Ep.200 w/ Jeff Owens of Sports Collector's Digest

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Welcome to episode 200, holy smokes to be honest with you, when I started this thing, 47 months ago in November of 2018, I wasn't sure there is going to be an episode 10 and episode 20. And here we are all these years later, episode 200 and excited, you know, I'm proud of where the show was come. I want to thank right here in the And all the guests we've had on the show over 180 different folks have been on this podcast. Thank you to all the people out there who listen to the show without you, there would be no episode 100, let alone two hundred, and obviously, all our sponsors that make this show possible as well. And so just just hard to Fathom 200 episodes by here. We are got a great guest today, Jeff Owens of sports collectors digest, the editor and Chief and I've got to know him pretty well. Got to talk to him in Atlantic City and happy to, you know, we're going to announce on the show you here. If I'm going to be doing a monthly column for sports collectors digestate magazine publication, I kind of grew up in the hobby reading and dinner. 

Well, since 1973 their tagline is the voice of the hobby. You know, the tagline of this show is the Hobbies people. And speaking of hobbies, the people, I'm going to do a monthly column for splint sports collectors that I just called the hobbies to people where I'm going to probably talk about someone from the hobby, maybe even you. So it's going to be really fun. Used to write wrote a little bit for tough stuff. A couple other Other sports card Publications that didn't last too long but you know, happy too happy to do it again. And what I'm going to get to do with the columns is going to be something. I'm looking forward to and it's going to be a lot of fun and I think, you know, I think and hope you enjoy but we're gonna have Jeff on here. Shortly want to talk about his illustrious career in editing. 

And the sports in the sports card world. And what he's bringing to the table for sports collectors digest as they modernized what they do. So well, since 1973 little, you have to listen to the interview up. He's you up little known sports card. Fact about Jeff that he's going to tell you about. So, with that being said, It's time to stop the show. Let's go time for a hobby. Is the people announcer of the week. 

Hello, this is Mark Hoyle. And remember the hobby is a people. If you'd like to be the hobbyist of evil announcer of the week to have wires or MP3 file and send it to sports coordination, PC at gmail.com, all right, time to give away three, free grading, submissions courtesy of SGC grading, one of our great sponsors, The celebrate episode 200. 200 cost you nothing. How do you enter DM or email us the following contest word, which is tuxedo. So, DM or private? Message us on any of our sports car Nation Podcast, social medias or email us at sports card Nation PC at gmail.com sports card Nation, PC at gmail.com. Come the Word, which is tuxedo, the everyone will be put on a list. The list will be randomized and the person that's on the top of that list, after randomization will be the lucky winner of three free grading submissions. Thank you to SGC, like the athletes. We admire the sports card shop is changing the game. We're not launching three bombing drives or hitting dingers, but we have built a unique Gathering Spot for all. Collectors to trade cards, talk sports, play games and watch their favorite athletes on the big screens. Yes, we've partnered with panini Upper Deck, Leif Topps, Fanatics, Pokemon and others, to bring you all the latest in sealed wax. And singles Buck the sports card shop in New Buffalo. Michigan is much much more. Our recent expansion, brings collectible sneakers, Hot Wheels and more sports and entertainment memorabilia into the mix. Our new collectors cave, game room is the perfect place to throw a rip 

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Real happy to have my next guest on the sports car. Chap at Moco guess like I got to talk to him before the national got to meet him at this year's National and the Atlantic City, great gentleman and is going to be doing great things that sports collectors digest. He's the editor there now and happy to bring them mr. Jeff Owens. Welcome to sports Carnation. Thanks John. It's a pleasure to be here. It was great to meet you. A few weeks ago and as I said, then I've been listening to your show for quite a while, so it's a pleasure to be here while I appreciate that as I tell everyone who listens to the show, now you're on it. So you get that to hear yourself, you're, you know, you're working on your second year going into, you know, completing your second year at sports collectors digest. You're not new to editing. You've done a lot of work with sporting news. I know you covered. I know. I'm talking to you covered, NASCAR plenty as well. I mean, what do you think? You know, I know you're not new to the Hobby, we talk that you know, about your Collective background. I want to talk to you a little bit about that but just so just so far, I know you attended last two years ago to cago, obviously we just talked about the Atlantic City National just your thoughts on the hobby from, you know, how you used to know it to now where where, where it's at now? Yeah. 

Yeah, it's been, you know, kind of a mind-blowing experience, to be honest with you, to jump into this, you know, I collected a little bit as a kid and I've been in and out of the hobby little bit over the years and then got away from it. And then I came into it, kind of knew a little bit, you know, certainly new to the modern era the hobby, I guess you would say. And I was really Blown Away by how it had changed and how big it had become. But I guess you could say, I came in and at the right time or at a very interesting time anyway because came in just after the pandemic or right when the pandemic was still going on, and of course things were just exploding in prices and interest and all these new people coming into the Hobby and investing in it and was just blown away by what I saw in that really excited me about getting involved again and running the magazine. And then my first show, first, big show, I had been 

In a long, long time was the national in Chicago last year? And that was an amazing experience. I was extremely impressed by what I saw and to be honest with you, I was pretty overwhelmed. I've covered a lot of sporting events in my career and been in some huge crowds. You know, I covered some NASCAR races that had 150,000 people there and and I covered the college football game that set the all-time attendance record at 160. Thousand. And of course, we Have that kind of crowd in Chicago but being inside that building with all those people and all those dealers and just wall-to-wall cards and memorabilia, it kind of felt like that he kind of felt like a huge event. So that was a great life to buzzing atmosphere. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, the buzz and the excitement and the enthusiasm for the hobby, it just a passion, you know, that's what I keep going back to, I don't know. That I have ever you know, sports fans in general, are passionate about whatever they follow. But I think there's a great parallel there. I think collectors are the same way. And that's what I noticed in Chicago is just a tremendous passion for the hobby. People were really excited about it. They were excited about where it had come, and where it was going. It was kind of at its at its peak, I guess at that point. And so that was really 

Siding and that really got me excited and motivated about running. The magazine I had been there about three months at the time so that was a tremendous experience for me to learn a lot to meet a lot of people but also just to feel that passion and excitement in to get motivated about being involved in and trying to contribute where I can and then you know, we went on and went to Atlantic City this year and that was a different show, I think. But again, A tremendous Vibe another tremendous crowd. I thought Thursday and Friday was probably bigger than Chicago, maybe crowd wise and just, you know, just tremendous again. Great Passion. We spent five days there met a lot of great people made a lot of great contacts covered. A lot of great stories including the record Mantle card. I think we did two or three stories that weekend on that and so just, you know, 

Just a tremendous experience and I came away just feeling like, you know, this thing is as big as everybody says it is. And you know, again the thing that really impressed me most I think was just the passion for the Hobby and how much everyone who's involved in it whether you're in it from a corporate standpoint or you're just a collector or you're a content creator or whoever everybody's just out of tremendous love and passion for the hobby. They want to see it through. Thrive. They want to see it succeed and, you know, not everything that's happening. These days is good. You know, there's some bad stuff going on too. And, and, you know, people have their different opinions about the direction, the hobby is going and what's happening. But, but all that gets back to the passion, you care about those things, good and bad because you love The Hobby. And that's the thing. I think I have taken away from my first couple of years in this. Yeah, well, said, and talked about, you know, three months in and you You let you know that the Chicago National at that point, we're sort of at the sort of the top of the crescendo of the hobby, boom, talk about hitting the ground running. We seen things settled down, but like you said, these events, no matter where to hobby is, market-wise or price-wise. Like you said, that's a great word, right? The passion people are still going to pack these venues and, and the love of the hobby. 

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Always really. People say, well, the Hobbies die in, or time to, you know, to downhill Trend, you know, prices might be on the downhill Trend but what the people in The Hobby are still here and still still love it and I always, like I said this show Jeff, you know, the prices come down, that's an opportunity to get some stuff that maybe you couldn't think about purchase and prior so it's not always, you know, about a, I need everything to be worth. A million dollars or you know we all want our stuff to be worth this as much as possible. But you know, when price is sort of cooled down and kind of correct themselves, a great opportunity to get some stuff that maybe was not out of her reach and, you know, it can pick, you know, it's a roller coaster, right? They've come to come down and then certain things will Crescendo up so it's just absent flows. Yeah, and I was thinking that a lot in sports, over the years, you've seen 

A lot of baseball, you know, back in 94, we have the strike. A lot of people walked away swore, they were weren't going to follow baseball again anymore. And then a lot of those people have come back. You've seen that in a lot of sports. I saw that in NASCAR. I got into NASCAR during its Heyday when it was really exploding. And I catch myself a lot drawing, the lot of parallels because I think that's true. You know, back when I started covering NASCAR it was it was The hottest thing going. I mean, it was it was getting so big that a lot of people felt like it was right there in the same category as football baseball basketball. It's not that way anymore. It's dropped off tremendously, but you know, I've covered all of that. I saw that sport rise from being a regional thing to a national phenomenon and I kind of see a lot of parallels there. You know, to what's happening in the hobby right now. I mean, it is really expensive. 

Loaded and grossed and value and all the wealthy investors getting into the sport. It's like the thing to do right now, if you're into sports or you're an investor like that it's the hottest thing going right now. And that's kind of the way it was and NASCAR back in the late 90s and nerdy early 2000. You saw all sorts of celebrities Sports celebrities from, you know, Reggie Jackson, and Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman. And all these people jumping into the sport. Because it was so hot at the time and and I see the same thing happening right now in the hobby. You know, you have a lot of athletes, get involved in it, you got a lot of wealthy investors and it is just sparked. The, the boom era that we're sort of enjoying right now, but as you said, we're starting to see it, you know, decline a little bit in certain areas particularly in the blotter and cards and stuff like that. So you were listening to the sports card Nation Podcast. We'll be right back after this break. 

For literally, 50 years sports, collectors digest has been the voice of the hobby. Bringing you comprehensive coverage of the sports, collectible industry from industry news auction results, market analysis, and in-depth, stories, about collectors, and their collections. Sports collectors digest, has everything you need to know about the hobby. SCD is also your leading source for listings of sports collectible dealers, card shops card shows, and the latest in the industry's top, To check out all the latest news or do you subscribe to the Hobbies? Oldest magazine visit sports collectors, digest.com or call one eight hundred eight to nine 5561 there are Ebbs and flows. I think that's you know a good parallel, we see that in a lot of sports we see in baseball and other sports and You know, it's inevitable, that's going to happen in the hobby as well. But I think, I think in the last couple of years, we've sort of set a precedent and gotten to a level that they've been. I think we're really going to sustain for a while but maybe not the prices we've seen. Maybe maybe it's still dips a little bit, but I definitely think the hobby is alive and well. And and here to stay for sure. Yeah. No doubt. And you know, whenever I hear somebody, you know, hobby, someone in the hobby side Hobby, He's dying out. I just The shake my head or I'll even chuckle sometimes like, you know, just because prices go down, does it mean the hobbies that it just means? The market is sort of Uncertain, things is correcting itself and we've seen like you said things. Go down the same the same items can go back up to. I like to, you know, we forget a lot of this stuff is performance-based to so you know we've seen guys know have a great game or great you know run of Two weeks and their stuff starts to rise back up again. So it's really a performance-based market especially and with the current with the current players and, you know, the Vintage and that high-end stuff. I don't want to say, it's been unaffected, it's been effective but it's been less affected, like you said. And compare in comparison to, you know, the modern or ultra-modern level, we're still seeing it just seems like every other 

Day right? A new auction record or private sale record and you know, that's an indicator. You were no. It's a high-end part of the hobby that few people really partake in. It's still part of the hobby. That's the other thing. We need to recognize while maybe me and you aren't buying a mantle for twelve point six million dollars. It's still sold for that from someone who's in The Hobby, maybe they're, you know, they're bankrolls different than ours. But it's still the Hobby and to not, you know, acknowledge that is, you know, disingenuous or so. And that trickle, you know, that's a trickle-down effect, right? Because that 9.5 man old, that you mentioned that this year's National, you know what it brings affects the great starting from 95 and down and that will, you know, that all matters. And it's like that on every card, it kind of sets the Old so stuff. This is called off with the hobby itself is is growing. You've seen that on, you know, going from the Chicago National to Atlantic City, you probably noticed. I mean talk about your hobby background. Like what would you collect cards when you were a kid? Like, most folks that typical story? Yeah, pretty much the same. Yeah, I loved it. When I was a kid, you know, I started. And you know, when I was 6 7 8 years old, I love sports so much, loved everything football, baseball, basketball, and then, when I discovered cards, I don't remember the precise moment that it was, but I know that when I covered cards, discovered baseball cards in particular, I had to have every time we went to the grocery store or the drugstore. You know, I had to have a pack of cards. I was kind of like that kid. You know, you've always heard about on the cereal aisle who 

Whines and cries in this. Got to have the cereal box that has the best prize in it. I was that way with cards. You know. I had to have a pack of cards at the at the checkout counter at the grocery store so my mom bought me a pack of cards. Every time I was there, I usually rip those things open before I even got to the car. I loved it, you know, and I would get more packs when I would go back and, you know, and when you're a kid, you don't think about value and you don't think that you're collecting. And though they were tolec that you played with them. So we traded them and we flipped them. And and I use mine, you know, I would organize them in all sorts of different ways to create different batting lineups and different fantasy teams. And this was back before we even knew what fantasy sports was. I kind of use my cards to create my own little fantasy world for, for sports for baseball. And then I discovered football cards and I collected, those and basketball cards. And, you know, and I would keep things. 

Things. You know, I didn't really take care of and we played with them. You handle them all the time and I kept mine and shoeboxes and so I had shoeboxes full of and I love those things I really did and you know and then you get older, you get to be a teenager and you're playing ball and you're chasing girls and you're doing all these things and you sort of get away from it a little bit, but then when I was in college and a little bit after college, I had a couple of uncles who collected cars and they were also Dealers. They would go to the local flea markets on the weekend. They would deal baseball cards. And so every year at birthdays and Christmas and stuff like that, they would kind of give me a box of cards. So I accumulated quite a few sets of flair and andras and scorecards. I had more score sets than I knew what to do. With, you know, I can't believe I still on the onto but went through that phase for 45 years where I accumulated a lot of cards that way and then you know you get busy you move on with life and you start your career and that sort of thing. And I kind of got away from it a little bit. But what was interesting is that, you know, I jumped heavily into the sports media side of things and and I started covering Sports, I went to journalism school at the University of South Carolina. 

And you early on, I think, I even knew in high school that what I wanted to do and, you know, two things that I love most were writing and sports. So I knew that's kind of what I wanted to do. So, I went to school and I started working for some newspapers while I was in college. And then when I got out, I bounced around a little bit and no covered a little bit of everything covered preps and college sports, and just always had my hand in it, in some way, in some form or fashion. And then I got into NASCAR a kind of by accident, certainly not, you know, wasn't on my radar. It was just something that sort of happened. I started covering the little bit for a small paper. I was working for in it and it opened kept opening new opportunities. So I got an opportunity to move to Charlotte North Carolina and that's where I am now, I've been here probably almost 30 years now, but I covered a little NBA. I've covered a little bit of NFL when the Carolina Panthers got into the league. 

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Time and I wound up running a magazine called NASCAR see, which at the time, was the largest motor sports publication in the country. And through that, I got to do quite a bit of traveling. They had race tracks all over the country and I got to do that and through the course of that, I've got to continue to sort of fulfill my love for sports. A lot of times, I would pick the events I would go to based on what ballparks I could get to I think I've been to something like 25, ballparks all across the country and as I moved up a little bit and began running the magazine, I got to pick my trips and that's how I pick my trips every year. You know, I've been to all the races that was kind of, you know, no big deal anymore. So I got the baseball schedule out every year and will to said okay who's home and you know, I want to go to this race and this race in this race and I would hit as many ballparks as I could. And you know, I got to go to offend 

Wrigley at Dodger Stadium in a lot of great places through my travels and I would pick up a pack of cards here and there. Every now and then if you'd see him at the ball park or somewhere around there, I might pick up a pack of cards but, you know, I did that for a long time time to step aside for a quick moment but we'll be right back with more with Jeff Owens. Are you a new sports cards collector or someone returning to the Hobby? Maybe you're just looking for a friendly trustworthy hobby Community to hang out with and enjoy. Getting Midwest box, braids have been bringing collectors together for many years with a portable, Rick hopeful threads and a Discord group packed with generous, people who genuinely care about the Hobby and other collectives. Check out the brakes at Midwest box. Breaks.com our goal is to bring you as much value as possible. Also find us on Twitter at Midwest Boxford. Hey folks John here just wanted to remind you use the discount code M bb10 for 10% off your first order. 

Her at Midwest box breaks. Calm, welcome back, let's continue our conversation with Jeff Owens from sports collectors digest and then after that, I wound up at the sporting news, which was kind of a drain for me at the time because, you know, I read, you know, I'm sure you probably did too. I read told you when I was a kid and, you know, I was talking about collecting as a kid, you know, the other thing that I collected, as much as cards were magazine Sports magazine. I got Sports Illustrated every week, I got the old Sport magazine every week, I got Sporting News every week and I just devoured those things. Yeah, I would read them from cover to cover, I saved them. I had seen, you know, not to cut and I think a job to before social media that was social media. That was how we got a lot of our information other than newspapers and box scores as sports fans as 

Our folks. That's how we like you said, if that's how we got our information, we didn't have, you know, ESPN and hey, we're in the, we're outside the locker room and breaking news. That was what we that was ESPN. That was Twitter, Instagram, Facebook before those existed. So I'm right with you but going but go yeah, it still blows my mind that a lot of people back in those days. That's how Sporting News was, how you Would get your box scores. Yeah, you know, if your local paper didn't carry the Box course, you got sporting news and it would have every box score from every game from that week. You know, that just blew me away and I would I would play with those just like I did cards, you know, I would study those two statistics and you know, create lineups and do all this stuff. So I collected Sports magazines as well as I did baseball cards. And you know, I had shoeboxes full of cards and 

I had bigger boxes, just full of magazine. I had called my calls. It was stacked with those things and you know eventually you know you move on and your mom gets rid of all that stuff. So I kind of wish I still had a but you know, when I got the opportunity to go to sporting news, that was kind of a dream for me because I had read that magazine my whole career and I was there for four or five years and really enjoyed my time there. But, but while I was there, we kind of saw, you know, the sad evolution of Jeans while I was there because You know, while I was there, Sporting News went from a Weekly Magazine to a biweekly magazine to a monthly and then sadly, it if the print edition eventually went away and went all digital and you know, that was that's kind of, you know, where the industry has gone over the course of time and that was kind of sad. But you know, I was there for five years and then I got a chance to run a college Sports magazine for a few years. That was a lot of fun. And then during And they're like I was looking around and some different options and got an email one day from about sports collectors digest and that really piqued my interest to whole lot. I had read in some as a kid. I didn't subscribe to it but sometimes you could find it on the newsstand. Yeah. And I would get it and I would get Beckett and I would get the old tough stuff magazine, which we owned that for a while I used to get those. So You know, the opportunity to go to work there and jump back into the hobby. Was fascinating to me, it was something that, you know, I was really excited about, you know. And so I jumped at that opportunity to get in it and it was great timing and it's been a lot of fun. Yeah. And you're no, I don't have to tell you, I don't have to sell this to you, but for those that don't know. And some are going to be nodding their heads. In agreement here that have been around a while, you know, sports, like 

Digest, I believe 1983, if my memory serves me correct when they started, I remember as a young Colt collector first and now I did my first show at 15 so still young but I remember buying that publication year, the had all the shows. Listen it was really to my knowledge. The only publication at the time that list is literally all the shows it had. It had some pricing but it was very Form of there was interviews and articles and I remember the one thing that sticks out Jeff to to the original was the what the paper was made of. It was very thin and was head like a newspaper in a magazine sort of Fiat, I always thought that was kind of neat and I would pick it up and read the articles check out what shows at that point I was starting to travel and do shows. 

And just see which ones I can either get to either the setup at or even just to go and maybe buy some stuff and it was a great resource. So it has a long history here we are, you know, 39 years later and it still is still going. And that, like you said, there's something to be said about that. When you've seen a lot of other Publications not exist anymore, tough stuff. You mentioned, they're gone. I wrote a little bit for them as a Younger man and they're no longer around and you know back it's still around but they sort of kind of change direction of what what they're known for and how do they operate. And you know they've transitioned a lot online sports collectors digest as I like to but I think you know you're going to Kno you bring in your experience is you know and I think you know you're really up in the game. 

No, then going on the site, like there's more you're staying on top of the news and breaking a lot of news and being the first to cover stories. And I think that's, that's important, right? People want to go whether they get in and print form or to get it and online electronic form. They want it to be fresh. They wanted to be current and I, you know, kudos to you and your staff because I think you sort of brought it Back to that. I think, you know, there's a time period there when maybe that wasn't the case or not as much. Let's just put it that way. And I think you're getting it back, you know, to its proper place. And really at the Forefront, kinda speak to that like your vision kind of what you know coming in. You're not new to sport. You might be a little new to the Hobby, but you still have a hobby background to your also, I want to give you a. I don't know if it's a secret but you can correct me wrong to you've written. 

Looks like some of the BIOS and stuff. And what was it? Max cards, right? NASCAR. Yeah, I did back in the early 2000s, you know, Max and another company called act. It was action performance, maybe they put out some sets of NASCAR cards and they advertise in our magazine every week. So they called me up one day and they were looking to put out some new sets and they asked me, you know, hey do you know anybody that would like to write the copy? That goes on the back of these cards and I said Yeah. Yeah, you know I mean I thought about it. I looked around the room you know, we had a pretty large staff of a pretty large use room and I'm like who would be perfect to do that? The more I thought about it, I'm like you know what, I want to do that myself, that was cool because you know I think I may have been probably the only person there. There might have been a few others that collected a little bit as a kid, but that was kind of right up my alley. So I started doing that. You know, I did that for three or four years Max, and the other company put 

Cards and you know they'd send me a list of drivers and tell me what they needed. And I would put together that the copy that went on the back of those but that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that time to hear from one of our great sponsors but sports card Nation will be right back after that. 

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I guess, one of the reasons that sports collectors digest was attracted to me is more my magazine and journalism background per se that have been collecting. So I you know, and I was fascinated by that too because like I said, I had read the magazine as a kid and remembered it. And you know, this was the third magazine that I went to work for that. I read and subscribe to or read regularly as a kid and that was kind of cool to me because we In the era where we're seeing magazines Fall by the wayside and you know everybody's going digital these way these days everybody gets their news in different forms but one of the things that fascinated be by sports collectors digest is that it hadn't changed a whole lot over the years and that's good and bad. That you know, the good thing is that it brings back a lot of memories and yeah, you know people remember what it was like and we still have a lot of subscribers today. Today who have been reading it for, you know, 40 years or so, you know we celebrate our 50th Anniversary next year and there's guys who've been subscribing for that long, you know, I hear from them all the time and I get, it's amazing to me, you know, some of these guys, some of our subscribers are so old that they don't really know how to do email and stuff. So I get a tremendous volume of handwritten letters in the mail and that's fascinating to me. I'll get a, a big bulky letter and 

Attend page letter from this guy who's been a subscriber for 40 years. And he's telling me all the great things about the Hobby and all the bad things. And, you know, sometimes they'll send you a card or they'll send you a photo or something. And that's fascinating to me. And when I was looking at taking this job, one of the things that really struck me was that there's parts of the magazine that really hadn't changed the whole lot in those years. You look at some of the ads that are in there and they're from dealers that have been Around forever and their abs look. Almost like they did back in the 70s and that was exciting to me. I love that. That was, you know, picking up that magazine for the first time in about 25 or 30 years and flipping through it was almost like opening a pack of baseball cards from the seventies because it kind of still look that way a little bit but by the same token you know that presented a great opportunity for me to come in and maybe update things and change the philosophy a little bit, you know, not 

Great deal. You know, one of the things, you know, you mentioned this that we've really tried hard to strike a balance, is keeping up with the news and the corporate side and what's going on, you know, all the records, all the people entering the hobby, the Partnerships and in all of the stuff that's evolved over the past couple years while at the same time trying to keep the old school stories that subscribers love the you know stories about collectors. Us Collections and old sets and that kind of stuff. So we have to strike a good balance between all that stuff. So that's what I'm trying to do right now is, you know, poor put a lot of attention into not only the magazine, but into our digital platforms. You know, we're trying to grow the website our social media platforms and, you know, one of the most fascinating things that and you and I talked about this a good bit of the national, you know, when I took this job, you know, uh, new 

Out of what I was doing as far as magazines. But I had a lot to learn and a lot to catch up on in the hobby. You know, I hadn't been around it really in about 25 years. So I had a lot of catching up to do and I had to think about, you know, okay how am I going to learn this as quickly as possible and when I weld up doing, you know, and I started looking around and there really wasn't a whole lot of websites, that was covering it from a new standpoint. You know, sports collectors daily is Out there. I think Rich does a really good job with what he does but that was about it, you know, I couldn't really find any other sources. So I started looking looking around and I started listening to podcast. I started watching the YouTube channels, I discovered you, I discovered dr. Beckett Mike, morning ham in all these great guys out there who are doing a fabulous job in that world, you know, as podcasters and YouTubers and I learned a lot. 

Doing that. That's really what how I got my Introduction to the Hobby is by listening to you guys. Because I really, you know, I took this job and I had to go to school fast. I had a lot more learn in about two or three weeks and I'm still learning, but that's how I did it by listening to you guys. And that's, that's been a great resource for. Well, I got good news, Jeff, here's the thing, the hobby, the new cycle, it changes so fast that we're all learning. So don't we're learning right along, which it like I wasn't going to mention, you know, in the in the You know, when sports collectors digest was in its early days, the new cycle in the hobby was fairly slow, you would probably would probably be harder to like it. What are we going to write about? You know in this this issue nothing is not a lot of news right here, you know, but in today's hobby it's a whole new world. There's mergers Acquisitions strategic Partnerships delays and you got the pandemic supply chain. 

Shoes. The national is nothing like it. What it what it was in its infancy years. It's an event in itself. So now that I mean the stories are it's I think that, you know, a publication went from like, what are we going to write about to like hey you know, how big is this issue? How big do we want this issue? Actually to be what's going to make the cut and maybe what are we kind of put on the back burner has at least four. This issue or for now. And that's a, I guess that's a good problem that to have. And I think, you know, makes it a little more difficult. It's always going to be challenges, right? No matter what error you're doing it in, but I guess it's, I guess the good part is, there's no shortage of of news. Like I think they used to be and I don't want to make it sound like there wasn't any news but when you compare the errors, it's there's a the new cycle now is definitely a 

More Act of you got a lot more people in the hobby doing a lot of different things. And so there's a lot to talk about a lot to cover and that part I think make, you know, make sure you have a little bit easier but it's still, you know, still difficult because you know you like you said you're battling that you know the online versus print but you you guys have been around a long time, you're still going like you said, you have a lot of loyal folks that have been there. From inception. And that's that, that I think to Testament to the publication, right? You got to be doing something, right? Well, when you're around, you know, 40 plus years and that people from inception still going with you. I mean, that's a testament to you guys. Now, you're bringing your expertise. So what is it? You know, I'll say it to really kind of modernize and bring it up to speed. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Like you said, there's definitely 

No shortage of stuff to write about and the challenge now really is, you know, I mean, we're putting almost as much content in a week on the website as we are at the magazine and the challenge now is is figuring out, you know what goes in the magazine and what we have to leave out because you don't have unlimited space and you have to make some pretty hard decisions and and really, you know, it's gotten to a point where they're almost two separate products now. Because a lot of people that Scribe to the magazine. You know they make check out the website every now and then but a lot of them are just magazines subscribers. They still love getting it and they still love getting certain kinds of content. You know they they still love reading about the collectors and the collections and the old stuff and then online, you know we try to keep it a little bit more modern keep up with the news and kind of give you a little bit of everything but it's changed a lot time for a quick break, fun. 

We'll be right back. Zion cases are the best car cases in the hobby one, quick walk around the national or even the local card. Show will bear that out. Whether it's a case that protect your one single Grail card, or the holder, protect many of your precious cards. Look, no further than the Zion cases, and don't forget our backpack cases have no equal, check us out at www.sciencedenmark.com and remember to use promo code, scn, 10. 

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Let's go. You are listening to the sports card Nation Podcast. You know, the hobby, like you said, it's changing every single day with a lot of news, a lot of stuff going on. You people coming in new money and all that. So it is a it's a challenge to keep up with, but it's a lot of fun, you know, I've always been the type that I like being busy and I like for a lot of things to be happening, you know. That's kind of that kind of keeps the juices flowing and keeps you motivated. You know, when there's news to write about and you developments and we've seen that in 

Liz. I'm over the past decade to, it's just evolved so much with the rise of social media and websites and all that ver