Stacking Slabs

Leighton Sheldon has spent more than 20 years building Just Collect by asking questions, studying the market, and treating each collection as part of someone’s story.
In this episode of Passion to Profession, Leighton shares why he chose the sports card industry over a career in consulting, what he learned working at Leland’s, and how those lessons shaped his approach to buying collections.
He also tells the story of purchasing nearly 1,000 Goudey cards in Arizona, including 18 Babe Ruth cards, and explains why trust mattered more than pressure in closing the deal.
We also discuss the problem that led him to cofound AuctionWire, the role content has played in his business, and the traits that give people staying power in the hobby.

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Every company in the sports card industry says it supports collectors.
The question is whether the collector has power inside the business.
In this episode of Hobby Jobs, I break down five places where a collector-first approach becomes visible. What a company measures. How it rewards employees. Where it removes friction. How it responds when something breaks. Whether collector knowledge shapes decisions.
I also share the story of Shane Walls, lead buyer at Indy Card Exchange. Shane bought a Tom Brady Black Prizm 1/1 for $600 and sold it years later for $96,000. The value of that story is not the return. It is the experience, relationships, and judgment that allowed Shane to act before the market agreed with him.
Knowing cards is not enough to build a career in the hobby. You need to turn what you know into decisions that serve the collector and support the business.

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The wrestling card market has attention. That does not mean every card has value.
Adam and Ryan examine the John Cena and Rhea Ripley WrestleMania patch auctions, the Cena and Shohei Ohtani one-of-one, and why putting chase cards in the same auction can serve each sale.
They also break down the decisions collectors face when prices move:
 When should you pay above the last comp? 
 Which cards should you sell before supply catches up? 
 How many buyers exist for your card? 
 What makes a card worth holding? 
The conversation closes with sales from Oba Femi, John Cena, and Giulia, plus the card elements that matter most when building a collection.

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Football Cards Are Up 380% since 2020. This Is Bigger Than Quarterbacks.
When many collectors returned to football cards in 2020, the message was clear: only buy quarterbacks.
Since January 1, 2020, the Card Ladder football index has increased 380.99%. That growth extends beyond one position.
Pack and Brett separate collecting advice from resale advice. They examine why Barry Sanders and Jerry Rice lead their era, why the early 2000s still lack a settled card hierarchy, and how research creates opportunities for collectors willing to look beyond the current quarterback class.
They also discuss the $414,800 Peyton Manning Gem Masters 1/1 sale, a $402,600 Bronko Nagurski, Jason Kelce, game-day rituals, saved-search cleanup, and the Football Card Podcast Pick’em League.

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Technology has a larger role in the hobby than it did a year ago.
The question is whether it solves problems collectors care about.
Scott Lock and Ed Snider of InfernoRed Technology join me to discuss what they saw at The National. We examine Topps’ digital redemption process, the use of AI inside hobby businesses, and where technology can remove friction from buying and selling cards.
Scott and Ed also take us inside Enter the Inferno, where collectors presented products built from their experiences in the hobby.
The future of hobby tech will not be defined by how much technology companies introduce. It will be defined by whether those tools improve the collector experience without removing the people, conversations, and search that make collecting matter.

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