To the Moon!! Hobby Homies w/ Garrett - Card Cutter

Welcome to the Golden Age of Cardboard podcast, where we remember a time when stacks of cards were held together with rubber bands and Mickey Mantles were put in bike spokes. We hope you will enjoy and reminisce as you come along with us as we tell stories about the baseball cards from the golden age of baseball. We will examine the state of the vintage baseball card market and talk to some of the greatest collectors in the hobby. You won't be hearing us talk about any chrome or shiny cards. Here now to take you on this retrospective journey, here's your host, direct from the shallow end of the gene pool, my son, Mike Moynihan. Hello, everybody. Mike here. Welcome to another awesome episode of the Golden Age of Cardboard podcast, hosted by me every week. This week. Well, not every week. You guys know there's been some weeks when we haven't done shows, but I do want to give a special shout out and thanks to. To Leighton Sheldon, who was on last week's show, just talking about the hobby. And my favorite thing to do here is to just talk about the hobby, you know, just to get guys on that I enjoy talking to and kind of take their pulse, see what they're doing, how they're collecting all the different things. And this is one of those weeks where I get to do that with one of my besties. You know, I'm a. I don't. I'm not. I'm the equivalent of a Swifty for this guy, and his name is Garrett and he is, of course, card cutter on YouTube. Everybody knows who he is because he's Garrett. So let's just bring him on now. What's up, bud? Just never thought I would hear Taylor Swift on this podcast. You kind of threw me off right there. Yeah, I. That is a weird comparison, but, oh, man, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. I'm going to warn you in the audience, I have no clue what we're talking about. He wouldn't tell me, so let it roll. Let's be honest. I told you and then you forgot, so that sounds about right. Got to give a shout out at the top of the show to my sponsor, who's actually a sponsor, and that's Auction Wire. AI, if you're ever looking for different ways to search for cards beyond just the normal ebay searches and other things. You have to keep track of everything. Go to auctionwire. AI put in the card you want to look for, and It'll pull from 40 plus different auction houses, things like that. But Auction Wire is a good source. Have you used auction wire. Garrett, I have not, to be honest with you. Well, that's okay. If you use my code, you get two free months instead of one free month. So you get an extra free month if you use my cold code. Golden age link will be in the description below. Code will be in the description below. If you forget you just want to go do that, make sure you go do that. Garrett, how long have we known each other, man? A minute. Over a decade. For sure. Yep. If not over a decade, I mean, we're right there. We talk almost every day, if not every day. I don't like where my camera is, but that is what it is. I'm not going to change it right now, midstream. It is what it is. This may be as long as we've known each other. This may be the craziest couple of weeks that we have. I don't know that I've seen it this crazy. Let me just. Let me just run these down for you, see what you think. The Burbank Card show is happening in California this weekend. The Fanatics Fest is happening in New York City, which is a massive event in the Hobby. And you've got the Dallas Card show this weekend, which you and I will be attending. Rooming together, spooning together. All the good things are happening this week. Oh, and Hobby Palooza is this weekend. So what. What about the. What of those things excite you the most? And I know the answer already, because it's the one you're going to. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be the Dallas Card Show. Chris from Missouri and his. His friend coming down, and she blinded me with refractors. And then you and I being roomies. It's going to be fun. I'm really looking forward to it. You and I don't nearly hang out enough, although we live 45 minutes apart, so I'm looking forward to that. That's going to be awesome. The. But is this. Is this the new normal, right, where there's just massive events all over the country? You can pick and choose. You can do whatever you want. You can stay at home and watch Hobby Palooza if you want. Right? Yeah. That's a fact. There's definitely no shortage of things to do when you say that. It. What kind of jumped to my head was a couple years back when Michael Rubin got involved, and he said, you know, I want to 10x the hobby, and I could definitely speak for myself. And I know a ton of you were like, oh, that's silly. Like, what does that even mean 10x the hobby. I think we're. I think we're starting to find out. It is bigger and cooler than ever before. It's no longer people that look like me that live in their mom's basement at shows. It's young dudes carrying pelican cases, carrying comma cards like it's cool. And I never, ever would have guessed collecting sports cards could be cool. But it's a thing now. Thank you for reminding me. Mama Jane, if you're out there watching Shout out to you. Garrett's mom, she's awesome. And we. We love her to death, don't we, Garrett? You. You do for sure. I do. Move on. No shorter thing. I. Again, I talked about this with Leighton a little bit. Just the busy hobby summer, the nationals in a couple of weeks, which you and I are not going. But I do think now more than maybe ever, there are alternatives. The national used to be the thing. You'd anchor your whole summer around it, if not your whole card year around that event. Now there are so many other choices, all of which are good. Like, I think this is good for the hobby, by the way. Would you say good or bad with the just growth of it? I would say if you're an absolute traditionalist, it's probably bad, you know, but if you're into seeing growth of the hobby and growing, I think it's absolutely a great thing. Well, to me, it's hard not to be into that, because that's the reality. And so either you're going to sit around and grumble and be pissed off about how things aren't how they used to be. Well, I'm sorry to tell you that ship has sailed, and we are in this hobby now as it is, and I, for one, am happy to see it. Do you have to change how you hobby, by the way? I wanted to say this in my intro. I should have. I'll say it to your face now. The way you collect and the way I collect are vastly different and yet similar in. In some ways. But you're. You will do something, Garrett, hard, and go after it and complete it, and then those end up getting turned into other. Another project. You take that, you go, okay, I've had my fun with that, and you can do that. And my brain doesn't work that way. That's why I have so many bloody cards in this room. Because I. I still have Josh Hamilton stuff. I haven't bought a Josh Hamilton card. And they're pretty impressive. 12 years. But how does your brain work if you can try to explain it the way you collect, because what you're doing now is super cool. And I truly, man, I just love seeing your enthusiasm around it. And it's fun just to watch you get excited about blinding me, you know, every time I'm watching one of your videos with the shiny. How does it change? Why do you do how. How does this work in your brain? So I change how I collect because I feel like I'm add, like card carrying, diagnosed member ever since I was a little kid. And so I get bored after a while of doing the same thing. And that's why I shift. I did football hall of fame autographs for the longest, and I think it was because there was so many sets. Player runs, I'll call them sets to do. Like, it took me a long, long time to do that. And so I would shift after I got bored. I would go down a different rabbit hole. I absolutely love collecting. It's just every four or five years, it changes. And I am kind of like you, but about you, like, I wish my brain didn't work like that. And I wish I could get stuck and collect the same thing for three, four, five decades. And then you can actually look at a full body of work and be like, this is my collection. Unless my brain changes. Like, I won't have that. But I super excited the path I'm going down right now as well, very similar to how you collect. But I don't want you to think that I'm criticizing you. I'm not. It's. It's just different, right? And I think you've been able to take the stuff you've gotten quote, unquote bored with and been able to turn it into either helping out your family or, you know, zigzagging into a different area of the hobby. What I will give you crap for. And guys, if you don't know, Garrett and I are literally like brothers. So we will rag on each other. It is expected and promoted in a lot of cases. What I will give you a hard time about, Garrett, is the way that you say, well, I'm. And you don't do this publicly. You do it privately to me. So I'm gonna air some laundry here. I'm done. I think I'm done. You know, I'm like, all right. And I just say in my back of my mind, in a couple of months, he'll get out of, you know, he'll. He'll change his mindset. Something will happen. He'll get a certain car, he'll see a certain card, and he'll be right back at it. And that's been true time and time again over the years. And I wish. You just. Don't even tell me. I'm just going to roll my eyes. Anyway, that's what I'm telling you. That's what I'm giving you crap for. So, yeah, and I can buy that. And when we moved up here to the DFW area two years ago, I sold 95% of my collection to afford this gorgeous house we live in now. I sold it and I was like, I'm going to get back in it. And then life happened and things came up and it really postponed me getting back in it for a while. And I was. I felt I was really close to getting out. Sports cards didn't do it for me. You know, I quit looking on ebay for the longest, but I guess I have a collector's heart and a collector's mind. And I started thinking, how could I get back into it with something that's sustainable for a long time? And I started thinking about how I collected as a kid, you know, players. I watched the current Houston Astros. I was born and raised outside of Houston, collecting those guys, touching my cards, holding my actual cards, so on and so forth. And that's kind of what made me start this new journey. Like you player era runs of hall of Famers, I'm starting with the most current dudes that I see play right now and working my way back and actually doing it all raw that way. I don't care about what PSA is doing, because I'll be honest, Mike, that was. I was very exhausted of my content feed of psa. This PSA that price is this. I'm like, this is ridiculous. It's like, are we collectors? Are we just collectors of psa? And so now I don't give a damn, you know, about what PSA is doing, because it doesn't affect me. What was the trigger for you? What was the. In this new phase of shiny cool refractors, you know, modern cards with old players on them refer. You know, what was the card that made you go, oh, man, here I go? I wouldn't say a particular. I can't name one card right now. The. The card that has all my attention is the 2018 Topps Chrome Refractor of Shohei Ohtani. That has all my attention right now. But I've always liked refractors, and back when I was a kid, you know, that was a real big hit. They weren't called hits back then. But that was a big card. It didn't matter who it was. You got a refractor that was something special, and then nowadays, you know, you get one in a pack or, you know, whatever the correlation is. That doesn't make it any less cool to me that there's an abundance of them. You know, I don't like all the 57 different kinds of refractors. I like the bass refractor, man. So that's it. I like shiny things. We have a buddy named Saul BD Kane on YouTube, and he is a. You know, he'll do. He'll pick a parallel every year to do an entire set of refractors. I love following his journeys on that because it's not a way I collect, but I. I respect the game of that, and I respect his, you know, going, okay, I'm gonna pick the blue, the purple, the, you know, whatever kind of he likes the most in that run of whatever year it is. And it's different. And it's not always the blue refractor. It's not always the whatever. And I. I just dig that style of collecting and his way that he presents it. I know you like him too, right? Oh, absolutely. I mean, I don't know Saul. I've never talked to him. If he was in the room, I would know who he was. But I would say how he collects was a big motivator on how I wanted to come back. You know, doing the football player era runs for the longest. I love that idea. Well, I also like the idea of set collecting, but it gets kind of boring to me. And I think just buying a full set for me is kind of cheating. Like, you didn't build anything. You just went and bought a set. And so I seen how Saul was collecting. I'm like, okay, I'll do the player. The hall of Fame player era runs and refractor sets. You know, I'll just pick some of my favorite sets and start working those. So absolutely love his channel and love the way that he collects. Yeah. It's funny how we're. We're all. I don't know that it's possible in our world today to com completely think independently. I would tell you every project or thing that I have has either been pushed forward as far as from genesis of idea to pushing forward, or. Or the idea itself from watching someone else or seeing how someone else collects or, you know, I wish I had original thoughts. I just don't. And I don't. I'm not even apologizing for it. I love Being inspired by others and seeing other things and doing diamond stars or just things that I do right. And we are talking about shiny cards, even though my dad said not to. But I love the modern veteran. You know, parallels that they'll do in chrome or regular tops. I, I think those car, they'll put Hank Aaron on a 20, 26 card in the set short print or Nolan Ryan or whoever. Those things are awesome and I enjoy that. So those are ways to collect newer cards that aren't crazy expensive, right? I mean, if you wanted to go back and build a 93 finest refractor hall of Fame run, that's going to put you back a little bit, right? Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I've, I've been looking into a lot of things that I think about, and you just brought up the, the legends or the hall of Famers on modern cards. And I've, I've never understood how you could be a vintage collector and be like, oh, the Mick is my favorite player of all time, or Joe DiMaggio is my favorite of all time. But, you know, you, you left your nose at modern cards, like right here. I have. I just showed this in my video the other day, this Nolan Ryan flamethrowers refractor. And this thing is awesome, man. Like, I don't know how you could be a Nolan Ryan fan and not like this car that just came out a year ago. So I think some of the, the guys that are like, vintage, vintage, vintage, and you love those old guys, like, I don't know, it might be something to look at, look into. I mean, you can get a lot of this stuff for literally a couple bucks. So it's kind of the best of both worlds, right? 100. You know, the vintage field, even, you know, retro designs that they'll use and all the things. It's kind of, kind of mishmashing the worlds together. And I, I truly enjoy it. I don't seek them out so much. It's more if I find them and I see them and I go, yep, I'll take that. That they're just cool. I know. Like that flamethrower set. You were, you're, you were talking in a recent video about, do I even want to. I need to see who else is in the set. Because, yeah, I think you have the Steve Carlton maybe. And then Ryan, if you said, if I remember right, and I think you're like, okay, this is going to take me down. I can do this little subset and it won't be that expensive. It probably won't Be that hard. And to me, as a collector, if you do something well, I'll never. I'll never finish that. That's hard for me to stomach. I have some projects like that, but the idea that I can never complete it is kind of frustrating. No matter how expensive it is or whatever, I'm never going to have a Wagner. I just probably won't. Right. Which means my 300 great baseball cards, the 20th century will never be complete. There's several other cards on there that I would have to take out, you know, rob a bank to be able to buy them. But there's. It. I'm not in un. I'm not uninterested in pursuing that project. But I do like projects that have a possible end. Right? Yeah. A finish line. Yes. And then hopefully with you this time, you're gonna reach a finish line in each of these projects as you do them, and not just throw the baby out with the bat or get rid of it. I hope you don't do that this time. Well, I do, too. I truly do. But it's like, how many. Don't answer this. I know you. You know the answer. Like, how many baseball hall of Famers are there? You know, there's that many sets. Player runs. They're sets. That's what they are. You know, there's that many. And then every year, if I'm collecting modern current, what I think are going to be potential hall of Famers, this thing doesn't end. And guess what? 2026 tops Chrome comes out next week, and I get to add to this set Nolan Arenado, Aaron Judge, Shoehei Otani, Manny Machado. I get to add to their runs. And in the case of Arenado and Manny Machado, for like, two bucks, three bucks, you know, and so I'm super excited about that and the sets. I'm really geeked out about building some of these refractor sets. You. How are you going to store your refractor sets? Just. I don't. I haven't asked you this question. I'm curious. So those are going to be in binders. I feel like you set me up to give you a compliment, which, you know, I don't like to do. I very much. How. How you did yours is how I want to do mine. I love how. Geez, Mikey does his. Those white binders. They're. They're not cheap. They're not giving away those white binders, but I really, really like how those look. And then the player runs. This is going to get expensive. This is just how I want to collect them. I'm going to be putting each card in a top loader and a superior fit sleeve. And then behind the 150 dividers I bought from the Phillies guy. Yeah, those are really cool, by the way. Do you have any of those you can show? Because Stephen. Stephen 3D prints these. He's baseball card stories on here. I'll make you. Yeah, so I told him what I wanted. You know, I'm like, hey, I want dividers made. Four top loaders, you know, that fits right above them. That'll fit inside a monster box. Or this one's a mini monster box of 3000 count. I told him I wanted the hall of Fame logo on there, you know, and, like, this is, like. He says, this is very, very, very sturdy. This thing isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Very well produced. And I'll be honest, he's extremely nice to work with. Great guy and a great service he's providing. Yeah, you can. I don't even know how to. I guess you go watch his videos and he'll tell you how to get them. If you watch his videos in the description box, there's his email. You just email him. Yeah, say what you want. So I have dividers in the Beast that I had a guy do a long, long time ago, and I'm contemplating redoing those in those deals that Stephen does, because I saw yours, and I've seen him do them, but then I saw you, how you're using. I'm like, dang it, Garrett. There he goes, spending my money again, making me like something. So. So just so you won't like me more, I'll bring them to you. I'll show them to you in our hotel room. Great. Buying them for sure, because they're awesome in person, man. They really are. Are they raised like surface, or is it. Yeah, they are now. It's. Well, you probably can't see it there. Actually, you can right there a little bit. It's raised. God. So it's almost like a 3D logo. Yeah. 100 it is. Dang it. All right. Yeah. If you want something crappy, don't buy those. Like, if you want your collection to get crappier, I'd suggest you don't buy his stuff. Yeah, the. I, you know, people have criticized, like, you know, you put an 87 tops set in a binder. Well, you spent way more on the binder and the pages than you do on the set itself. And to that person, I say, well, then you don't do it. It's not right. No, no, no skin for me. I wanted to do it. I want to be able to pull an 87 top set out and look at it. Or 88 or 89. Although junk wax stuff, they're. They're literally right here in front of me. An awesome huge piece. You know, this is my collection. Boom. All these years, you know, that's impressive to see versus what's this gap here like? Oh, those binders, they were cheap. I didn't want to put them. Why? Those are missing. So. Yeah, wouldn't that be sillier than just eating the $8 and you know, you buy them in bulk. You'd be smart, right? I try to buy stuff as best I can so I'm looking forward to this weekend because I'm trying to think. The last big show I went to and it's been a minute. I want to say maybe November when I went up to see Chris from Missouri, we went to the St. Louis show. Okay. I can't remember. I. I'm probably forgetting something painfully obvious but it's not coming to mind. And I'm looking. I'm going to be set hunting at this show. Like I'm. I've kind of got a budget in mind of what I want to bring to spend and moving to the new house and all the things. It's like. Well, I don't have as big a budget as maybe I would like to be able to go after some bigger cards. But the way the prices have gone, I'm kind of. I've been priced out in my own mind. I've certainly not been priced out in reality. You can save up and buy whatever card you want if you're. If you're diligent and disciplined about it. Right. And. But for me it's kind of the. Well, I'm just gonna go buy some $1, 2, $3 $5 commons and try to see how many slots I can fill, you know, in my sets. That feels like a, a high but achievable goal for this. This. Because we really only have a full day there or I do anyway and that's what I'm going to do. So that's my goal. What about you for this week? Well, I said I'm. I'm focused on getting that shohei that's cheap now by the way. Those have gone down big time. So in, in full transparency, I'm bringing 3,000. I figured the show a will be around 25 and then I'm gonna have 500 to buy. Honestly, stuff that's going to be in dollar boxes and quarter boxes. That's going to grow my sets. My player error run sets like crazy. And that's why I'm so excited right now because I need everything, you know, I need damn near every card of every hall of Famer. So it's like a kid in the candy store for me this weekend. The. We haven't talked about this, but when you were helping, you helped me move all my cards into this room. Is your back recovered yet? First question? Yeah, it was. He has a lot of cards, y', all, but a lot. There was a box I had of a whole bunch of just extra stuff and we did a deal for that and you took that. Were you able to fill anything in your set runs from that? A good amount? You know, probably 50, 60 of those. I pulled it out from my. I like to sell low end cards on ebay. I just. That's something I like to do. I was able to pull those from my ebay store and move them one shelf over to my PC. So, yeah, that was, that was pretty awesome. Else. Yeah, because I had left a bunch of 79. 78 hall of Famers in there. Like multiples of. I don't know how many. Like 79 Johnny benches were in there. Yeah. Forget what year, but you had 18 Reggie Jacksons. That was 79. Yeah. I was like, I have no clue what he's doing here, but that's great. I bought him as a. In a collection. They came. Okay. Yeah. I wasn't acquiring them for any reason other than I had bought them in a collection and they were just. I really would just give them to kids and stuff when they'd come over. But you were, you were super stoked about that box. So I was like, well, I'll help. Let me ask you a question. Hey, this is my show. Hold on. Yeah, change the title real quick here. Let me just kind of going back to what we talked about at the very beginning. You're the host now. Go ahead and never say never, I guess. But does this thing end? Like, are we at the top end of where this hobby thing's going or do you think we're still going to be moving up? Like, where is this thing going? Because. And this is part of the reason I asked. I seen someone on X the other day, posted a hit that they pulled out of a pack and it was a redemption for a Zion case. You know what I mean? And they're coming up with these insanely creative ideas of things you can pull out of packs that like we just never would have fathomed before, you know? Yeah. Experiences you can pull from pack, like go hang out with Mike Trout for a day or what, you know, stuff like that. And where does it. So look, I've been a financial planner for 30 years, and I've lived through ups and downs and crap market crashes and crazy stuff and what I tell everyone, and I will tell every hobbyist that the similar pattern is true, that over time it'll go up and to the right. Right. So you'll start down here and it'll go up the right with zigzags like crazy all along the way. That's the way the market works. But if you look at Over a long period of time, it. You just see the up and to the right. The. The crazy periods are usually so brief and. Or just dramatic and. And then they're over. That. That feels like the hobby to me over my lifetime of collecting, which is 45ish years. Right. So it just feels like it goes up to the right. It can plateau for a little while. It can, you know, have a. Have a pullback a little bit, depending on what's going on. But the way they're being creative, the way they're marketing the way things are. No, it doesn't stop. Yeah, it just won't. It's. I've got too much track record to prove otherwise. Go ahead. No, no, I'm just gonna finish with, you know, can it plateau? Can it go back down for a period of time? Of course. We saw that after Covid, right after the COVID boom, and then kind of a retrace back a little bit, and then now to the moon again. And I have said for 15 years that I've been doing this channel. Today's high prices are tomorrow's discounts. Right. I'd go back five years and buy cards that are double and triple and quadruple. Now that I'd love. Wish I would have bought back then. Right. So. And that was when we thought it was at a peak. Like, that's. Well, it. It certainly can't get higher than this. This is. We're in Bunkersville and. And Reuben's the mayor. Right. And so here we are five years later, and things are still exploding again. The pace slow. Of course it's possible and likely. Honestly, I. To me, the pace of the growth feels unsustainable. Not the growth in general. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say since COVID I feel like it's been. And it was getting hot. I feel before COVID But since COVID it's gone up and, yeah, the speed has changed, you know, at different times, it slowed down and things cooled off a little bit, but then, boom, it would be right back to pedal to the metal. And I definitely hadn't seen a crash, what you would call a crash. But I just think you're naive. You. You would be naive to think, like, this thing's cooling off anytime soon when you have, like, the stuff that's going on at Fanatics Fest. Like, that is stuff. Not in a million years, five, six years ago, would I just said, oh, yeah, this is doable. This is totally going to be a thing, you know, and you look at the audience of these shows, and there's always been kids there, you know, but now it's not just kids, but it's like families. You know, you see more females on the show floor. You see more female collectors, and. Which is, I think, absolutely awesome. When I was a kid, I didn't think women even touched baseball cards. Therefore, I thought I was never going to have a girlfriend because I touched baseball cards. But anyways, just the dynamics or the. The audience that's at these shows, man, you just never seen anything like that. Like, these huge card shows are becoming family functions instead of a dad just grabbing his son and going to the show. The good news is, in two weeks, we're gonna have each other's shoulder to cry on, as we are not at the biggest hobby event, the Hobby super bowl of the National. I would expect the reports to come out of that to be craziest ever, busiest ever, biggest ever. All. All of that. It feels like we say that every year, and so it gets almost numb to hear that again. And I think it's going to be a whole new level this year again, with me expecting that to be true next year. I think Detroit's going to actually be a monster show. Oh, I am really looking forward to that. Yeah. Because I think people are almost not sick of Chicago. That's not the right way to say it, but it's become. We know what to expect in Chicago. And so there. I think there are people that. There's so many new people in the hobby. They've never been, or they're newer to the hobby. They've only been once or twice. They're gonna go to Chicago no matter how many times they have in Chicago. The people like us, though, when Detroit comes back around, oh, that's. That's something different. I want to go check that out. Yeah. I think the. I love Chicago. I Love Rosemont, where the show's at. And I, I really liked the, Every other year, the three years in a row, like, now that we're on the back end of it, like, gosh, dog, like, that's kind of, it's been a bit much. Yeah, it's kind of like you wouldn't have the super bowl in the same exact city every year. And that's kind of what we're doing with the national right now. But both of us will still have some FOMO in a couple of weeks. We're going to be crying in our beer about not being there. I, I, I don't regret the decision not to go, but I will be definitely enjoying keeping up with what's happening. And hopefully there's a lot of cool content if people walking the floor. And again, we know the layout at Rosemont, so it'll be like, okay, what's different? Where did they move things? And it's one thing to look at it on a map. We can all go look at the national map. It's another to see it in person. And I'm excited to follow along in people's experiences when they're there and, and get the general vibe and feel. I hope the show is just awesome for everyone that goes. I, it's a weird place to be where I don't feel like going, but that's where I am and not never again in any way, shape or form. Just not this year. Yeah, I know you, I feel extremely well and I think you will probably have a hard time not going two years in a row. You may say no, but I just have a feeling like you stepping out this year. Okay, like, that'll be nice, refresh the batteries. But then it's like two years of no national, no experience of that. I don't know that I feel for you might be a bit much. Right. So. But I'm excited about Philly in September. I've got Strongsville next April to look forward to. Right. There's. I'm not without things to anticipate, so. And things to go. Enjoy. You and I have talked about this many, many of times, but never, I guess, on video. How bananas is Strongsville getting now? Like, I remember you telling me, so I didn't go this past year, but I went the year before and that was my first and only time. And I remember you telling me about the year and a year before that, just how awesome it was and organic it was and how small and just real tight it was and how great and it's just Grown every year with the audience of you vintage guys, Yalls audience going. And that thing seems to be getting really big, man. Well, you had a good time the time you went, right. An absolute blast. Yeah, absolute blast. And you would have gone this year, save some work things and stuff that you couldn't quite maneuver. You were. You were very bummed you didn't get to go to Strongsville. I remember that. And this year was different. Obviously they combined the two shows and everybody was worried about what was going to happen. It was still great. I like more choices. I like more dealers being there it. Which is. Sounds counterintuitive when I also like the intimacy and the. The tightness of it and the ability just to look across the room and see all your buddies or see them up in the stands, you know, harassing you in the. At the hockey rink as you got you and Mike did. But I don't, you know, to me I'd still rather have it be growing and be giving me more choices as a collector with dealers and cards and everything. So I'm embracing the change and we can still have our events. I think Strongzville is going to be just as. Or more bonkers next year. Yeah. Because I think you'll be there. I'm hoping you'll be there. Yeah, I'm hoping to be there as well. Man. I can't think of a time in my life. I'm 43 and I started collecting when I was about 8. That the hobby's been this healthy. I mean, it is like booming, man. What. What defines that hobby? Healthy? Well, kind of like I spoke of earlier, you know, you used to. At least me, you know, it wasn't something, you know, you. You went on the first date or something and you told some girl you collected cards. You know, it was something that you maybe hid. At least me. You didn't go tell your buddies at work that you were into collecting cards, anything like that. You know, you're having these a lister celebrities showing up back to Fanatics fest. You have these mega, mega athletes walking in the crowd with people. I mean, this is just stuff that you'd never ever seen before, you know. And yeah, the, the wax, if you will, it's more expensive than ever, you know, but there's a cost to, to growth, you know, and unfortunately, you're gonna have to feel that a little bit as well. But it just seems like so many people right now are collecting. You know, a couple weeks ago I was talking to a guy at work that I know, he collects and, and we Were talking a little bit about it, and a guy happened to walk in, and he was like, oh, y' all talking about baseball cards? He's like, I collect baseball cards, you know? And I had no clue, like, this dude is a suit and tie guy, you know? And I'm like, wow. You know, and then we had the most awesome conversation for 45 minutes about baseball cards, man, and how we got into it and all that. And that kind of stuff never seemed to happen before. You should be a suit and tie guy, by the way. That would look. That's a good look for you. But. Okay, simple question. 10. 10 years ago versus today. Is the hobby better or worse off? I don't know if I could answer that for speaking for the hobby. For you. Is your hobby better or worse? I'd say worse. Okay. Okay. But I don't like the hustle and bustle. I don't. I'm not a big. I don't like growth, you know, so that's me. I'll say. Cards are way more readily available than ever before. You know, I remember having to send money orders through the mail to get your ebay items that you want on function. But for me, I prefer that 10 years ago better. But it's interesting. It's extremely interesting to see what's going on and where we're going. You know, I'm not fearful. I'm not thinking about getting out of the hobby because of the gross. You just have to zig when they zag. You just have to find your niche where you fit in. And it might be a little bitty hole in the corner, and that's perfect. Perfectly fine. There's tens of thousands of collectors that are just like that. You know, I would say the hobby for me today is better than it was 10 years ago. But my answer is for different reasons than maybe someone thinks. It's not because of what's going on in the hobby. It's because of where my collection at is at today versus where it was 10 years ago. And to that end, I. I also have more disposable income today than I did 10 years ago. And so I can. Right, I. I'll give you that. And so. And both of us do, you know, oh, brother. Ten years ago, I was having ramen noodle souffle, man. Like, what are you talking about? How else can we make ramen taste good? Okay, like, that was like forest gump instead of shrimp. It was ramen noodles, man. You were bubblegum. Well, you can saute it. You can try it, right But I, you know, my, my list has of cards. I really want bigger cards. Right. I've been able to knock some of those off over the last decade and, and buy some collections and keep some. Like, I had some experience that have been amazing, met so many great people. So for me today, the hobby is better than it was 10 years ago. And that, that doesn't. Again, I'm, I'm like you. I, I miss the old days, but I'm not grumbling about it because I can't change it. We're never going back there, and that's okay. So, I mean, I guess when you ask that, I'm thinking just strictly cards is what I was thinking. Yeah. You know, I wasn't thinking about the friends and, and all that stuff. I mean, heck, I didn't. If I were to show you my contacts in my phone, I guarantee three fourths of them are YouTubers. I have more YouTube contacts than I do contacts with dudes that I was in the Navy for 22 years with probably two, three times. Yeah. And you know, I didn't have any of that 10 years ago. We started the show by saying, how long have we known each other? Maybe a decade. So, yeah, 10 years ago I had none of that. So, yeah, I guess when you put in the friend factor, in the community factor. Yeah, I mean that's, that's. You're not going to overlook that that's pretty massive. My phone is a Rolodex of YouTubers. And in, in the most wonderful way. Tom, who's Chris from Missouri's friend, he's coming to Dallas this weekend. He's like, hey, do you have such and such his phone number? And I'm like, of course I do. So I sent him the phone number and he's like, thanks. Like, everybody asked me for, hey, do you know so and so can you share their contact? Nobody asked, ever asked me, hey, do you have Garrett's phone number? Ironically, just. Just a thing, man. Par for the course, probably because they, they know good character, so they don't ask you about me. But what I love is there's that connectivity, you know, who knows why? There could be a myriad of reasons why people would be asking for someone's contact. Hey, I found a card that they might be interested. I. I'm going to near their area. I want to try to hang out with them or whatever. And we're gonna have people that you don't know yet that you're gonna meet this weekend in Dallas that I know are coming to the show. That I'm like, oh, Garrett's gonna like this guy. Our buddy Matt Galvin. You've never met Matt, right? In person. Correct. So he's coming. Kelly and Hughes. And like, I'm saying names right now. Garrett's going, who the heck is that guy? I feel like you're making up names right now. I'm. I'm not making up names. Like in Carlos and Geronimo, Tony, you could have said Mike, and that would have guaranteed about 15 people that are going to be there. Mike, Chris, John. There we go. I just covered half the community right there. But it's. It's going to be fun to see you meet new people. And, you know, I. I get. Again, I get to talk to you every day, and it's. It'll be exciting to see people get to know you and you just be. Be your different self. Be the Garrett. That's a good guy. Thank you. This just popped in my head about the hobby. I think it used to be, like, something you did. Collecting was something you did. And I feel like now it's a part of your lifestyle, you know, because it's not. I just don't hobby now. You know, I just don't do sports cards. I'm on a podcast right now, for Pete's sake, about baseball cards. You know, it. It becomes part of your lifestyle. You know, maybe not who you are unless you're a dealer for a living, but I would say for most of us that are listening to this, it is definitely a part of our life. No question. No question. And it. And it trickles over into other areas of your life. I mean, you and I talk way more about life than cards when we're talking. It's what's going on, brother. I've shed many tears with you on the phone over some very, very serious things. Yeah. I mean, just think about not just the hobby, but, like, just what this community has done for you or done for your friends. I mean, I mean, look where Palmer's at right now. You know what I mean? Yeah. He's working for a YouTube buddy. And that's just off the top of my head. You know, if we had another hour, we could probably name another 20, 30 things. When I tell people that, by the way, that aren't in the hobby, they do the old. And like, huh, like, how does that work? And I said, you. You can't understand, like, why would I send my son to go interview with a guy that does YouTube videos? Well, because it's Tony, you know, or it's you know, because I've met him and I know him and obviously because he has a lot of subscribers. I mean, why else? That's why. Yeah, that's exactly. I mean, he's an up and coming channel, Palmer. You need to, you know, hit your wagon to that. No, it, it is weird. The connections and the, the things. We talk about it all the time ad nauseam. Truly. But it's true. I mean, we're living proof. You and I sitting here are living proof of it. And I, I, I'll apologize, I guess. I, I don't know how many times I have to keep apologizing for bidding against you on, on a card. It's done. It's over. Okay? We. We. We still piss each other off every once in a while too, don't we? Yeah, that's certainly a thing. That's part of being brothers. And my brother pisses me off every once in a while. So does yours, but your mom's the best. I gotta give another shout out to, To Mama Jane. She's. She's gonna watch this. I know it because she loves it when we do videos together. And you know it. Don't. Don't be lying. Know. She does. Yeah, she's a. A special woman for sure. Well, enough about all this. I'll see you in a few days. Yes, sir. We'll be hanging out, enjoying the show. Look for content on Garrett. Card cutter is his channel from the show. He may do. May do a couple things. I'll do some stuff from the show to give you guys a vibe of the health of the hobby. We. We'll get a inside look in a few days. So, Garrett, thanks for being here, man. Yes, sir. Thanks for having me. All right, well, we'll talk to you guys soon for another episode of Golden Age of Cardboard. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening this week and every week. Have fun with it. Keep collecting. Peace. Wait, what is it? You just gotta throw the deuces at the end. Just. Yeah, but you do like peace? Be safe. Adios. Bye. Bye. I don't know. I don't, I don't. I. I can't even do it for you right now. It's not my video. Fair enough. See y'. All. Adios. Be safe. Bye Bye. Toodles.