Stacking Slabs

What happens when experienced business operators build a sports card company instead of longtime collectors?
In this episode of Passion to Profession, Brett sits down with Gavin Hoover, Chief of Stuff at Tombstone Collectibles, to discuss what happens when enterprise experience meets the hobby.
Gavin shares how his background building large retail organizations shaped the way Tombstone approaches breaking, hiring, branding, analytics, customer relationships, and growth. Instead of thinking like a breaker, Tombstone thinks like a business.
The conversation covers why trust is the biggest challenge in scaling, how data drives decisions, why great breakers look more like sales professionals than entertainers, and why the future of the hobby depends on keeping collecting at the center of it all.
If you've ever wondered where the hobby is heading as more capital and experienced operators enter the space, this conversation will give you a different perspective.

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Growth in the hobby is easy to spot.
More inventory.
More content.
More followers.
More customers.
The growth that matters is harder to see.
As your business expands, your role has to change with it. If every decision, customer issue, hire, and piece of content still depends on you, you've built a bottleneck instead of a company.
In this episode, I break down why leadership capacity is becoming one of the biggest competitive advantages in sports cards.
I also look at what businesses like Mint Inc, Rare Candy, and Dave & Adam's are hiring for and what those roles tell us about where the hobby is heading.
If you own a business, want to work in the hobby, or want to understand where the industry is going next, this episode is for you.

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Who's right?
Who's wrong?
Adam Gellman and Ryan from RBICru7 put the biggest wrestling card opinions to the test.
Are we at the peak of the market?
Will Panini-era cards continue to rise?
Is 2024 Flawless WWE already an iconic product?
Are one-of-ones overrated?
Has Topps already changed wrestling cards for the better?
Along the way, they break down recent WrestleMania Patch Auto sales, Rey Fenix, Roman Reigns, John Cena, WWE Sapphire print runs, and what makes a great wrestling card breaker.
Some takes they agree with.
Some they completely reject.
Every one of them will make you think differently about wrestling cards. 
I like this because it tells the listener exactly what they're getting. The title creates curiosity, and the description pays it off. It also mirrors the energy of the episode instead of reading like a standard market recap.
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What makes a football card iconic?
This week Pack and Brett McGrath discuss one of the biggest Peyton Manning rookie cards ever to reach the market and why sales like this help define the hobby. From Calvin Johnson and Patrick Surtain to Bronko Nagurski and Mike Ditka, they look at the cards that shape collecting across generations.
They also tackle a collector question that sparks a bigger conversation.
How should we rank the greatest players of all time?
Is it MVPs? Championships? Peak performance? Or something else entirely?
Plus:
• The Peyton Manning Gem Master 1/1 Heritage auction
• Ranking the greatest quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers
• Trade night thoughts
• Buying cards without buyer's remorse
• Calvin Johnson Superfractor sale
• Patrick Surtain Honors Shield Auto
• New pickups
• Cracked Ice Card Call Out

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What does the sports industry see when it looks at the hobby?
In this episode of Built for the Hobby, Brett McGrath is joined by Scott Lock of InfernoRed Technology and Dan Kaufman, Managing Director at Sports Business Journal, for a conversation at the intersection of sports, collecting, media, technology, and fan engagement. 
Dan brings a perspective few people can offer. He's a lifelong collector, a sports business leader, and someone who spends his days talking with executives across leagues, teams, media companies, and technology organizations. 
Topics include:
 Why sports cards are becoming a bigger part of fan engagement 
 How younger fans consume sports differently 
 The relationship between athlete performance and card values 
 Premium experiences in sports and collecting 
 The role of technology and AI in shaping the future of fandom 
 Why collecting remains one of the strongest emotional connections between fans and sports 
This conversation offers a look at where sports and collecting are heading and why the connection between the two continues to strengthen.

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