THWC 404: The Best Hobby In The World...Cup.

What is up, everybody? Hobby with Cage. Episode 405, Best Hobby in the World Cup. That's my title. You know, it's funny, I put why the Knicks Will Lose in seven Episode out yesterday. And the comments I got in the DMs I got were great. It's like, you know, you've been doing this for how many years and you finally got a clickbait title. And, I mean, if you listen to the episode, it wasn't really 100 clickbait, I don't think. You know, I talked about the game. I talked about how, you know, the Knicks. And, you know, how, you know, it could very easily be two. Two. It could very easily be, you know, three games to none, you know, four games to none in favor of the spurs or Knicks. Like, you know, every one of these games has come down to, like, the last minute. And, you know, with that, while obviously the odds are not with the Spurs, I think they win next game. I think they win game five. And, you know, who the hell knows? That's. That's one of those things. So. But it was really funny, the comments that I got. So here we are with 405. Hope you're enjoying this week. Getting great messages from people about, you know, the. The uptick in the content and just sort of the, you know, the conversation that we're having here and, you know, what we're talking about and just the different tone. I'll try to, you know, take it down a notch and make it a little more fluffy and fun and. And not as heady. But if you haven't listened, go back to 400. You don't have to go back to one and listen to 405. We had a 400 and listen, you know, I took a different tone and a different tactic, and I'm gonna read a comment that I got. But before that, I'm ready a minute and a half in and didn't tell you that. The hobby with Cage is brought to you by Arena Club. Buy card ladder Use code Cage. Save yourself a couple bucks and buy the Philly Show. So I'm reading something. I got this. I found it 6:57am on June 12, Friday, as I record this. So this message came in less than two hours ago, and I said, all right, well, maybe I'll read it. Cage. Just a message to say thank you. Thank you. I hadn't bought a card for three years and to be honest, completely lost interest in the space for many reasons. However, there's a special guy who happens to host a Podcast. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have got my mojo back. He's really laying it on thick hair. I listened to said pod and he sent me a picture of it, and it's episode 400. You know who you are in the hobby. I listened to said podcast and had a tear in my eye because I was like, he's talking directly to me. Which is the sentence I hear the most about that episode. It's funny, man. We really start to think about, you know, who we are in this space. And sometimes you get lost, and sometimes, you know, the hobby you get lost in. You know, you go down a path. It's hard to come back. Am I buying for flipping? Am I buying for selling? Should I be selling car? I mean, it's an interesting thing. You know, the psychology of it. But anyway, I think you're talking directly to me. Knowing who one is is very important. Getting back to one's roots can be a joyful experience. For that, I did my research, as I always previously did, and discovered and bought myself a very special Patrick Mahomes card, which, like all the crap I previously owned, was bought so that I can enjoy it. Thank you for the episode. You've rejuvenated me. Have a great Friday. I mean, really laying it on thick there. But I appreciate it. And the. The note is something that's mirrored by a lot of people who have said the same thing. It's, you know, get back to who you are, know who you are, and it's gonna, you know, it's gonna. It's gonna probably. Rejuvenate is a great word that they use there. It's gonna probably, you know, direct your attention to, you know, what you really want to do here, what brought you in here. I mean, you might be somebody who came back in during COVID you know, when the world was shut down and you were chasing nostalgia, you were chasing fun, chasing some memories. Get back to that. I will tell you that, you know, I don't talk tell you guys about everything I'm doing in the hobby, but I have little side quests that I do that really are fun. I have, you know, Goonies card collection that I'm building in, you know, PSA mid grade with those stickers, you know, with Chunk, and you guys have seen my shirt and, you know, One Eyed Willie, great name. You know, I'm building a Pikachu collection from the 1999 base set. I'm trying to get one. Not the first edition or the Shadowless. I'm trying to get one of the, you know, the regular. It's only yellow cheeks for the base edition, but I'm trying to get one, the unlimited edition people call it. I'm trying to get one in every grade. I want to do like a PSA 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Just fun, stupid, silly stuff like that. Like hobby challenges and, you know, cool things that, you know, if you ever, you know, got the time, the space of the inclination, you could hang up on a wall. It would look kind of cool. You know what I mean? I'm gonna tell you, I don't have a Jordan. I mean, I used to own a Jordan 10, but I loved the scoring king set when I was a kid. And I am building a scoring king set in PSA 8. You know, I have, I've almost the whole set. And that's cool because the cards are cool. They're still great condition cards, you know, they're in the slabs and I, it's a 10 card set. I think I could, you know, put those 10 cards up and make it look really cool, you know, nine of them and then like the Jordan by itself on the side, you know, maybe I don't get a PSA 8 Jordan. Maybe I get a PSA 10 Jordan. Who knows, maybe I get a PSA 5, 6 Jordan. Like I was bidding on the last couple of auctions and got outbid on every one of them. You know, maybe, maybe the set will be an 8, but I'll have to settle for a PSA 4 Michael Jordan because, you know, it's about owning the card. Not necessarily owning, you know, an expensive card, but anyway, you get the point, right? And I guess maybe I should share some of that stuff with you as well as just, you know, the, the finances of it and the high end cards and the, what's going on with this auction and that auction and, and blah, blah, blah, and just kind know, remind you that we are here to have some fun with it also, you know what I mean? And you have to find your own fun by knowing who you are. It's what makes this the best hobby in the world. It really does. You know, I mean, not everybody wants to own the Goonies stickers like I do, right? You know, not everybody wants to do that, you know, find something that appeals to you, find something that you enjoy. And by the way, in this hobby that does not necessarily have to be cards. Yesterday I did something. I hope I don't, you know, blow this up, but I mean, yesterday I was, I was on, I was asked to be a guest On a podcast. I won't say who, but I was interviewed with my son, and that was cool. That was a fun conversation, was about, you know, fathers and sons in the hobby. And, you know, this will come out, and when it comes out, I'll. I'll let you know where it is and where you can find it. And some of you guys who listen and watch the show, you already know my son. I mean, he's been on some episodes this week, kind of talking in the background, but, you know, you get to see him. You know, he sits there, he's right next to me, and have a conversation about, you know, what he likes about the hobby, what he does differently, what he's learned from me, what I've learned from him. And, you know, sitting down and talking to someone and, you know, not just talking like this, but being interviewed, asked questions, going back and forth and talk about the hobby. That's a fun thing, too. You know, it is part of a hobby rejuvenation. Because it made me think back to doing this with my dad and when I was a kid, not, I mean, basically the same age as my son, walking around card shows looking for cards of Brooklyn Dodgers that I had no business knowing who they were, but thinking, if I could find one for a buck, two bucks, five bucks, call forillo, who nobody cared about, no one wanted, and buy that and give it to my dad, it would make him smile. And he was buying cars for me, and we were doing this together, and, you know, that was a cool and fun thing. And I see that now with my son, you know, when auctions are ending, Thursday nights, he's like, what do you think about this card? You know, and he's searching auctions, and I mean, he's mostly searching for Pokemon cards that he could buy, but he's also finding. So I was like, isn't this one of the guys you like, Check out this Patrick Ewing card you like. You know, you like him when you were a kid, and, you know, it's. It's a tie. It's conversations, you know, and we also talk about lessons learned for life, you know, business lessons, economic lessons. And it is a lot of fun. It really is. You know, it is. I should probably lean a little bit more into that than just the buying and selling and the Wembies and the Brunsons, and this card's run, and it's too expensive, and you should take your profits now. You have to balance it out and remember what we're here for, because, you know, there are many of you out there who do treat this as a hobby. And it's something that you come in for fun. And we use this as a distraction from the everyday nonsense. We use this as a distraction from the wars that are going on, from the politics politics from, you know, the craziness that's out there. And this is where you go to escape. It's where you go to have fun. And, you know, every once in a while I need a reminder of that my. Myself. And sometimes a comment like that reminds you, sometimes, you know, just sitting down and, and talking to somebody else about it reminds you don't even have to be buying a card. And those are the kind of things, by the way, that will be happening in person more over the next couple of months as we hit Fanatics Fest and you see your hobby friends. I got a message yesterday from someone I haven't spoken to since the last national telling me he's coming into, coming into Fanatics Fest and where should you go get pizza? And I told him I'm going to be there all the days. And you know, I told them where to go. But. But hey, if you want to grab a slice with me close to the event, I got a place I know that's a few blocks away that I've told a few people about. And you know, it's not, it's not the best pizza in New York, but it's good pizza and it's close and you know, they make a good pepperoni slice. I'll grab you one of those. And I mean, like, then you get to chat. You know, your hobby friends are real life friends for an hour, you know, and you go and grab a slice and find out what they're doing and you know, what they're buying and you know, how they're having fun or you know, what they'd like, change and, and those conversations are going to be eight episodes that I bring to you. You know, it's going to be what's going on with old, old talks, which, by the way, that's a whole nother episode. I mean, I will sum it up like this. Last Yesterday was like 95 degrees. All right? You're gonna have more conversation like that than national too. So I just put a, put an exclamation point on that one. The national is fun for that. You know, I can't wait to go there. Hopefully the card ladder guys let me hang out near their booth and eat all their candy like I did last year. And, you know, just that seems to be where, you know, the hobby folks Come hang out bs, tell stories. You know, you get to hear all the cool stuff about what's going on, who's buying what, who's doing what. So you know, one of the things I look forward to while I'm there is just, you know, hanging out over there and just talking hobby with people. But anyway, so alt auctions last night, really quick a minute on that one. This is like going to be like five episodes in one. And I haven't even really drank that much yet. But I'm totally caffeinated here on a Friday morning. It was like 95 degrees here yesterday in New York. It was hot. And I am fat. I am really double fat right now. I'm going to have to like starve myself until fanatics fest or else people are going to see me there and be like, what happened to you, you blimp? Anyway, it was hot, I was running around, I was working on the pool, I was working and I was tired. Yesterday, it was Thursday, I was tired and I knew I was tired. I knew I was not going to make it. So I did not bid on alt at all last night. And we're talking about. I win old auctions almost every week. I mean for the last three months, I think there was one week I didn't win at least five figures. I mean last week I think I spent $50,000 which you know, I don't know, there's a lot of cards, there are a lot of fun cards and you'll see there's a lot of scoring kings that end in last week's auction. So I mean you could see which ones I bought. You can see the scoring kings. Although the damn Michael Jordan PSA sixes, I, I didn't pay for those. I mean I probably should have but Anyway, I knew that I was gonna have to pass out last night. I knew I was going to be tired. It was hot, I was running around during the day. I knew for a fact that I was not going to be able to stay up. I didn't bid, I didn't bid on any auctions because I knew that I was going to pass out. And we're talking pass out. Like I fell asleep at midnight, right? I know I'm gonna be 50. But this wasn't like I didn't go to Denny's and get the early bird special at 6:00 and come home and fall asleep at 7:15. You know, I still watched the Dodgers game. You know, I still watched, you know, some TV last night and you know, I passed out at at midnight, you know, nice. That's, that's, that's an early day for me. But alt was still going strong. I don't know what time it ended, but I knew it was gonna end at least one 1:32 o'. Clock. I knew it was gonna end late and I wasn't setting up for it so I didn't bid. And that's probably not a good thing for them and for their platform. You know, that someone realizes that if they're not gonna be able to stay up till one or two in the morning, they're just not gonna bid at all. That alone is a reason I think to make a change. It doesn't really make much sense. Enough on that. Hopefully I didn't derail the hobby positivity and the best hobby of the world episode there that I got into by boom, a hard left. And talking about, you know, all auction ending process, I will give them some kudos. When I do win on a Thursday, I usually have the cards by Tuesday. No one else is doing that. Like that is impressive. So as bad as the auction ending process is the, the turnaround time for getting the cards to you. You won on a Thursday, you win it on a Thursday, you pay on a Friday, you ask to have the cars back and they are delivered on a Tuesday. That's, there's no complaints there. That, that keeps the hobby going, that keeps the liquidity there that you have those cards to go to a show. You know, you got those timing wise. You buy a card where someone's playing and you know they have. You want to buy a soccer card now because the World Cup's going on. You buy it last night, you're going to have it next week while we're still in the first round of soccer. You're not waiting three weeks and the team that you bought a card for may already be eliminated. So I, I smack them down a little bit and then I give them their flowers. That's how it works. You know, you can't just beat people up. You gotta, you know, you gotta a little good news with the bad news. A little good and the bad together. Yeah. And listen, I'll end it with the World cup because I gave you a title of best hobby in the World cup because I've used the title best hobby in the world before. So I couldn't really double up. But World cup started yesterday. Does it feel a little bit different? Does it feel sort of like, you know, the, does it feel like there's not as much excitement this year? I don't know, it's weird because it's in America. It's here. It's, you know, we are. It's a North American tournament this year. And I feel like the Qatar event had more, you know, fanfare maybe, because the hobby was crazy at the time. I mean, the hobby's bigger now. There's more people involved in the hobby now. You would think that you'd hear more about it. That one was in the fall, remember? Because it was in Qatar, they couldn't do it in the summer. It was gonna be too hot. So it was done at a different time. And I wonder if that had some impact, you know, because here we are at the end of June, kids are getting out of school. You know, they're planning for the summer as they go into the beach. Everybody has something else to do. You know, people going on vacations and stuff like that. And, you know, maybe the tensions are elsewhere. You normally don't pay a lot of attention to sports at this time of year, right? The NBA Finals end. Baseball's in sort of the dog days of summer. Hockey ends, I think. You know, I get some messages from some Canadians recently, like, you should give Hawker a chance, hockey a chance. But, nah, otherwise I'd lose that whole joke about who the hell watches hockey. But the summer is usually, like, slow for sports. And, I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you guys are seeing, you know, you're. You're, you know, you're. You're seeing a lot of craziness. All I've seen so far, and we are a host city here, New York, New Jersey. Giant Stadium has soccer games. All I've seen about it so far is don't go, because it's going to be a mess to get there and get back. That's all I've heard about it. The traffic's going to be terrible. You got to take public transportation. And, you know, you would think with that as the message that everybody's excited to go. I haven't really heard anybody talk about. I asked Ian about it yesterday. He's like, yeah, there were more talk about it in school during the last one than now. And maybe that's because school is ending and everybody's talking about ending school. I will tell you on my take for World cup, like everything else, I think if I had soccer cards, and I don't really have that many, I have, like, two total soccer cards in my inventory. If I had soccer cards, I would have moved it by yesterday. Because usually the hype for the tournament is what gets everybody excited. What gets everybody crazy? What's everybody amped up and ready to go more so than just the. The event itself? You know how that goes. I'm excited to watch it. I really hope that what people are talking about happens and we get that quarterfinal Ronaldo versus Messi head to head matchup on the 16th. If that happens, that's, you know, that's like soccer super bowl right there. That's, you know, one of those dream matchups that you, you know, you usually don't get. That would be cool to see. And who knows who's gonna win. France. Is it Mbappe's time? Nobody really gives Mbappe hobby love. Is it Yamal with Spain? You know, the young kid gonna thrust himself into the goat conversation and, you know, take the mantle that Wemby currently has as sort of like the hobby young, you know, favorite young goat, you know, is it gonna be England finally busting through, or do we get that Hollywood, Argentina, Portugal ending? You tell me in the comments. And there's another episode, guys, brought to you by Arena Club by card ladder and their awesome table International. Use code cage and save a couple bucks and buy the Philly show. Let me know what you think about this one. Hopefully you enjoy it because it is the best hobby in the World Cup. Talk to you soon. Everybody takes.