Ep.233 w/ Jason Schwartz/Heavy J Studios

SPEAKER 1: What is up everybody? Episode 2 33. Glad to be back. Hope everyone is doing great.

SPEAKER 1: I had a good week. I added another iconic card to my personal collection. You've listened to me, you know, I've PC Hall Of Fame graded rookies and last year or almost two years ago now, I think I can't even remember. That's, that's what happens when you get old.

SPEAKER 1: I added the, you know, my grail card in the 1948 Jackie Robinson Leaf Rookie. Well, one of the other cards really, really high in that list, probably the next one after Jackie was the card I acquired this week. And that was the 1954 tops Hank Aaron rookie card got it in A P S A 3.5.

SPEAKER 1: Won it from A A P W C C auction. Had some other cards, little smaller cards that I had one in previous weeks. So I had my whole, you know, lot of nine cards shipped.

SPEAKER 1: If you follow us on YouTube, I actually open the, the, the that whole package on video for the first time. So if you're so inclined you want to see the unboxing of a Hank Aaron Rookie card and, and the one thing I love about this card, if I may be so bold, you know, it's a P S A 3.5. But if you look at it very, very clean, no creases, the corners aren't even that bad.

SPEAKER 1: The color pops front and back, definitely a candidate for, you know, resubmit or potentially if, if that's your thing.

SPEAKER 1: So I, I'm thinking about it, the truth be told, I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to do that, but definitely, you know, with, with my relationship with G C and, and bulk of it for them, I might have them take a look at it in the holder which they will do and see if it would grade higher with them and if so maybe cross it over, but whatever the case may be really, really presents very well, great eye appeal as they say and happy to, to have that in, in the arsenal.

SPEAKER 1: And you know, probably, you know, I Don't, obviously everyone has a grail card or most everyone has a grail card. Jackie was that this is right there.

SPEAKER 1: Probably the next card, like I said, so, happy to happy to have it. Another thing I'm happy to have is my guest on this week's show Mr Jason Schwartz, Heavy Jay Studios, great guy, getting to know, you know, got to know him a little bit better, hung out with him in Cooper's Town a couple of years ago with, with my friend Mar Ho and a whole, a whole gang of, of folks and, just, man, a, a passionate guy loves baseball.

SPEAKER 1: We're gonna talk about many subjects in the hobby where, you know, he's gonna make his case for Steve Garvey in the Hall Of Fame, which I do agree on, very big into philanthropy likes to help charities out. And so we're gonna talk about a whole gamut of things.

SPEAKER 1: We're gonna talk about, you know, go back to the eighties a little bit with the Diamond Kings, something we're both fond of and with the, the Dick Perez Mark Evans documentary coming out.

SPEAKER 1: We definitely, waxed a little poetic on that as well. So, I, I think you enjoy the conversation, Jason's, an engaging and, and persuasive guy and, good guy, right? We, we talk about good people in a hobby and, he checks all those boxes.

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SPEAKER 1: Real happy to be joined by my next guest on the Sports guard shop guest line. It's his first time on the show. I got to hang out with him a little bit, a couple of years in Cooperstown. But, you know, there's a lot of people, that we were kind of in a, in a group but, very man that wears many hats, very talented, as well and, and glad to finally I have him on the show, Mr Jason. Schwartz.

SPEAKER 5: Welcome, John. Thank you, man. Your, your intro music kind of got me pumped up. It was like a walk up song or I've got to really deliver.

SPEAKER 1: It's like, it's like from my football coaching days I get, it gets everyone going and then we run out through through the doors and away we go and, and, and, and, and here we are, like I said, you, you do a lot of different things. You, you, you, you know, and, but, I know, you know, your passion is about the hobby.

SPEAKER 1: And, and you, you know, you do a lot of good stuff. We're gonna get to that but you're also involved with, with Saber S A B R.

SPEAKER 1: I know I have a lot of friends, that, are involved in it so I'm, I'm familiar with it. Do I know everything? No, but I probably know more than the average person.

SPEAKER 1: I think people who are baseball fans, Jason kind of think they know what it is, or have a perception of, of what it, what it is and what it does and what it entails and, and it probably, you know, in some of those cases, not accurate. So, to, for those that know about it or are interested in it, you know, in, in your words, kind of explain, what it is and, and what it entails.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah.

SPEAKER 5: Right on John. So I, I've been a member since 2019. I'll, I'll start by saying that before I joined.

SPEAKER 5: I didn't actually have a good idea what it was.

SPEAKER 5: I was under the impression, you know, because of the word sabermetrics and maybe some of the earlier history, you know, Bill James and his books, I was under the impression that it was literally 100% devoted to statisticss, formulas, analytics, which it's not that I dislike that stuff, but those aren't really the things that connect me to the sport.

SPEAKER 5: And so it was only when I started reading the Saber baseball cards blog. And, right. And I was like, oh, this is cool. Saber actually has sort of a sub community of people that care about baseball cards and write about baseball cards and then I got invited to join and write for the blog.

SPEAKER 5: And so initially my end was the baseball cards. But then what I found was that there were just all these different committees and communities, you know, there's like, Negro leagues, there's women in baseball, you know, ballparks, landmarks, history, baseball in the arts, right? So it's like just about any way that you're a fan of the game.

SPEAKER 5: Saber's got a community of people that enjoy it in the same way that it's cool to get to know, you know, some of them might be people that you've heard of, you know, whether they're authors or media personalities and then others are, you know, just kind of more like me, just some random, random person, you know.

SPEAKER 5: But, I've made a lot of friends and a lot of connections and, you know, really the unifying feature of Saber is we all love baseball right now. I can, I'll put a little twist on that. Right. You've probably got some of us that loved baseball in the 19 seventies and eighties and now we're kind of annoyed and we wish it was, you know, like it was when we were kids or something.

SPEAKER 5: But, I mean, the point is we all love baseball from what era? Well, who knows? Right. Maybe the 18 hundreds. But, but yeah, so it, it's, you know, it's an organization where you join at 65 bucks a year, which is a bargain because you get all kinds of freebies out of it.

SPEAKER 5: Papers dot com, all kinds of digital publications.

SPEAKER 5: You know, there's all kinds of zooms, there's in-person meetings, lunches, whatever. I mean, it, to me it's the biggest bargain there is in the baseball world. And, you know, and it's just really for anybody who's passionate about baseball, there's a spot for you in Saber. I can say that, you know, I'm not a formula guy and I feel right at home.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah. And, and no doubt. And the people that I know that that are in it are like you said they like of the sport. They, they're passionate, they may not be analytics. People. There's, and like you said, there's many different wings. It's almost, I hate to use this comparison.

SPEAKER 1: Jason, it's almost like, like, sort of like government, but they did, like, you get the agriculture department, you get your, you know, your defense department. It's sort of like the baseball version of that. So whatever you, whatever you like or, or kind of whatever lane or alley you want to go into.

SPEAKER 1: It, it's, it, all those bases are, are covered, you know, unintended there but so whatever you, you know, whatever and if you are an analytics guy maybe or, or, or girl, you know, you, you, it's, it's there for you.

SPEAKER 1: So there's whatever hat you wear, whatever, you know, you, you like, there's, there's something for you, you mentioned $75 a year, that's you think about what certain other things cost that's, that's a, a minimal price to pay and, and you get a lot, a lot of bang for your bucket and as you pointed out.

SPEAKER 1: So, you know, it's, it's, and again, I you know, like you said, even yourself, you said, I didn't really know what it was until kinda, I look more into it.

SPEAKER 1: That's kind of why I wanted you to, you know, being on the show kind of to cause I think there are people that probably, thought like I used to think, or like you did before you, you joined and maybe that will, you know, open an, an avenue up for someone that, that's on the fence or think it's one thing and it's actually, the way you describe it might, you know, it might, expand and, and there's chapters all over, the country.

SPEAKER 1: I'm, I'm right near, I'm an hour from Cooperstown. We have a chapter here and, and, no matter where you live almost there you'll, you'll be, local in some respect to, a chapter. And, I think that's just a testament, to the game of baseball and it's obviously a wide, wide read.

SPEAKER 1: So, I, I know you're, you're originally from California, and you're, you're a Dodgers guy kind of talk about, you know, card wise who you love, you know, who do you collect what you, you know, where you kind of, where your passion lies within the hobby. Well, how long do we have, you know?

SPEAKER 5: Yeah. Well, I'm gonna, I'll take it back to the beginning. You know, you mentioned, I'm from California. I grew up in Los Angeles. I'm in the Chicago area now. I've been here since, since 2010 but grew up in Los Angeles and when I found myself in a new school in, I think it would have been the, second grade, something like that. Right.

SPEAKER 5: You know, I wasn't great at making friends or whatever. But I noticed at least a lot of boys in the class, you know, at all the breaks, lunchtime, whatever, you know, they break out baseball cards and start trading.

SPEAKER 5: And I saw that as kind of my avenue in, I didn't have any baseball cards. I collected stamps. I'd collected coins. Right. But that got me to the 7-Eleven, bought some packs, got some 1978 tops And all of a sudden it was like instant friendships and some of these guys I'm still in touch with today, which is the crazy thing because it's been 45 years, you know, at that time, the absolute solid gold, right.

SPEAKER 5: Growing up in L A 19 seventies was Steve Garvey. Right. And so it was kind of like I had made it when I pulled my 1978 top Steve Garvey. Right.

SPEAKER 5: Then it was sort of like, I mean, this was the currency of cool, you know, having the Garvey card and, you know, it just, created some friendships for me and, and, you know, in some cases, the hobby outlasted the friendships. In some cases, the friendships are still there. But, you know, that's really where I got my start. I mean, today I'm still a Dodger collector.

SPEAKER 5: I kind of pick and choose most of my collection is Vintage and it's funny I'm old enough that the cards I was opening as a kid are now called Vintage, which is like, I'm not cool with that but, but I can accept it.

SPEAKER 5: You know, so things like, you know, right now I'm working, working on the 1939 and 1940 play Ball Dodger. Team sets. Right. Not, not a lot of star power but, you know, fun to collect. I'm into the older sets. I've completed the 33 Gowdy Dodgers, 34 Goudy Dodgers.

SPEAKER 5: I'm a card shy of the T two oh six Dodgers, although I should call them super.

SPEAKER 5: Right. So my fellow Saber members Don't get on me. But you know, so I got a lot of things like that that are Dodger team sets. Those collections are all pretty active because there's so many that there's always somebody you need some year in terms of players. My biggest collection is actually not a Dodger.

SPEAKER 5: It's by number of cards, it's quite good and by what I'll just call coolness of the collection. It's Henry Aaron. Those, those are probably my two main player collections, but I've got Kershaw, of course, I still got Garvey Roy Camp Nola, you know, I'm, I'm a guy that every now and then I say to myself, I think I need to focus a little, getting a little crazy.

SPEAKER 5: Not that long ago and this is like Heresy for a Dodger fan.

SPEAKER 5: I got into King Karl, right? Carl, you're a Giants legend. So, you know, I'm, I'm a little bit all over the map but at the end of the day, I mean, a lot of it comes back to the Dodgers and a lot of it comes back to just my earliest days collecting cards, making friends and, you know, still trying to do the same.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah, that, that's awesome. Right. It, it, you know, I'm a Mets guy but, like, I collect stuff other than Mets and one of my, you know, I get asked, you know, what are you PC John? You know, and I still do shows as a dealer.

SPEAKER 1: I did my first show at 15 Jason, but my PC is, is Hall Of Fame graded rookies. And it's funny you, you mentioned Hank Aaron, that's, that was my latest addition was an er, and this Sunday night. I, I put one bit on this card. It's P A 3.5.

SPEAKER 1: I figured someone was gonna come over the top and outbid me and, and if they had done that, I'll say this now I, I would have been out and the, the, the clock just ticked out and, somehow some way, I Don't know, I think everyone's saving their money, for the national, which is what I typically do 90 days in.

SPEAKER 1: So I kind of broke the rule with this pur, with this purchase, Jason and no one came over the top And so I'm happy to say, a card I wasn't ever sure. It was always on my list.

SPEAKER 1: And you know, the Jackie 48 leaf, which I got last year.

SPEAKER 1: It was my grail card, but this one's right there and, you know, I had a couple of great shows, that I did and so I had some money put aside and I'm like, this is the next card I wanna try to sort of get, I was kind of thinking I would get it at the National but it worked, you know, it worked out this way.

SPEAKER 1: But, and I, I knew you were a big a guy and you can, can't go wrong. He's obviously in my heart, he's still the home run champ. You know, I know it's up for debate to some. But to me that's where, where my heart lies and he's just was a great player of the game. Quiet guy just went about his business, not a big trash talker or look at me type guy and, and just all the numbers are there to, to speak for his play.

SPEAKER 1: It's funny hearing you mentioned Steve Garvey. So my dad grew up in Evans Field and fan of all those early Dodgers including Jackie Duke Campy. The list is, is, is endless. He didn't fall, he didn't follow the L A Dodgers as much when they moved, his heart kind of got broken.

SPEAKER 1: But the one guy that even my dad, my dad's still alive, he's 84. But the one guy about my, that the, the one L A Roger that my dad would still talk about, even though obviously he didn't, you know, start his career in Brooklyn was Steve Garvey and he's a guy that is really on that sort of fence. I like him and Don Manley of, are they Hall Of Famer?

SPEAKER 1: And so I, I'll ask you, I know like you, you mentioned kind of your affinity and he was like the guy that when you first started collecting, I'll put you on, you know, a semi hats like this in your, in your heart is Steve Garvey Hall Of Famer.

SPEAKER 5: Well, you know, that's not the hut at all in my, in my heart. Of course, he's a Hall Of Famer 100%. Now in my head. Is he a Hall Of Famer?

SPEAKER 5: I'm gonna say yes to that as well. I'll, I'll give a couple of reasons, but first I gotta say this for your dad.

SPEAKER 5: If he hasn't yet seen the photo of Steve Garvey as like a, I guess a ten-year-old kid Bat Boying for the Dodgers posing with Gil Hodges. He should check that out because that is just, that's incredible.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah. And it's, it's funny, I've seen that and I, I Don't think he has seen it. So I might, next time I, next time we're together, I'll, I'll pull it up and, and I, and what I'll do is I'll just ask him, hey, you recognize the bat boy and see, see what he, see what he says.

SPEAKER 5: It's one of my favorite pictures. So I'll tell, I'll tell you where I go with, with Steve Garvey because I will say, you know, a lot of the more modern ways of looking at players with the analytics and whatever have, have definitely dampened his case.

SPEAKER 5: And then, you know, I think his case was also dampened a little by some, you know, personal issues and things like that, that, you know, at the time, I think we viewed as more scandalous than maybe we would today. But, he was a 10 time all-star, right? There's almost nobody outside the Hall Of Fame apart from, you know, Pe Ds and other things.

SPEAKER 5: That's been a 10 time All Star, not in the hall, right? So the point is it's elite, right? Euro, if you're a 10 time All Star and all ad for the card collectors, he was a seven consecutive time tops, All Star first baseman, that's even more important. But the other thing too is if you look at his stat line, right? He was a guy that was good year in and year out for 100 and 62 games, 200 hits 100 R B I S and a 300 average.

SPEAKER 5: And if back then in the mid seventies, late seventies, you said, what is the gold standard? What's the standard of excellence for your first baseman? Literally, you would name exactly those things. And he did every single one year after year, he led his teams to five World Series in 11 seasons. Right. They didn't, they didn't win many, right.

SPEAKER 5: They only, they only won one as it turns out, but, you know, five pennants in 11 years with, with him kind of being the, the biggest name player on the team and my belief about him, I feel the same way about, Dave Parker, Dale Murphy, a lot of other guys that are on the fence, maybe even Don Mattingly is when we're talking about Steve Garvey in his day.

SPEAKER 5: Right? Peop people weren't saying, hey, you know, let's, let's try to get on base via the walk, right. I mean, it was the opposite. If you had a guy on second and Steve Garvey up, you know, Austin was sort of, they want him to swing and bring the run and they didn't want Garvey to walk and the guy is still standing on second, right.

SPEAKER 5: So I think today through the analytics, we look and we're like, oh, he hardly ever walked. His on base percentage was low even though he batted 300. You know, it's, it's, he was worse than guys who've added 2 40 drew walks, whatever Ok, great.

SPEAKER 5: But there's almost like this assumption there that Steve Garvey wouldn't have been capable.

SPEAKER 5: Right? I mean, honestly, these guys that were banging out 200 hits, knocking in runs, doing all this stuff, if somebody had said to them, hey, man, I want you to walk 100 times this season instead of getting 100 R B I si think they could have done it, you know, I mean, Garvey, he, he, he came out of football cobra, same thing, these guys were phenomenal athletes.

SPEAKER 5: He obviously had great hand eye, right? He could see the strike zone as well as anybody. He was living up to the standards of the time what his managers and coaches wanted him to do.

SPEAKER 5: Right.

SPEAKER 5: And so it's kind of funny because if you look at it, Austin was sort of right, the guys running the show are in the hall, right? And all he was doing was exactly what they wanted him to do and he was the best at it. He was consistent at it. He's still the N L Iron man.

SPEAKER 5: So, you know, to me, I, I Don't think it's right to sort of recalculate his greatness based on things we know today that, he didn't know and his coaches didn't know. Right. I mean, the way we evaluated greatness back then, I believe, you know, at least most mainstream fans, you know, was, wow, 300 average, 200 hits, 100 R B I S All Star, you know, and it just felt like him every year. So, I put him in without a doubt. Yeah.

SPEAKER 1: I, I concur, and as a, a younger man or younger kid, even when he played, like you said, he was just consistent year in year out from, from not missing games to being clutch, you know, like you said, five pennants in 11 years. That, that doesn't, that doesn't happen, it didn't happen much then it doesn't happen much. Now.

SPEAKER 1: I know, like you said that, you know, only one ring but that's still to get to, to get to five, you know, almost every other year to be in, in the World Series, is saying something, he was really sort of at that time, the face of the franchise, 10, 10 all stars, you know, that's just like that and it's great you let off with that stat because I think that one really hits home right off the bat the most like, to, to be double digit all-star, not be in the Hall Of Fame and, and he was what first baseman was striving, to be, he was a great defensive player too.

SPEAKER 1: You know, we talk about his, his, his hitting, how much of that off the, the field stuff, do you think that's why he's still not in Jason you or, you know, I, I hate when we compare players from different eras to today because it's not fair to either, either group, truth be told.

SPEAKER 1: But so you think it's the, you think it's the, the, the off the field stuff and, and, and second part to that question, you think, you think there's AAA chance with, with a veterans committee that someday much like Gil Hodges who got in way much, too late.

SPEAKER 1: But he got in, you think we see that potentially for, for, for Garvey?

SPEAKER 5: Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna say yes to everything. So I think the off the field stuff hurt him when he was on the right ballot, right? Because I think, I think the analytics hadn't kicked in quite as much. I think he was still looked at as a guy that had a hell of a career.

SPEAKER 5: But I think the off the field maybe dissuaded some writers et cetera, right? I think, I think nowadays the special committee voters probably Don't care about that as much, but I do think they're highly influenced by the analytics, right? For instance, recently the year Ted Simmons got in Garvey was on the ballot right now when both those guys were playing.

SPEAKER 5: I Don't think you could find anyone. Not even Ted Simmons's mom who would have told you, I think Ted's better than Steve.

SPEAKER 5: I Don't think there was a soul on the planet who thought that while they were playing, right.

SPEAKER 5: But the fact that Simmons got in and Garvey got hardly any votes, right. Tells you that the special committees I think are looking a lot at the analytics. So I think with Garvey there, there's sort of two ways, right, that a guy who in his time did a lot on the field, can miss out when one of them is off the field activities.

SPEAKER 5: And then the other is, you know, through the lens of modern analytics. And I think Garvey when he was on the writer ballot checked off that first box, unfortunately, and now on the special ballots checks off the second box.

SPEAKER 5: Now is there hope, I think there is hope, but I will say that year that Simmons and Miller got in Garvey Cobra Murphy all missed out was a heartbreaker to me because I really thought that that was the year that it might happen and I Don't recall the exact totals, but I, I Don't believe that he was close, right?

SPEAKER 5: I mean, we saw recently Dick Allen missed by one vote, right? I think with Garvey, he might have missed by something like four or five which out of, you know, 16 or whatever it was is kind of a lot to miss by.

SPEAKER 5: So I'd like to think yes. And then one of the things and this is, this isn't a feature of the system, I'd say it's a bug, but it may come down to the composition of the next committee, right? So you know, as we look at Harold Baines getting in and I know for some people, you know, they wish he did. I'm glad he did. But the point is you look at the committee and it was very favorable to him, right?

SPEAKER 5: You look at Cut and Oliva who recently got in and I think that committee was almost cherry picked. It wasn't, but, I mean, it was, it was just one that, you know, had a lot of connections to those guys.

SPEAKER 5: And so in the same way, I mean, maybe if, if there's some committee and it just happens to have, you know, guys that played with Garvey, let's say Reggie, I think Reggie has a sky high, opinion of Garvey, right? I mean, if it's like Reggie and some other guys that were contemporaries and had a lot of respect for him, you know, maybe that's what it is.

SPEAKER 5: I mean, it shouldn't come down to who, you know, but I think with the special committees that does matter and I think it's not just looking at them individually, but I think they kind of caucus and twist each other's arms and kind of do some horse trading.

SPEAKER 5: And so if, you know, if he's got one or two strong advocates on the next special committee, you know, maybe those guys will twist some arms. I Don't know, I'd, I'd sure love to see him get in, in my lifetime, but more importantly, in his, you know, I mean, he's, he takes great care of himself. So I think he's gonna be around a while, but he's not a super young guy. Right.

SPEAKER 5: And I'm a believer that if you're gonna put a guy in, you know, let him enjoy the honor, you know, I mean, he's been a shame recently, all these guys who finally they got in Buck O'Neill, Mi Minoso, but they're gone.

SPEAKER 1: So, yeah, it's a great point. You want them to kind of, you know, enjoy and honor. That's finally bestowed, I think he's a Hall Of Famer. And, and I Don't mean any slight, I Don't mean any slight to Ted Simmons who was a great, you know, a very good catcher. I Don't even, I Don't even want to use the word great to throw that around.

SPEAKER 1: But like you said, you, you put the, those two guys up against each other and it's a, you know, I, I, I, and I think most people would put, pick Steve Garvey 10 out of 10 times. And that's not saying Ted Simmons was terrible. It's just, that's how great, that's how great Steve Garvey was. I think that's the other thing too.

SPEAKER 1: When we get into certain positions, you see guys get in with lesser stats catcher, obviously at the top, at the top of the list, you know, probably we're gonna see Joe Mauer and Buster Posey eventually join that list and and, you know, not that they're, I'm not trying to take a, an honor away from them.

SPEAKER 1: But again, I think Steve Garvey matches up very well to some of these players now getting in yet. He's not. And, you know, I, I haven't heard him, like, complain too much. I Don't know. You know, I'm, I'm not in this ad, I'm sure he's disappointed, but he's being at least from what I can tell a good sport about it.

SPEAKER 1: Some others haven't been, in, in the past, and to each their own, right, everyone has a different personality, like you said. I think he should be in and you hope, that day comes that he's around to get up there and make his speech and, you know, be next to his, you know, hold his up and, and get his picture taken, I think, you know, I, I, growing up there wasn't really any doubt that he was a, a Hall Of Famer.

SPEAKER 1: And so the fact that we're talking today, Jason and he, and, and even debating whether he should be in, I think we're both, we, we are both on the same side here. I think that's sort of, I hate to use the word tragic, but it's sad because I think he's, he's sort of a no brainer when you look at the numbers.

SPEAKER 1: 10 all stars. I mean, you look at some people who are in, they Don't make catch up as, as well to, to Steve Garvey yet. He's not. And, so that, that's my, that's my soapbox. And, Mr Gary should be in and hopefully, like you said, he will be and, and hopefully he gets to, enjoy, that, that moment, time for a quick break, but we'll be right back.

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SPEAKER 1: So we, so I, I want a segway, not a, not a great segue into, from Garvey, but, you know, you do, you know, Heavy J Studios is, is your studio, you do, you know, some artistic stuff with cards. It's great work to begin with.

SPEAKER 1: But what's even better is, you know, every you do it, it's all for different charities, people benefit from the fruits of your labor. Talk about kind of how that all started and, and, and where you are today.

SPEAKER 5: Yeah, beautiful. I'll give just a quick visual in case people Don't know this stuff. So this is like a 33 gaudy style Eric Davis on the Dodgers and you can see the little shimmer, the glitter paper going in the background. So Heavy Jay Studios was something that I started early in the pandemic.

SPEAKER 5: I think, you know, by memory, something like May 20 2020 right? So pretty early and we all had a little extra time on our hands. We didn't have our commutes anymore and, you know, pretty much all the social calendar stuff was getting crossed out. So, you know, there was some free time I had kind of experimented several months earlier.

SPEAKER 5: With, cutting out a car of cobra and putting them on some glitter paper background and I just thought it looked cool. And so, I Don't know what made the idea strike me but, you know, somewhere around what, may, oh, I know what it was. I was going through a box of cards. I found an 83 Donruss Wade Boggs Rookie pretty much in a box of commons.

SPEAKER 5: And I was like, what?

SPEAKER 5: And then I realized that I had like a coffee or tea stain on the border of it.

SPEAKER 5: And I was like, oh, maybe that's what it was, you know, because it wouldn't be worth anything like that.

SPEAKER 5: But then I kind of put the two together. I was like, wait a minute, I could go Heavy Jay Studios on this, I could cut out the border, cut out Wade, you know, put them on glitter, do all this stuff. And so I put it on Twitter, right. This kind of shimmery goofy looking Wade Bogs.

SPEAKER 5: And at the time I just said, hey, you know, let's auction it off by the end of the night, all money goes to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and it ended up going for like 40 bucks and which was super cool to me because like, I didn't know if it would, if anybody would want it or if it would go for like a dollar. But, you know, I ended going for like 40 bucks.

SPEAKER 5: And then this was, I had kind of this premonition that most normal people would have said was totally delusional on the basis of that one card.

SPEAKER 5: But literally, and I, I told my wife this right, that card went for 40. I was so pumped. And I told my, my wife, at the end of the night, I said, I think I'm gonna try to raise $25,000 during the pandemic making these cards. And I'll tell you I had some issues, I actually, I had some serious issues with my eyesight to where I had to slow down pretty big time. But literally, I've raised $22,000 with these glitter cards. Right?

SPEAKER 5: And, you know, some, some of them are so dope. I got to keep them from my personal collection.

SPEAKER 5: But, you know, I've, I've made about 800 of these, you know, I'm sort of the, the Bernie Sanders of the art card art movement because my typical donation is about $27. Right. You know, I see some, some of my buddies are selling their stuff for like 300 bucks. Well, you know, I'm, I'm kind of in the $30 I range 35.

SPEAKER 1: Well, listen, 22 listen, the $22,000 is $22,000. Right? It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter the road you take to get there. In fact, is you're there and, and, and good on you man kudos to you to, to do, to do that and then to be generous on, on top of that, right?

SPEAKER 1: Listen, you're not wrong with it. I'm not, I'm not critiquing anyone right? With this card artist, sell their card art and no one, you know, no one benefits except for them and they're not wrong with that. Like, like I said, and you're here, you are sort of paying it forward to different things that are, are near and dear to you.

SPEAKER 1: And you know, it, it, it's just very cool and your passion, you know, I've seen some of the stuff you've done. Your passion is in those cards. You know what I mean? The, the player selection and, and how you do.

SPEAKER 1: It's not just, you know, you spin a wheel and this is who I'm doing. Like there's, there's a thought process to now, has this been? I, I know you said you started, it, was this something you ever did like before? It was it, you know, did you have like, are you, do you have like an artistic background or this just all, you know.

SPEAKER 1: You know, thanks to Pan, you know, thanks to pandemic. At least for this.

SPEAKER 5: No, I, I have probably the thinnest artistic resume of, of anybody doing stuff like this. I'd have to imagine. So, when I was in high school I did teach ceramics to five year olds but, you know, rolling clay into a ball, you know, that, that was about as good as I had to be, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER 5: And, and, so I Don't know if we want to count that. I, I had a, you know, a lot, the card artists, you know, for a while I think, you know, maybe trying to show their, you know, who's the O G and the card art. Well, you know, actually it's none of us. It's dudes that were like, you know, working on cards in the 18 eighties, but at any rate, you know, guys were like digging up, hey, here's the card I made in 1997 right?

SPEAKER 5: So I did find one I made in the mid nineties.

SPEAKER 5: It wasn't glitter, it wasn't the heavy Jay studio style, but I actually had a, this is embarrassing but I had a dream team uniform, Magic Johnson, you know, 1992 Olympics and I would wear it out in public, not even just on the basketball court, but I loved it so much that like if I was just going to the store, I'd wear my dream team uni you know, the shorts and the tank and I didn't exactly have the NBA body, let's say.

SPEAKER 1: And so anyways, well, listen, Kurt, not to cut you off. Kurt Rambis was a pretty good ball player, right?

SPEAKER 1: You should like be like he can he can, he can play. So, like, yeah, that's, that's true.

SPEAKER 5: Yeah, physique, physique isn't all, it's, you know, but anyway, you know, a buddy of mine took a picture of me in full uniform and I cut it out and glued it on top of like an actual upper deck basketball card sometime in the nineties. And so I guess I could say that was my first, you know, kind of Jason Schwartz rookie is what you're saying.

SPEAKER 5: Yeah, that's, that's sort of the pretty heavy shoot is super short p Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER 5: So, but other than that, no, but I want to say something and, and, you know, I will say like during the pandemic, I think I, I was, you know, encouraging or, you know, maybe inspired a few other folks, you know, with similarly thin resumes like my own is the beauty of collage is I, I can be a guy that couldn't draw, you know, if you gave me a blank piece of paper and a pen, there's like nothing I could do a good job drawing, right?

SPEAKER 5: If you gave me a paintbrush, I can do a thing, right?

SPEAKER 5: But with collage, you know, if you're willing to cut carefully and glue and you've got some fun ideas of things that would go well together, you know, you can do it and I used to think, well, I'm not really an artist. I just do this, but the truth is that, that is a way to be an artist. You know, I've come to accept that I guess I am.

SPEAKER 5: Right. I'm not, I'm not like a, you know, classically trained or a very versatile artist, but, you know, I've got one, you know, kind of one thing I do. And, you know, I like, I like what she said because I feel like in terms of, you know, am I the most precise cutter or the best glue? I Don't know.

SPEAKER 5: But I, I genuinely feel like I put a tremendous amount of love into every piece that I create.

SPEAKER 5: And, you know, a guy one time he ordered like three or four cards from me and, sent me ad m like a little bit before I was gonna mail off the package. And he's like, hey, did they all turn out good? You know. And I, and I said to him, I said honestly, if I didn't think one of my cards turned out good, I wouldn't send it, I'd make a new one, you know, like I, I stand by everything I do.

SPEAKER 5: I mean, I know there are people out there with more talent, but I put a tremendous amount of love. I bring a lot of knowledge of the hobby into what I make. And, you know, it's, it's not for everybody. I get that. But, but I sure have a lot of fun doing it.

SPEAKER 1: Well, listen, Jason, there's a saying, I'm not in the art world, so to speak. But my dad actually is a very, a very good artist and there's a saying in, in the art world, right? Art is from the heart, right? And that stuff is from your heart and, and it, it, you better believe it's art and while you may not be Pablo Picasso, you're an artist in, in your own, right?

SPEAKER 1: And, and what you do and and the fact that it goes towards a charity and, and that's just even more, speaks volumes about the person behind that. And so kudos, kudos to you there and keep it up and look forward to seeing future renditions as that, speaking of, of art, it's a good segue this time or to, you know, I just had Dick Perez on, on this show a few episodes back for, you know, I first started collecting in 1979.

SPEAKER 1: I'm a Brooklyn kid. So Cops was in my blood just sort of instinctively. And I remember when 81 first came out sort of like to compete against tops and, and, and I Don't mean any disrespect.

SPEAKER 1: 81 Don Russ but did not, did not make much of an impact on my collecting habits as a nine-year-old kid at the time, but it was 82 Don Russ with the first rendition of, you know, Perez Steele and the Diamond Kings and opening those packs and even as a kid, I would at least open a, a few packs of everything, kind of see what, what's inside, what it looks like.

SPEAKER 1: And then, hey, where's the rest of my allowance gonna really be heavily going to an 82 you know, at 10 years old now and seeing those Diamond Kings taps wasn't doing that as much as I love tops. I'm like, that sort of hit me like, hey, look at this, this is cool. This is different. I know you sort of feel the same way if you would have told, you know, obviously in 1982 Social Media didn't exist podcast, didn't exist.

SPEAKER 1: But if you would have old 10 year old me who was actually very shy, like, hey, you're gonna talk to the artist behind these cards, you know, you know, 40 something years later, I would have thought you were, you were nuts and yet here we are flashback to a couple of weeks ago.

SPEAKER 1: And, you know, I wanted him to know Jason, you know, and, and I've assumed he did, but I wanted him to know like how important his work was and, and how influential it was, whether it be me being a ten-year-old kid seeing it for the first time or people, older collectors seeing it and to, to, for, for me to say, hey, there's other you can buy stuff other than tops.

SPEAKER 1: It's ok. Other companies are doing other people and other companies are doing different things. And I was surprised when he told me, you know, I asked him, did he know when he was in the middle of, of these, did he realize how impactful or the significance of his work?

SPEAKER 1: And he said, not really, he didn't because he wasn't getting letters like, hey, I love you. It was after he was when Social Media actually became a thing and he said, hey, I got emails or I got people messaging me like, hey man, I'm you know, Diamond Kings did it for me. That's why I collected it.

SPEAKER 1: It wasn't till then too that he realized, you know what he, the impact of, of his work and that's, you know, your thoughts. I know you're, you're a fan of, of, of his work just so your, your perspective on, on Diamond Kings and Dick Presents and the movies coming out next year done by director Mark Evans.

SPEAKER 1: There's a set where you a special set that will coincide with the release of the movie.

SPEAKER 1: One of us will have the serial numbered number one, a set.

SPEAKER 1: I'll give everyone a hint that the first name starts with, with AJ. We're still, we're still both in the running here.

SPEAKER 1: But last name starts with an S I'm I'm out but you know, you, you took, you jumped on that, it's gonna be a great item to your collection. But, but first and foremost, what, you know, Dick, the, you know, the Diamond Kings Dick Perez, you know, back then for, for you, you got it.

SPEAKER 5: Well, it's, it's funny, I mean, you and I kind of started around the same, right? I mean, for me it was 1978. So I had a few years and under my belt before the three companies were all putting cards on shelves for me from the very beginning from 1981. I was all about, I'm collecting all three. I wasn't really making any tough decisions.

SPEAKER 5: Right. I, I wanted them all. But like you, the Diamond Kings made an instant impact on me. Right. I'll give a quick shout out Hobby News Daily. I've got a fairly recent article up on essentially opening Don Us in 82 my reactions at that time to Diamond King. So I got it up there.

SPEAKER 5: But, you know, the something that was common to all three sets in 82 it was something that was kind of building on 81 was multiple cards of star players and as a kid, I love that. Right. I mean, these days, maybe people make a little more of a big deal of, oh, that's not like his real card in the set. That's just his record breaker.

SPEAKER 5: That's not as exciting or whatever, right? But, I mean, back then, like a second card of a big time player was huge, you know, I mean, it, it was, it was, you know, it was the right formula. So, you know, tops 1982 they went back to kind of an older format from, you know, the most recent time. It been 74 separate cards of all stars, right?

SPEAKER 5: So, although in 74 it was shared two guys to a card. But I mean, the point is if a guy was an All Star, a tops, All Star, you're gonna have two cards in them. They also brought back from 10 years earlier in action, right? And so in some cases, you might get three cards of a guy.

SPEAKER 5: If he was a record breaker too, you might get another one if he was, you know, a team leader in batting average or pitching or whatever, you know, you'd see him again.

SPEAKER 5: So tops really was giving you a lot now with Don Russ.

SPEAKER 5: What was cool? And I Don't know that Dick Perez was doing this on purpose and I Don't know how much he was influenced by, let's say, the cards of his youth. And I'm thinking here of like 54 tops, 55 tops. But if you think about it, the Diamond King, right? You've got the portrait of the player and you've got the little mini action shot.

SPEAKER 5: Now think about 55 56 six tops, 54 tops. You've got the portrait of a player with the little action shot beside him. Now, in a way, having I'll take Steve Garvey as, as an example because he was in the original 1982 Diamond Kings, right?

SPEAKER 5: In a way, having an extra card called Diamond Kings, it was kind of like a tops All Star, right? It was an extra card that signified that this is a special elite player.

SPEAKER 5: But it also, I think again, probably unintentionally borrowed the tops in action subset, right? Because all of a sudden you had the port of Steve Garvey, but he had the little tiny action shot of him too. So in a way, the Diamond Kings brought together the two innovations of the top set, the separate All Star card and the inaction, but into one card and it was just glorious artwork, right?

SPEAKER 5: I mean, sometimes we think the highest compliment we can give to a piece of art is wow. I thought that was a photo or oh my gosh, it looked like a photograph and of course, Dick's work doesn't look at all like a photograph, right?

SPEAKER 5: But there's something about his work that almost brings you into the scene, right? It's not photo realistic, but it's almost like you're there. He brings these heroes to life, which is to me five steps up from bringing them to the level of photograph. Right.

SPEAKER 5: And so his, his work just had an immediate impact on me. The Diamond Kings were favorites. And then the thing that was beautiful because so often we'll see something cool in the hobby one year and then it disappears. Right. Or maybe it comes back 10 years later. But Don had a really great run. Right. For over a decade.

SPEAKER 5: They just did it again and again and again and again. And I know, you know, sometimes in some of his interviews, Dick talks about, you know, like the years he deviated like 82 83 look practically identical. 84 very different. Some collectors love that some collectors hated it.

SPEAKER 5: You know, Dick has told a lot of folks, he was getting a little bored doing the same thing every year. He wanted variety. Now looking back, I think some of the non-traditional Diamond Kings of the nineties are ones collectors like the best, right?

SPEAKER 5: But, you know, kudos to kudos to that they had a winning formula and they just brought it back year after year after year.

SPEAKER 5: You know, there, there's something I mentioned in my article is the was it the 19, yeah, the 1982 set had an unnumbered Diamond Kings checklist, right?

SPEAKER 5: And you know, of course it had the 26 players from the 2016 teams, but you flip it over and it told you that this little signature that said Perez was Dick Perez real person. He does this and it said we're gonna be doing this for years to come.

SPEAKER 5: All your favorite players will hopefully someday be Diamond Kings and they lived up to it. Right? Because it's like, OK, I got Garvey in 82. Well, who did I want in 83? I want Fernando. Well, that's who I got. Right. Well, eventually I wanted Earl Hirscher.

SPEAKER 5: I wanted Kirk Gibson. I wanted Dwight Gooden. Right. And it really was true. I mean, if there was a player you loved in the eighties or the nineties, really good chance they've got at least one Diamond Kings card, maybe two. Right?

SPEAKER 5: So glorious set. But I want to, gosh, I Don't, I Don't want to go on too long about this, but, oh my God, I love this stuff.

SPEAKER 5: 83 of course, we had the Diamond Kings, but also one of the most underrated sets of all time, in my opinion.

SPEAKER 5: Dick worked with Don Rests on the Hall Of Fame Hero set. It was a very small set, like 44 players in a checklist, but you could open, you got it from packs right. There weren't a lot of cards in a pack, but you got it from packs, right? And of course, everybody's a Hall Of Famer. It was the first time ever in this country you could open a pack of baseball cards and get a Josh Gibson.

SPEAKER 5: It was the first time you could get a cool Papa Bell for a lot of us. It was the first time we'd even heard of these guys.

SPEAKER 5: Right? You could get a Satchel page, but of course he could in 53 49 all that too. But ok, but you know, great history on the back. I mean, this was pre internet. So you're learning about all these great players. The artwork was beautiful and you know, so that 83 Hall Of Fame Heroes to me is still one of my favorite sets of all time.

SPEAKER 5: And the funny thing is you could buy the complete set for about six bucks on ebay, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER 5: And but it is just glorious. And so there, there, I Don't know if there are too many people more excited than me.

SPEAKER 5: That Dick is working on this brand new set.

SPEAKER 5: That Mark is working on this movie about Dick. And so, you know, as I got to know, Mark a little bit and got excited about the movie and a Kickstarter which is still active and I Don't know if you checked, right?

SPEAKER 5: This will be old by the time your audience sees it, but as of our recording, right? 30,000 words required to be raised, we're at something like 29,700 right? So in other words, this thing is gonna happen this thing is gonna happen.

SPEAKER 5: And if, if me exceeds his goals, more, more gifts are gonna rain down right from from the heavens. But point is, you know, when I saw that Dick was putting together an all new set and there was this idea that one collector would get the, you know, one out of 4 99 across his entire set.

SPEAKER 5: I thought, gosh, I mean, I have to get a set, but I think I'm gonna do this because I wanna not just support the film but support the film in a big way. Right. So, you know, the price tag was a little bit heftier, but I wanted to support it at that level and then this could be a little bit of, I'll call it a mitzvah for the hobby. Potentially. I haven't made up my mind just yet. Right.

SPEAKER 5: But I know there'd be a lot of collect who got set one out of 4 99 and they just, you know, they'd never take it out of the box and whatnot, I'm considering.

SPEAKER 5: Right. I mean, for me, you know, Josh Gibson one out of 4 99. That's in my forever collection, right? But, you know, maybe there's an Otani collector that really wants one out of 4 99. Otani, right? Satchel page one out of 4 99. I'm considering breaking it up so that folks that collect these particular players each end up with the one out of 4 99.

SPEAKER 5: I haven't made up my mind for sure. But I'm thinking about doing that, you know, keeping the three or four players most special to me and then letting those other guys go out across the hobby, you know, you and I talked about before the idea that, you know, all of us in the hobby try to take care of each other.

SPEAKER 5: And I see that as, something that I might do with that. So I real, I realize I am the one that got that special set. And there's a part of me that maybe wants to hang on to it intact. And there's a part of me that wants to kind of share it across the hobby.

SPEAKER 1: Well, you got a little time to decide what you ultimately want to do. But, yeah, it's, it's, it's great and, whatever you decide to do, right? You, like you said, you wanted to support the film?

SPEAKER 1: I wanna give you a shout out on the air here to, Jason that interview, with both of that gentleman probably doesn't happen, without your, without your heads up and, and assistance. So I wanna make debt like public, public knowledge. I'm, I'm, I'm gonna give credit where credit's due, guy. So, there, there you go. I, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER 5: But, I'm gonna, I'm gonna flip it back on to you because Mark said, what are like the top, top, top podcasts in the hobby or live streams? Right.

SPEAKER 5: And you've been doing this for over 200 episodes, right.

SPEAKER 5: I think there were, there was a recent hobby, Mensches. Right. Talking about content creators, right.

SPEAKER 5: You know, is that, is that gonna thin out at some point? Because for, for, you know, for the number of people who start a live stream or start a podcast and they're still doing it six months later and, and, you know, can boast 20 plus episodes that is not a, a high win rate. You know what I mean? There is very high attrition and the number of people that are putting out quality content, tremendous guests except for this week.

SPEAKER 5: You know, but top notch content, right? Thoughtful interviews.

SPEAKER 5: You know, it was an easy one when Mark was like, what, what are the live streams or podcasts that, that would be worthy, you know, of, of Dick's time, right? You know, I mean, to get Dick Perez, you know, he's 82 years old, but, you know, to do these things, yours was a no-brainer, right? So, you know, I just pointed the way but, but, it was, well, you know, it's what you felt.

SPEAKER 1: Well, you know, it hits me in the fields. I, I appreciate that Jason and, and I know you, you kind of self depreciate about you being the guest this week. You have every right, you know, we're talking about Garvey, deserving to get in you. You're just as great as every, any, guest I've, I've had so, you your Hall Of Fame guest, worthy in my book. I wouldn't have asked you, to come on. So, but, yeah, I, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER 1: I appreciate you saying that in five years sometimes when I think about that, like hearing you talk about it and then it really hits home that I've, I've done it that, that long and, and it doesn't really feel that long, which I think is good because I think it means I'm still passionate about it, enjoy doing it. I think when it starts to feel long, that might be where some introspection where I say, hey, how do you real?

SPEAKER 1: Are you still having fun? Are you still passionate? I Don't ever see a day where I'm not. But you know, if that was to come in, you have to like, really look inward about what you're doing. But I, I really do appreciate this. We have a future a mutual friend and, and Mark has been a guest on this show as well when he knew I was talking to you. He said, you gotta ask Jason about the 1978 solo pack with Glenn Burke.

SPEAKER 1: So there you go. I, I've opened the door by request of of Mark. So I, I'll let you, take it from there.

SPEAKER 5: Well, that, you know what if, if there is, a Hall Of Fame of Collectors, right? Let's, let's put Mark, up there, you know, like the Ruth Matthewson Wagner. You know what I mean? Inaugural class, I mean, they, they are, in terms of just a guy with an incredible collection, but just a guy who's a great friend, generous, tremendous person.

SPEAKER 5: He takes that one. So I know this makes for bad video, but I, I felt like I needed the prop. So pardon me? Or you know, I I'll try not to crash into things here. But point being, yes. So we, we met up in Cooperstown, there were seven of us last month that took a long weekend there.

SPEAKER 5: And so of course, you know, one of the things you do besides go to the Hall Of Fame and whatnot is you go into all the card shops and you know, you see if there's anything cool. Now, one of the things and this was a pleasant surprise to me. I would just presume you go to Cooperstown and cards are gonna be triple the normal price, right? Because they could do that.

SPEAKER 5: But for whatever reason, like the card shops are actually pretty good, they've got cool stuff. If you're looking for Vintage, there is a lot of Vintage, the prices are pretty good.

SPEAKER 5: Right.

SPEAKER 5: So, at any rate, we go into this place, Dave Adams, you know, that's, that's kind of a household name for parts of the hobby. But they've got a little presence on Main Street in Cooperstown as well.

SPEAKER 5: I walked in and, and I think because of what they're more known for, I wasn't expecting to see anything older than about 2019, let's say.

SPEAKER 5: But they had a box, a 1978 tops cello box. And, you know, I Don't know if it was completely full, but it was like mostly full and of course, the way the solo packs are, right. I mean, you know, they're famous for, you can see who's on top, right?

SPEAKER 5: So, you know, I go there and of course I'm not expecting to see an Eddie Murray rookie showing or anything like that.

SPEAKER 5: But I was like, oh, I wonder if they've got, you know, somebody I like, right? Because you know, there are players out there like Manny Mota, they had a Manny Mota show and I love Manny Mota, but you know, maybe, maybe they wouldn't put him with the high price stuff, right.

SPEAKER 5: So anyways literally top of the box, Glenn Burke, right? Glenn Burke? No way. And I was in disbelief that he would just be in there like a common player, right?

SPEAKER 1: And, and for a lot of fans, you know, they probably Don't think twice or even know, you know, why he would be remarkable in any way, especially if they look at his step, I'll just say, I'll just say, you know, for those that Don't know about Glenn Burke or the story or the, or the history, you know, Google them, do some research, find that out.

SPEAKER 1: You'll be surprised what you Don't know about them. One scout compared him talent wise, to Willie Mays. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as planned for many different reasons but definitely a, a great player.

SPEAKER 1: Again, another guy played multiple Sports as well. The creator not to cut you off too, Jason, but I him and Dusty Baker are been credited for what we know today is just an everyday celebration thing. The high five, right? Someone does well and athletes high five, they were really the first ones to do it after Dusty Baker, a home run.

SPEAKER 1: But it's an interesting career, an interesting story there. But, well, go ahead.

SPEAKER 5: I just want to kind of, I, I was gonna say, yeah, definitely look him up but better yet get the book singled out.

SPEAKER 5: The book singled out, came out a couple of years ago. It's a beautiful book.

SPEAKER 5: And, and the artwork on the cover is nice too, but the writing is stupendous. So anyways, but point is they've got this and I'm like, really, he's in just with the regular guys what's up? Right.

SPEAKER 5: And, you know, I asked the fella, you know, would it be ok to see who else you have showing? Because I was pretty convinced that of course I'm gonna buy this. But the only dilemma was what if they had a Steve Garvey showing? Right.

SPEAKER 5: Because, you know, 78 Garvey, that was the card that was sort of like the origin of the hobby for me and friendships and all these things, right? So, such an important card in my life. And so the guy actually laid them all out for me. They didn't have Garvey, what was kind of curious with just how many good players they did have. They had the Reggie Jackson World Series card showing on top.

SPEAKER 5: They had Tommy Lasorda, you know, Hall Of Fame manager. Kind of ironic with the Glenn Burke story. But at any rate, I mean, there were, there were some pretty good solid players. But Burke was the one. So I, I picked this up. I think the guys that ran the shop were a little perplexed. Why I was so excited. They probably checked his baseball reference and they were like, what? You know, negative two war what?

SPEAKER 5: But, but yeah, I mean, it was, this was the first card shop I think that I'd gotten into and, and I pretty much used up my budget for the entire weekend. So after that, I didn't really do a heck of a lot but I mean, this, this I got to admit and I mean, you know, as a collector that there's kind of like book value, but there's how we value our cards or sentimental value, like book value.

SPEAKER 5: I'm not gonna pretend this is a top five in my collection, but just in terms of like things I have that are cool and kind of unique and hard to find. This is like a top five collectible in my collection.

SPEAKER 5: You know, and you know, a lot of the cool cards we have, if something happened to one, as long as you put the right amount of money behind it, you could replace it, right? But for something like this, I gotta say you might be looking for years before you find another solo pa it's listen, it's meant to be, right?

SPEAKER 1: Like you said, David Adams not known for Vintage wax, right? They're known more the the current stuff you go in there and, and, and that's in there. I think it was, it's serendipity, right? It was, it was, it was meant to happen and it's meant to be in, in your collection and, and it is now and like you said, great book.

SPEAKER 1: And you know, if even if you're not a book reader, at least do some research, Google, you, you learn something and, and it's always great to learn about the history of the game, the history of certain players and, and, and that sort of thing. And, you know, it's, it's a, glad Mark told me to, to ask you because that's just a, and it's a memory, right?

SPEAKER 1: It's a memory you'll have from that, that trip, with a great group of people and, you know, wherever you have that pack on a, on an easel, you'll look at it, you'll remember, you know, you what Glenn Burke means to you, but also the people you were on the trip and when, when you acquired it and all that, write the stories behind, the cards.

SPEAKER 1: And that's what this hobby, is, is really about, the hobbies of the people as the tagline as the show, says. But, Jason again, I, I appreciate you. You're, you're making some time for us. You're doing, great things you, for the hobby, for, for people in the hobby. And I appreciate you give out anything you want to give out website social where people can see what you do.

SPEAKER 1: If you want to give, you know, plug Saber or website there by all means, whatever you want to throw out there.

SPEAKER 1: The, the floor is yours? Fantastic.

SPEAKER 5: Ok. I will just, indulge myself with all kinds of self promotion then. No. So, yeah, Saber, I will say, you know, Saber dot org slash join. It's a great value at $65 a year. Nobody regrets it. There's no money back guarantee but, nobody regrets it. Baseball fans, if you're into cards, if you're in anything, join Saber, it's worth your while.

SPEAKER 5: We also have our annual convention. It's gonna be in Chicago, July 5th through ninth. So if you hurry up, you can get in on that, I'm gonna be there and I'm planning our baseball cards committee meeting as we speak. So, Saber baseball cards blog. I mentioned that at the beginning.

SPEAKER 5: What's the URL? It's Saber baseball cards dot blog. That's easy to remember. Saber, of course, is S A B R Saber Baseball Cards Up blog. We've got usually a couple new articles every week and they span the gam and it's usually older stuff, but sometimes we bring in the new, some of it's scholarly, some of it's fun, some of it's silly, whatever, but it's a great read on Twitter. Saber B B cards, B B cards.

SPEAKER 5: So that's saver and for baseball cards, as for me. Well, you see Heavy J Studios, Heavy J Studios dot com is the website or on Twitter Heavy J 28 1 last plug for Hobby News Daily, John and I are connected to that. So I'll say that I am a writer of the Vintage Vines column. Vignettes.

SPEAKER 5: I gotta learn how to say it.

SPEAKER 1: I just know how to spell it. I think you got it. I think you got it.

SPEAKER 5: But anyways, yes, I do some writing for Hobby News Daily about an article a month. And you can find us at Hobby News Daily. Hobby News Daily dot com. Kind of all the things you guess it would be is what it is.

SPEAKER 1: So, John, unless from one writer to another. Jason does excellent, writing. I, I have to, like, try to compete with him and, and, and, match up as, as best I can. I Don't think I do but I, I give it the old college try but excellent stuff. Shane must plug, check, check all that stuff out. But including his work at Hobby News Daily.

SPEAKER 5: Now, John, I got, I gotta to end this with something super corny, but I can't resist. Right? Because, forget all the baseball stuff. I'm a math nerd.

SPEAKER 5: Besides it all. So I'm just gonna say, right.

SPEAKER 5: That about 100 years ago, John Von Neumann pretty much invented the computer. But present day, fast forward 100 years, John Newman has taken the computer to its highest level, which is live streaming quality content about baseball cards.

SPEAKER 1: I'll, I'll take it. I Don't know if I should, but I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, take that and, and thank you. But, listen, I appreciate it. Thank you for coming on, check out for everyone listening, check out what this man's doing. Just incredible stuff. And, you know, I use the two words with certain people in the hobby.

SPEAKER 1: Right. And bad listens and advocate and I Don't just throw that around, lightly and, it's, it's two things you are and you, you, you epitomize, those two words and, keep, keep, all I can say is keep it up. Right. Don't, Don't change. So, thanks Jason.

SPEAKER 5: You got it. You got it, brother. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER 1: All right, I wanna thank Jason Schwartz for joining the show giving us some time today.

SPEAKER 1: You know, you know what's say you on, on Steve Garvey, I think, you know, where me and Jason stand but, great guy doing great things and, and passionate, right? Advocate ambassador, all those great words.

SPEAKER 1: You know, that I like to use for great hobby people. He, he embodies that and, you know, I, I hope you enjoyed the conversation, as much as I did and, check his stuff out, like he said, he gave out where you can find, what he's doing and, hope you learned a little bit even about Saber, right?

SPEAKER 1: What you might think it is, it's, it's really not, it's that, I think it's more than what most people think it is. So, check that out as well for more than 30 years.

SPEAKER 4: Robert Edward Auctions has been the nation's premier auction house specializing in Sports memorabilia and trading cards with significant experience and expertise in all major sport, non sport and Americana collectibles.

SPEAKER 4: R E A has helped clients achieve record breaking prices for their items and has done so with a reputation for integrity and transparency by actively partnering with collectors and enthusiasts throughout the entire process. R E A has created the hobby's most trusted forum for selling high quality collectibles. Go to Robert Edward Auctions dot com. For more information on how to buy or sell in their next auction.

SPEAKER 8: Hobby News Daily is your home page of the hobby, providing original writing, exclusive gem rate data. A daily morning minute podcast and some of the best content creators in the hobby. Remember Hobby News Daily dot com and at Hobby News Daily on social happy Collecting.

SPEAKER 9: That's a wrap on another edition of the Sports Coordination podcast. Thank you to all the awesome listeners out there without you. There is no us. Thank you to all our great guests who drive this show and also our wonderful sponsors who help us produce the great hobby content every week.

SPEAKER 9: Remember another hobby, quick hits episode drops every Monday and Sports Coordination returns again. Next Friday.

SPEAKER 9: If you like the shows, we appreciate those positive reviews. Be well and always remember the hobby is the people.

SPEAKER 2: Yeah.