Change is Hard

Well, at least for many of us.  

Yes, there are some people to live for change.  Nothing energizes them more than knowing their lives will be different from one week to the next.  Then there are others who are 100% resistant to change.  They dig in their heels to even the slightest notion that they might have to change up their routine a bit.

But then there is this other group where change isn’t necessarily our favorite thing, but if you give us some time we can deal with and even embrace it.  Or maybe certain things are easier for us to adapt to than others.  For many of us, change isn’t a black and white issue, it’s more gray.

As I think about how I’ve handled the change we’ve seen in the hobby over the last 2 years, I find myself conflicted.  On one hand, I love some of the new realities we are living with as we collect.  But there are other aspects that frustrate me to no end.  And then there are even more where I love the new overarching direction, but am oddly uncomfortable with how we’re getting there.  I guess you could say when it comes to change in the hobby, I’m firmly in the gray.

Let’s talk about some of those gray issues.

The surge of new collectors

We have seen a bunch of new and returning collectors over the last few years.  This has been awesome.  We need a growing healthy base of people interested in cards to support both the current market as well as the long term future.  I received messages and DMs almost weekly from podcast listeners or blog readers who thanked me for helping them navigate this new hobby reality.  I created content which warned new entrants of things to be careful about as they got their feet wet.

Yet at the same time, I found myself being frustrated and I wasn’t sure why.  

Finally, it dawned on me.  While I welcomed these new and returning collectors, it annoyed me when they didn’t appreciate the way I collect and when they chose to do things differently.  I was a hypocrite.  I was happy to preach about being open to new ways of doing things when it was me buying and selling low end cards, or focusing on set building, or other “self-sustaining” hobby activities, but when it came to this new focus on graded cards, on shiny parallels,  and modern unproven prospects, I was annoyed that they didn’t see things the same as me.  

Then I thought about how I loved that we were getting so many new voices in the hobby, but at the same time easily dismissed many of them.  Many of these new voices had styles I didn’t connect with, were promoting collecting approaches which were very different than mine, and sometimes seemed to represent themselves as experts despite only having months of hobby experience.  However, the more I think about it, the bigger issue might not have been with them.  Maybe the problem was me.  I think I was a bit jealous of the following they were gaining.  These newer content creators were connecting with these newer collectors, and often times both parties didn’t really care about tradition or the history of the hobby prior to 2020.

I think that bothered me more than I realized.  Maybe I didn’t welcome this change as much as I thought I did.  Or maybe, I actually did welcome the change in concept, but succumbed to a bit of jealousy when the change didn’t benefit me.

We can both love and hate change.  We can love helping to educate people, but at the same time get jealous of their success in a moment of weakness.  

So now what?

These moments of reflection have allowed me to uncover some underlying truths, but what am I going to do with them?  Can I change the way I think about things to more fully embrace change?  Can I accept and welcome new content creators and keep myself from being jealous of their success?  

Yeah, I think I can do that.

So far, it’s just taken one tweak to how I think about things to start making a difference.

I can still have my preferred way of collecting.  I can still share past experiences to help caution and educate new collectors about the potential risks of certain approaches to collecting.  But here’s the shift I’ve started to realize.

It’s not my responsibility to make them listen or to convince them to believe what I’m saying.  It’s my job to make accurate, helpful, quality content I can be proud of.

I may still feel that some breakers and selling platforms are harmful to the hobby, but I’m becoming content with letting the market speak.  I may still feel that some approaches to buying, selling, and collecting are risky, and I’ll still share the reasons why.  However, I am becoming comfortable letting folks learn those lessons themselves if they choose not to listen.  And from a style perspective, the fact that I can’t be all things to all people is finally sinking in.  I’m not some people’s cup of tea and that’s ok.

As this shift in mindset has started to take hold over the last couple months, I’ve felt my frustration level go down and my overall attitude improve.  

Change is hard.

But I’ve found a small shift in how I think about it can make it a whole lot easier.