying all 10. You save money, remove noise. You raise the standard of what enters your collection. The show might also expose a new lane. You might handle a card from a set you had ignored and feel an instant connection to it. You might see a collector display on a run in a way that changes how you think about completion. You might notice that the cards drawing you in share a feature you have never named. Might be a team memory. It might be event use relic. It might be a design period. It might be one player in a uniform that means something to you. The national puts your tastes under pressure that is useful if you pay attention to the result. There's an exercise that you can do. Do not start with what you bought. Write down five cards or displays you still remember without looking at your camera roll. Then ask why each has stayed with you. Not what it's worth why it stayed with you. The pattern in those answers might tell you where your collection wants to go next. Then make another list. What did you see over and over that left you cold? That list matters to collectors. Spend so much time building Wantless. The national gives us a chance to build a Not for me list. The list protects your money and attention. Personal ROI starts when the show makes your collection easier to understand. The next return is conviction. Sometimes you walk into an event believing something and leave with more confidence in it. That happened for me with wrestling cards. Wrestling was my gateway into cards. I love the category, so I'm not a neutral observer. That bias is worth naming. If you care about something, you are more likely to notice evidence that support your belief. That means conviction needs a test. Wrestling card takeover and hosting it gave me one. We did not only walk around the show and notice more wrestling cards and cases. We helped create a place for wrestling card collectors to gather. Then we watched what happened. The room filled. Collectors came together around the same category. People traded cards, shared stories. They met people that they had known through a screen. Businesses put money and resources behind the event because they believe the category deserves attention. The show Fleer showed us inventory. Wrestling card takeover showed us participation. Those aren't the same signal. Inventory tells you the cards exist. And sellers believe there's demand. Participation tells you that people want to belong to something. For a category, participation matters more. People building businesses around wrestling cards matter too. They're taking a risk. They're allocating money, labor and attention based on a belief about where the category is going. One business placing a bet isn't proof. Several people making separate investments starts to form a pattern. The event gave me more confidence in the work we're doing around wrestling cards. It also gave me questions. What does the community need next? What parts of the market are being served? Where are collectors asking for more education, access or connection? And how do we support growth without stripping away what made the category matter to collectors in the first place? And I think that last question matters. Collectors without discipline turn into promotion. If I only tell you that wrestling cards are growing because I want them to grow, I'm not giving you insight. I'm giving you my preference. The better move is to write down the signal and the evidence behind it. For me, the signal was not I saw expensive wrestling cards. The signal was collectors showed up in droves for a focus wrestling card eventually and businesses were willing to support the space around them. That's specific. Now I can watch whether it repeats. You can apply the same test to your own experience. What belief did the national strength strengthen for you? You can ask questions. What did I observe? What other explanation fits what I observed? What would I need to do next for this to become a pattern that keeps conviction from turning into confirmation bias? The show should not tell you what to believe. It should give you evidence to examine the third big return is relationships. This might be the largest return from the national and it is the easiest one to waste. You meet someone in a hallway. You talk for 20 minutes. You exchange numbers or follow each other. You say we should stay in touch. Then both of you go home and return to your lives. The relationship ends as an introduction. That is not because the conversation lacked value. It is because relationships need another point of contact. There is research on the value of connections outside our closest circle. In 2022, researchers studied randomized changes to LinkedIn's connection recommendation across more than 20 million people. During the five year study, users formed about 2 billion new ties and moved into 600,000 jobs. The researchers found the weaker connections increased job mobility through the effect change based on the strength of the tie in the industry. I'm not saying a hobby conversation is the same as a job search. I am saying the study supports a larger point. People outside your normal circle bring information and opportunities you do not receive from the people you talk to every day. The national gives you access to those people at scale that is hard to find anywhere else in the hobby. The return does not come from collecting contacts. It comes from continuing those right conversations. This week, look through your messages and pictures. Choose five people, not 55. For each person, write down why that conversation mattered. Then send them a message that proves you remembered the conversation. Great to meet you is polite. It does not move the relationship forward. Reference the moment. Share the thing you promised. Ask the question you did not have time to ask. Set up a call or send a picture of a card you know they like. Don't force a transaction. Some relationships will lead to deals, partnerships. Some will lead to a card that you've never found on your own. Some will give you a person you trust when you need an honest answer. Some will become friends. You do not need to know the outcome today. You need to give the relationship a chance to continue. The people you met are not part of the trip recap. They are people. Treating them the way that way is how the return compounds over time. I have been following up with people ever since the national following up, politely following up, strategically following up very personally. I want to plant the seeds because I know if I plant the seeds bigger things can come from those relationships. The fourth return is opportunity. A large event shows you what exists. It also shows you what you're missing. You hear the same frustration from three collectors. You watch people struggle to find a category inside a room full of cards. Cards. You notice a group creating its own gathering because the main event does not give it the space. You meet an operator who has a problem where your experience fits. You see a form of content that draws a crowd because it helps people understand the hobby. Those moments can lead to a show, an event, a product, a partnership or maybe even a business. But there's a trap Event energy makes ideas feel more complete than they really are. A strong conversation is not market demand. A full room is not a revenue model. A problem is not proof that people will pay for a solution. The goal is not to come home and start five projects. The goal is to capture the opportunity before normal life makes you forget it. Then test it without over committing. You can ask yourself questions. Do I hear this from more than one person? Is the problem specific enough to describe in one sentence? Am I in a position to serve it better than someone else? Starting from zero. If the answer is yes, define one. Next test. Not a company, not a 12 month plan. One test. Host a conversation, publish an episode. Invite 10 collectors to a room. Start a group chat. Ask an operator what the problem cost them. Create a small version and patch auto people do. That is part of what wrestling card takeover represented for me. It was an event, but it was also a test of belief. We believed wrestling card collectors wanted more dedicated space. People showed us that now the responsibilities to study what happened and decide what deserves to continue. The wrong lesson would be the room was full. So make everything bigger. The stronger lesson is the room is full. Why? What part mattered most? What needs to say the same? What is the next step that serves these collectors? Growth is not the only proof that an opportunity is worth pursuing. Fit matters. The national can expose 10 possible 20 possible different directions. Your job is to decide which one deserves your attention. There is another return that has nothing to do with cards or business. It's personal energy. Pay attention to the moments when you felt most present. Was it when you were negotiating a deal? Sharing a card? Trying to figure out what event you're going to Whatnot next? When you do this, it tells you how to build the next version of your hobby life. You do not need to Whatnot the national the same way every year. The trip can change as you change. One year might be about buying. The next year might be about relationships. The next year might be about showing your collection. Maybe you're bringing your family because the event ruled so much. Maybe you decide you want to create a space for the category you collect in. I think it all matters because attention is limited. Time away from your family carries weight. I know. I felt it. I did. Fanatics Fest had a week back at home and then the National. That was a lot for my wife and for my kids. I think it's important to respect the sacrifice that you and your family make. It does not mean forcing the trip to produce profits. It means refusing to let the experience path without listening to what it taught yu-gi-oh is a return. Clarity is a return. A stronger relationship is a return. Knowing what you want to stop doing is certainly a return. The hobby does not need to pay you for the trip to have value. But you one-of-one it to yourself to understand the value that you received. Especially during the sacrifice, both financially and the sacrifice that you and your family are making. By attending a big show like the National. I think there's something we can all do. You can set a timer for 30 minutes, open up a blank page and answer five questions. What five moments from the national remain clear one week later don't use your camera roll. Start with your memory. Next. What did those moments teach you about your collection? Name what you want more of, what you want less of and what you want to study. Next. What belief did the show strengthen or weaken? Write the evidence. Then write another explanation for the same evidence. Fourth, which five people deserve a follow up from me? Beside each name, write the next action. Fifth. What is the one thing I will do because I attended and make it specific? Research on implementation intentions has shown why this matters. A goal has a better chance of becoming action. When you decide when, where and how you will act. I want to stay in touch. Is an intention. I will message him Thursday morning and send an article that we discussed. That's a plan. I want to tighten my collection. That's an intention. On Sunday night, I will move the 10 cards I no longer want for my saved searches. That's a plan. I think the category needs more coverage. That's intention. Before Wednesday, I will invite three collectors to record a test conversation. That's a plan. Do not leave the page with 20 actions. Choose one action for your collection. For a relationship, for an idea. Put it on a calendar. Then let the rest wait. The point of reflection is not to create a new pile of work. It is to decide what deserves to happen next. I'm a pretty systematic operator. I need systems. My mind is going a million miles an hour at all times. I'm 100 in personality, type on ambition, I'm go, go, go. And if I don't build systems, nothing ever gets done. Systems help me build my business, improve my collection and help me establish relationships. If I don't have systems to do everything in my life, nothing gets done. And that's no good for anyone. There would be no Stacking Slabs episodes without a system in place. A lot of people said to me at the show, I value the consistency you bring to the table. That's the number one compliment I could possibly receive. I build systems to stay consistent and consistency is a competitive advantage. The national gives us a lot to look at the week or two after gives us a chance to see what matters. You might have come home with a card you've chased for years. You might come home without buying anything. One conversation might have changed the direction of your collection. A room full of wrestling card collectors might have given you confidence that a community is stronger than what the hobby gives it credit for. You might have met someone who will matter to your life and work years from now. You do not know the full return yet. And that is the point. The return from a show like the national is not settled when you check out of the hotel, it grows through the decisions you make when you get home. I know I've asked you to ask yourself a lot of questions here. I ask questions all the time. I'm curious. I ask myself questions because I like to explore my mindset. But the question is, what will be different because I was there? If the answer is nothing, the trip becomes a memory. If the answer leads to a clear collection, stronger relationship, a tested belief or one meaningful action, the trip keeps working for you. The national is in over, believe me. Now decide what you are bringing forward. Make sure you hit the follow button. Tell a damn friend. Run on over to the Patreon Group. I appreciate your attention each and every week to what we are doing. The Stacking Slabs network will continue to build out collector and operator focused content for you. The collector or the builder in the sports card industry, appreciate the support. Take care. Talk to you soon.