Slabnomics
Finance-Bro turned Card Bird explores the intersection of collecting, investment, and market theory for sports cards.
Think Financial Analyst meets Sports Card Collector.
New Episodes drop Tuesdays @ 7 AM CST.
Slabnomics
How to Understand Changing Markets Ft. Ryan Alford
On this episode of Slabnomics, Matt sits down with Ryan Alford — serial entrepreneur, marketing titan, and host of “Right About Now” and the new “Trading Cards & Collectibles” podcast — to talk hobby growth, storytelling, and where the market is headed next.
🔑 What you’ll learn
• How a Walmart pack rip with his four sons pulled Ryan back into the hobby
• The attention economy: why “document, don’t overproduce” wins on YouTube/shorts
• Collecting vs. investing: intention, PC boxes, and building value on purpose
• Blue-ocean opportunities in storytelling (beyond comps and breaks)
• 12–24 month outlook: Fanatics/Topps vs. Panini licensing impacts on football, basketball, baseball (and how marketing changes demand)
• Teaching kids business through cards: e-commerce, content, and flipping fundamentals
🧩 Episode highlights
• Nostalgia + new money + family time = hobby tailwinds
• The real role of attention (and why the least-expected videos often pop)
• Why storytellers (not just breakers) will win the next wave
• Market structure matters: licensing, autographs, and league alignment
• Collect first, profit second — how to keep both lanes healthy
⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro — who is Ryan Alford
0:54 Back into cards via a Walmart rip (family story)
3:21 First big hits
5:00 Why it clicked now for the kids + business lessons
8:19 Macro tailwinds & mainstream attention
10:39 NFL chat + fandom
11:51 The attention economy explained (smartphone + 5G + platforms)
15:24 Creator reality: what actually breaks through
15:59 Why launch a hobby podcast (access + audience)
18:56 Authenticity over perfection
21:55 Storytelling as blue ocean in the hobby
24:49 Identity and collecting
26:56 Collecting vs. investing (intention matters)
31:28 Business lens: treating cards like a market you love
31:43 The next 1–2 years: Fanatics/Topps vs. Panini
35:49 Consumer outcomes & bigger players entering
36:42 Marketing: why Fanatics changes the game
37:58 Wrap + takeaways
38:25 Where to find Ryan
38:55 Sign-off
👤 Guest
Ryan Alford — @RyanAlford • RyanAlford.com
Podcasts: “Right About Now” (marketing/business) • “Trading Cards & Collectibles Podcast”
🎙️ Host
Matt (Slabnomics) — slabnomics.com • @Slabnomics across platforms
👇 Join the conversation
What’s your best family pack-rip memory — and are you collecting or investing this season (or both)? Drop it below and tell us why.
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Today, I'm incredibly excited to welcome onto Slabnomics Ryan Alford. He's a serial entrepreneur, marketing mind, and media mogul. He's the founder of multiple companies, the voice behind Right About Now, the number one marketing and business podcast on Apple Podcasts, and the host about the new but incredibly successful podcast about the hobby, Trading Cards and Collectibles Podcast. Ryan has an amazing reputation for cutting through the BS and helping people achieve finance and business-oriented results. So very excited to have him on today. Ryan, how are you doing, man? Matt, what's up, brother? Appreciate you having me. Excited to be here. Absolutely. So listening to some of the interviews that you've had with Gary Vee, you've talked to Mike Gio, sounds like you've gotten into the hobby pretty newly. So tell us about how that transpired and how what brought you in.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, man. I collected growing up, and I think what you're seeing in the industry a lot is guys my age in their mid-40s that collected growing up may have put it on the shelf to focus on other things. I like to tell you tell people I got, you know, got sidetracked by ball, uh, sports, and uh cars and girls, like most teenagers. So it's been on the shelf while I got my career taken off and all that. And having children, four boys that kind of came into it here in the last year, brought me back in, and it was really through that lens, and it was really organic. You know, it's funny, Matt. I'll tell you a little story. My wife and I uh were with the four boys. We were at Walmart doing the shopping. You got four boys to feed, you gotta go to the discount store. I'm telling you, man, it's a lot to feed those kids. But uh we were shopping and uh we walked by the trading card section and and the boys were like, let's pick up some cards. And I had never really seen there'd been a little Pokemon as they were younger, uh, but not really uh anything that showed that they were gonna, you know, have an affinity towards it. They were like rampant about, you know, like wanting to get some packs or something. Like, oh, y'all want some packs, too? And I'm like, we hadn't really gone down the family discussion path of, you know, the how much I had collected growing up. They knew I had some old cards and stuff, but we bought like a box and the rest is history, my friend. We we ripped packs for like two hours that night and had a blast. And you know, it was a a way for me to hang out with my boys and the discovery of opening packs and the excitement of who you're getting and everything that comes with that, but then shared with my four boys, and then in the last eight to twelve months, sort of going, okay, this is cool. I'm back into this. This is interesting, learning all I can like a fire hose about what's changed and using my network and my visibility to get us into shows or like know the best ways to kind of enter back into the hobby than seeing all the business opportunity, but it's been a it's been a whirlwind.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the old Walmart shopping trip is always a good one. I had the same thing happen. I went and I bought a mega box of soccer from Walmart and I hit a big messy card, and from there on the hooks are in. You know, what are you gonna do? Did you guys hit anything big?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah well, you know, we're we're football guys. We live in South Carolina. Clemson is where I went to school. We're Clemson fans. We knew, generally speaking, you know, who the NFL guys were. So opening the packs, we knew like who the rookies were. I think we hit a pretty big like Caleb Williams in the first box. And then we opened two boxes and we hit like a Bo Nicks autograph or something. You know, like four or five hundred dollar cards and you know, hundred dollar boxes. The hobby gods definitely got their hooks in us too.
SPEAKER_00:It's awesome, man. It's so fun that you're able to do that with family, right? You said your four boys brought you into it. So they were involved with sports before, and then all of a sudden they get into cards through this experience with you. Why do you think that happened now and maybe not before for them?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. You know, as kids, you you do a lot of different things. Like you you sample sports, sample toys, like what whatever becomes, you know, the things that you're most interested in. And what's interesting is like our kids, some of our boys swim, baseball, football, basketball. They play all these different sports, but football's always sort of been, I think, the front and center, uh, as far as the most interest in like what we watch on TV and things. It was this perfect timing as fans, and they were getting old enough to where their attention spans, they would actually sit and watch games with me. So they're becoming more watchers, purveyors of the sport, combined with they're kind of starting to get this business sense. They would always do the lemonade stands or the things on the street. So I think they had an interest in how they could flip some cards and seeing the business aspect combined with their fandom and football and attention spans kind of getting to that point, meets this perfect moment, you know, where we start some ripping some packs and it's a family moment and it just becomes something that we did. And, you know, the last year, there was probably a six-month period where at least two or three nights a week we'd be just ripping packs. And then I started teaching them business through it, you know, because I didn't want it to just be business. They were obviously collecting, we're Clemson fans, pulling back all the Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne's, all the, you know, the Clemson guys, and then knowing which ones are valuable and of whether or not they wanted to keep them and going, hey, you know, these have certain values. You're not gonna make money on every box, you know, ripping packs is not the fastest way to money. We know that. Buying singles sometimes can be. But I did immediately teach them what I know. I'm a marketer first and foremost. So e-commerce, social media, content. We started watching guys like King of Cars, Kyle, and other guys on YouTube. And then that became seeing them like saying, You see what he's doing here? He's filming what he's doing. And Kyle's a great guy. He's like, but he's not doing anything special. He's just documenting everything that he's doing because people are going to watch it, and there's economics with that. There's awareness, there's attention, there's these things and benefits that come from that that you could you could do as well, or we could do together as a way to offset some of the costs to open all these packs. And so it allowed me to sort of teach them what I'm already doing. I mean, I own a podcast network, I do content and monetize that, but they could have cared less about that until the hobby lens sort of laid on top of it. So that combination of things, I think the timing brought all that together.
SPEAKER_00:So it sounds like there was a conduit almost of previous interests that they had and shared with you to something that was new. And it came in the same time frame that I actually got into cards as well. It was last October, and I just kind of jumped in feet first, like you were saying you did. So is that something that you think is taking over more prevalently within the United States, worldwide? Are you seeing tailwinds everywhere?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, I think it is, and I think definitely in the US, I mean, I think there's definitely foreign markets, but I think you've got this time and place where um people are looking for asset classes for one. So I think that's where you have the big money coming in, the the maleries and like a lot of smart guys bringing money into the top end. But I do think you have this perfect moment where my age group, there was a lot of baseball card trading, like the late 80s, early 90s, and that nostalgia, and now having kids at the same age. I think we're in a 10-year period here where that's revitalizing the whole thing from the top and the bottom. You got the 45 to 50-year-old dads, um, or moms, typically dads, and then you got the boys and girls, whoever it is, the kids, whoever they are, and you've got this perfect time standpoint because you got the nostalgia from the 45 to 50 year olds and awareness that's happening from everywhere: big money, small money, new cards, all the stuff that we know that is the energy around the hobby. And these things are just meeting each other. And I think that's why you're seeing um the upticks in mainstream media talking about it. I mean, I'm now in it, so I'm more aware. My radar's up, but I can tell you the the number of like outlets, big media, headlines, TV, all those kind of things. In any given week, I can't flip the TV on and there's not some new story about the industry.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Absolutely right. I am in soccer a lot. That's something that it sounds like you don't play too much in. You're more of a football guy, which at heart I'm a Green Bay Packer fan. I bleed green and gold, so I get it. Hey, good year for Green Bay. I think they look good. We look different, man. Different. I'm uh I'm saying it right now. Steelers versus Packers, Super Bowl matchup. I think the Packers might be there. I'm not ready to sign off on the Steelers yet, but uh I need to see a little more. Bold calls, bold calls, but I think the media machine would love that one. So Oh god, they would love it. We'll see. They'd have a field day. But going back to marketing, you talked about attention. So attention is kind of this white hot spotlight, and you mentioned your marketing experience. So what is the importance of attention in today's day and age, and has that morphed through the years? Or is that something that's actually been always a stable driver of value through the years?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, it's a it's an interesting topic because we have so many things vying for our attention now. I I know you're a younger guy, but like 20 years ago, you really only had so many outlets for your pastime as it relates to different things. And we've had this democratization of media. The proliferation of two things have happened. One, we've had the ubiquitous distribution of the TV and your and the encyclopedia and everything that's in your pocket, which is the smartphone. And then you have the ubiquitous 5G networks that enable the media to channel within these things, especially in the United States, pretty much nationwide, at high bandwidth. And so what that's done is it's democratized media with YouTube, social media, and all these apps that have been on built on top of the smartphone and that connection. And what that's done is it's created a lot of other outlets for people to distribute content and distribute things that take our attention. And so there's a lot more ability for creators and individuals and businesses to break through, but you have both the opportunity and the challenge because you know, TV networks 20, 25 years ago didn't have to compete with all of that. It was, hey, the game's on this channel and there's not much else to do. Well, now I could watch YouTube or TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever your interest is on any channel combined with on-demand media. You know, you couldn't do it. Like we we sort of take for granted now what wasn't available just 10 years ago. Like watching what you want, when you want, how you want it. It's created this both opportunity and threat because now to get attention, it's harder to break through. You didn't have to be that interesting 20 years ago because there just wasn't many options. So your message was probably going to get heard. And now you actually have to come on the terms of the viewer, which is why I actually think ironically, you know, tying it back to the hobby, you got guys like Pac-Man and King of Cards and Card Collector 2, and all these guys are doing content. You know, they're breaking through because they're doing really organic stuff that people want to watch. And that's in this space that they want to live and breathe and see it through what the experience they would like to be having, and they may not be. And so attention has always been super important from a marketing perspective, but it's just both more available to try to get it, but harder to break through.
SPEAKER_00:I can retweet that one as a content creator. It's very difficult. And oftentimes we get siloed in our own viewpoint. We put stuff out there and it's like, I think this is awesome. And all the content creators I always talk to, they say the content that they put out that they had the least expectations for are the ones that are most successful, which is such a weird dichotomy that we live in today with that high moat of attention. Segwaying into the podcast that you've just started, you are six or seven episodes in. Yep. Six or seven. We've recorded eight or nine, but six or seven have been released for trading cards and collectibles. Yeah. So walk me through this. You you get into the hobby, you have this amazing background of success in business and marketing, and you're going through things. What led you to establishing this podcast? What was the need that you saw, and what does it fill? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think selfishly, I enjoy the podcast medium and have built a podcast network in a couple of shows that have done well on my own. We've got a number of shows on our network. They're doing very well, 40 and growing. And so I love the medium, love the space. I'm not good at a lot of things, but I'm pretty good at podcasting. And so it was like I go, okay, this is something I'm good at. This is something I'm interested in. I'm doing with my kids. I love creating content. So selfishly it started there, Matt. But then once you get past that point, it was, I just think there's a lot of opportunity, much like your show, other shows, there's different strokes for different folks. And I don't know that anyone is owning the podcast space. Like and the SCN guys, I love. And Gio and all those guys, they're they're probably the unquestioned like number one show right now. But I don't think anyone's owning the space. And there's so many opportunities for different variations of what the trading card collectibles and overall hobby looks like. So it was I am a podcasting expert. I own a podcast network. I enjoy creating content. My kids are doing it. I have this access to people, places, and things that I think could be of interest to viewers and people in this space with the guests that I can bring, the content that we can bring. And I think it's been organically just bringing that to life. I have a Rolodex or a contact list of a lot of people that I think people would love to hear their take on the hobby or their perspective. And I just wanted to open that up. And by creating a show, I create an avenue to do that, combined with wanting to show a little bit of the business aspect and me and the boys ripping packs and the organic nature of which we're kind of coming into the hobby. So I'm not coming into it as like this expert that knows it all. It's more like I'm bringing to bear my own growth in the hobby through these guests and through these experiences, living and breathing and doing it.
SPEAKER_00:I love that. The journey of the new collector, the journey of someone just getting into the space, learning the field level versus the terrace level of select and those kind of things. And why is this worth more than this? And don't people value this and that they don't like stickers and they like, you know, exactly. And I mean there's a million things.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I'm I opened packs, and I'm probably saying things that, you know, Pac-Man or any of these other guys would have never said, but because they're professionals that have been doing it for seven years, you know, or whatever. And I mean, I know enough to be dangerous, but it's more trying to just be authentic and I it might have great production value, but I assure you there's a level of amateurism in my just here's who I'm bringing to the table. It's this weird dichotomy, Matt, because I can get Gary V and King of Cards and all these big names because I have the credibility or the contacts or the friends to do that, but it doesn't mean I'm doing it because I've been anointed within the hobby on some level. No, I'm not a nobody, but I have access, so why wouldn't I help bring that to other people?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think you're using your network for good and in a way that is really appreciated by the people in the hobby. I mean, all of those episodes that you put out are with the short list of people that are the rushmore of the hobby. So it's incredible to see Gary V come on. It's incredible to see Kyle come on.
SPEAKER_01:I have grand ambitions because I just think there's a lot of great hobby stories out there, and there's people that are doing it and getting into it, and some names will blow you away.
SPEAKER_00:I'm excited, man. I can't wait. Hopefully, I'll get a behind-the-scenes peak someday, but hey, you're in. You talked about Blue Ocean. It was the SportsCard Nonsense podcast that you went on. You talked about Blue Ocean, the concept of there's so much out here that's being unutilized in the hobby space. And that points back to one of the points that you talked about as well, in that you came in, you looked around, and there were many things that you saw kind of lacking within the hobby. Yeah. But I think that also applies to learning through your own journey, right? You come in, you're learning all these things, you have to figure out what people value, why they don't value this, where education is needed. Would you say that your podcast deals with the education piece of the hobby, or where's the true focus besides giving a platform to the stories?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I think it's it starts with a platform to the story. Um because I think storytelling is something that's actually blue ocean in this space a little bit. We've got a lot of focus on like the individual cards, the trading of the cards, the opening of the cards. And so like that's why you'll see those segments on our show. But I think you're also going to see, and we're asking for more and more people, and we've got some guests coming up, the stories behind you know, the PC. And instead of like, okay, what are the most expensive cards that were popped this week? No, what was your favorite card you opened this week and why? And telling some of the more interesting narratives behind why someone collects, why this means to them. We've got a guy coming on, uh, you'll see in a segment soon, who's collected like every type of a certain card. And I don't want to give too much away. Um, but there's a story and a journey behind that. We want to tell those stories and those broader narratives. Look, Jeff Wilson's doing some cool stuff, but it's it all feels a little bit in the same lane to me. And and look, we're gonna be in a little bit of that lane too. I mean, I'm not throwing the baby out with the bathwater here. One of my favorite sayings. Uh, you know, people love seeing the cards open, they the value of this and the business aspect and selling that for this amount and trading this amount. And all of that's true. But I think there's stories and narratives and other things to be had here, as well as, you know, things like Josh Luber coming on talking about Ghost Right and you know, the new innovations that are going to be happening within the space and shining light on where, why, and how those things came to bear. I think it's interesting. You know, Matt, I mean, selfishly, if no one else wants to do it, I'm just having fun producing. But but something tells me, just knowing this space and talking to guys like you and getting feedback that, you know, it we'll find our way. But I do think it's gonna be an organic journey. I think to sit here and go, well, Matt, we are exactly this and we're gonna be exactly that, and we're gonna do this and have that, that would be just disingenuous. I it's not that mapped out. I'm just trying to sort of bake the cake as we go, knowing the ingredients might change. But I think some of those tenants I've talked about are gonna make it.
SPEAKER_00:Ryan, I can barely map out a week. I'm sure you have more than that, but I I agree with you. It it's hard to take what comes and also hard to be original. It takes brain power to be original and to create new content. And it's easy to kind of templatize the content distribution. And so I appreciate that you're bringing in a new spin to the hobby, one that's focused on stories, which I think connects us through identity. Because I think to me, that's what most draws me to card collecting is the identity that you can see for someone through their collecting. collection.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. And I love that. And, you know, to put a fine point on that, Matt, we started the Rad Collective as a business to offset some of the cost of opening all these packs. So I don't mean this, again, disingenuous that there's not a business aspect to it. You know, we're doing breaks and and live things, but I can assure you it's not a it's not a profitable side of the offered empire yet. I'll just say that. But and I don't know that it ever will be and I don't really care if it does, if it just brings my sons and I closer and gives us common bonds. But with that said, there's a reason collectibles and the word collecting is built into it. And I think you'll see if there's one thing I can point to that I see the show evolving more and more to which is not forgetting that this is about collecting and not about transactions like every single moment. And that is a goal of mine. Even though we've got transactional things and content happening within our show. So I don't want to like talk out of both sides of my mouth, but I will always try to lift the light of what it means to be a collector over what it means to be a business person within the hobby.
SPEAKER_00:Speaking of collecting versus investing which are what I see as the two main avenues for those in sports cards. And I spoke about this with Jeremy Lee on the podcast that I just released today for Slavnomics. Would you say that those are inherently intertwined to your point before about it all is based on collecting but at the end of the day it's also you want your collection to rise in value. Any thoughts on how those can play together or do you think they're totally different sandboxes?
SPEAKER_01:I think they can play together accidentally but I think I think they they're instinctively different because again, we're Clemson guys. And I've got a box you know this big and I've been buying singles of autographs of players that let's be honest that don't even play anymore that might have played one season in the pros and you know if it's worth$20 today it's probably worth$20 50 years from now. He's never going to have a Super Bowl or whatever. And that's collecting and having that nostalgia and displaying that in ways in your man cave or on your wall and having you know your identity around your fandom and things like that. And but then Josh Allen's probably my favorite player and I have a Josh Allen collection. Well he just happens to be the best one of and maybe grooming to be the best quarterback in the league should win a Super Bowl hopefully eventually fingers crossed. So that those paths cross accidentally but I'm not collecting him because of the financial upside but I do think you can do both. I've got the the PC box over here that really I don't care what anyone thinks I collect it because it's what I want and there's cards that I probably overpaid for that will never have more value and it's over here in the collecting space. And then I've got five or ten because there is an asset class here and there is money to be made if you do it the smart way. But I think they're they're sort of in different worlds and I think you have to sort of separate them in your mind.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think it's intention to me it's intention of what am I actually looking to do with this and you you said it magnificently there in that these are the things that are going to be worth$20 now and maybe$20 in 20 years. It doesn't matter. It's in a box. And then there are some things that we think are investments that will go up in value because their value isn't understood by the market yet and different appetites different things to do that keep us busy with all this time that we have through technology these days.
SPEAKER_01:And it's fun because like for me as a business guy and as an entrepreneur that's that's hitting my natural side of thinking because this is what I do. I try to create things that have value to sell them whether it's services products things whatever it might be for myself or clients that I work with this is a similar thing. Like you get to kind of sort of play the stock market with trading cards in something that I love watching and I have fandom in anyway. So I mean I'm the guy that can watch the Mac attack on Tuesday night with Ohio playing you know Colgate or whoever you know like if football's on, it's going to be on my TV before anything else. I'm just one of those guys my kids are that way. And so to be able to do a business type of investment and planning in a space that already have fandom is fun. And so I think that's getting at the core of why this is you know taking off. I think some people it's pure business but then there's the guys like me that it blends so many worlds together that I didn't know could exist at the level that they are which is probably you know why I'm here.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely it's what you were made to do. You know all the pieces kind of come together and I feel that way a lot about slapnomics. So we have a few minutes left. I do want to go into a little bit about what you see the market evolving into you're connected to some people that make some very powerful decisions and you see where things are going. You have that experience in other places. So what are some of the tailwinds that you see right now and where do you think this is all headed in the next year or two?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah it's going to be a a real fascinating I mean I I don't have a crystal ball definitively but I think there's a couple things at play that are going to especially impact the things that we collect football being number one but also baseball and basketball I mean you know I'm sure soccer on some level too but all the sports the whole fanatics and panini thing is going to come to a head soon. And I think anyone that says they know exactly how it's going to play out is not being truthful or they know a lot more than I do and I feel like I know a fair amount. And that's going to have an impact on licensing it's the whole battle of fanatics has been really smart in some ways you can say or whatever you want about the tactics and the ways but it's just business man. It's capitalism. And Panini, you know, sat maybe a little fat and happy I d I don't know but now you're going to have this licensing switchover. It's happening one way or another how messy it's going to be and who's left standing a year or two from now I mean I mean Panini's not going away but you know non-licensed everything is a struggle. You know Thompson's made it happen to a degree because they locked in a lot of the guys with autographs and different things that's kept them more than afloat. But I think Ruben knows what he's doing and he's going to go for the jugular I'm just saying I know this guy and you don't mess with Michael Rubin in business. I mean I'm just saying it just is what it is. And and I respect him. You don't have to like him he might be a different taste for all that I respect that he's a savage businessman. But you know what? He is trying to make the experience in the hobby better. He really is a hundred percent and but but he's going to do it in a way that's profitable to his shareholders as a whole or his investors. And so that's going to really have an impact on the hobby the next year or two. You know I I don't think they're going to get scot free out of this but there'll probably be some settlements. I tend to think Panini should just they should just figure out a way to merge or something keeping all the brands alive. I don't think it would have meant you know Don Russ went away or anything but I think you can say what would have been worse for the consumer. I don't know I wish that deal probably would just happen to avoid this where we're not going to have freaking football and tops this year, you know, until next year or something. Like some weird stuff going on. And I think I hate to hammer just on that but I just think that's going to have a dynamic impact of the hobby. But you're also going to see Matt like there's going to be a lot bigger players coming in Mr. Wonderful Kevin Oleary, you know, that guy's a savage too and he's not just buying$12 million cards for nostalgia. He doesn't give a shit about nostalgia. He's coming in because he sees what I see and a lot of other people see this is big business and there's a lot of opportunity. So I think there's going to be the impact of that but I think think the players that are in the highest points in this are doing it for the right reasons and want more people in the hobby. And so thus I think the outcomes will be positive for the consumer versus negative.
SPEAKER_00:So well I'm I'm glad that you have that perspective. I share that with you and I'm so glad that you brought up the switching of licensing because I think people go other ways maybe into Tom Brady being part of Card vault or any of the other indicators that we see but that switching of licensing is something so big that not many people are talking about. And they're not talking about how that's going to shift demand. And I mean Panini Prism for football isn't going to be out licensed for a long time. And that's like the big set and a lot of valuations that we kind of look at as being established are going to get reset. And I I've heard this maybe you can weigh in really quick on this but I've heard that fanatics does such a better job when it comes to the marketing side versus how Panini has handled things in the past 10, 12 years.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean that's where you know Rubens got his chops with fanatics and all that other stuff. They they're a marketing machine and you're going to see a lot of innovations on that side. And the way that they structured the agreements with the leagues owning part of the cards it was brilliant but it's also a fair thing. It's like the money that the leagues can make from this you get them involved in it. They want to help more you don't have this sort of the hobby versus the leagues or something. I mean this all works because of the leagues you need them engaged. You need them having an ownership stake and wanting to push the trading card industry. And Michael understood that and Rubens is a marketer's marketer. And so yeah it's night and day and I don't even think it's Panini I just know what my eyes ears and gut tell me.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah I'm so excited to see how everything spills over kind of make our bets put our chips into these different piles and tops Chrome used to be the GOAT set as well. I think people forget that it's coming back it's it's coming back big. Ryan we're going to get you out of here. Thanks so much again for all the time I'm so grateful for you coming on.
SPEAKER_01:One last plug anything you want to talk about before we let you go no check out trading cards and collectibles pretty simple and straightforward search for that show. And you know at Ryan Alford you can find me anywhere at RyanAwford.com on all the social platforms had that blue check before you could buy it baby.
SPEAKER_00:Make sure to give Ryan a follow listen to those episodes with those big hitters. Like that is such valuable information. You can find me at Slabnomics and anywhere podcasts are by the same name. So thanks so much again for coming on man. It was a pleasure to have you hey Matt here to support you any way I can you're doing great things and love just coming on shooting the shit anytime.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:All right so grateful to have Ryan Alford onto Slabnomics and honestly so grateful to have him as part of the hobby. He's just the kind of person that we need an entrepreneur and someone that's going to drive the hobby forward as the market continues to mature. If you've enjoyed this podcast make sure to like and subscribe and check out slabnomics.com. I'm going to have a lot of resources there to help you make better financial decisions for sports cards, whether that's player archetypes and how you can compare across sports, things that are fundamentally undervalued or sets that I think have a lot of room to run. So check it out and make sure to follow me over there. Make sure to follow Ryan on his socials and listen to the trading card and collectibles podcast. All right, that's it for me today. Keep building and I'll talk to you later.
