Nobody incites a more visceral reaction in today’s hobby community than Gary Vee.
Ever since the successful entrepreneur started discussing sports cards and his renewed interest in the hobby in 2018, the reaction in the hobby community has been mixed. In 2019, Gary partnered with Topps to be featured in multiple mainstream releases. Allen & Ginter included him as a non-sports subject, and he had a special insert set in Topps Series 2 which focused on players who also had business interests outside of baseball. Finally, he curated a special Topps Direct 360 online release which got a lot of attention at the 2019 National.
One contingent of collectors is decidedly negative towards his involvement and relish any opportunity to paint him in an unfavorable light. In their minds, his ability to leverage his notoriety to generate small promotional fees equates to him being an industry shill. Misinformation about his background and assumptions about his intentions abound, and anyone who finds value in his content is labeled a gullible sheep.
Others view Gary Vaynerchuk as a “hobby savior” and unquestionably hang on every word he utters. They assume everything he touches will turn to gold! Instead of trying to learn the underlying principles he is teaching, they look to copy his exact actions. Instead of using his Tweets about sports cards as inspiration for research and to prompt their hobby education, they blindly buy up cards and look for the quick fix.
Both of these perspectives are incomplete and lazy.
Ironically, they both demonstrate the same lack of depth in understanding the message and the overall mindset Gary teaches.
Since I first discovered Gary Vee a couple years ago, I’ve picked up insight that has helped me both personally and professionally. I believe there is a ton we can learn from the content he gives away for free which can help us make more money and live a more fulfilling and meaningful life.
Let me explain why I think Gary Vaynerchuk is good for the sports card community.
Attention, Attention, Attention
Principle #1: Attention leads to relevance
As a content creator, or in business, if you want to be relevant you need people to be paying attention to you and to care about what you have to say. Creating and sharing insightful, authentic content brings attention and helps build credibility and a following that will stick with you. The same thing goes for the hobby. Bringing attention to this hobby we love will expose it to people who are new and will help build the collecting base.
The hobby community can be a fickle bunch. One minute we hear how the hobby is dying and we can’t reach the “next” generation of collectors. Then Gary Vee comes back onto the scene (he got is start in the hobby when he was around the 7th or 8th grade) and with him brings all kinds of attention. People who collected as kids and young people who had never been exposed to the hobby started expressing interest because Gary was starting to promote it.
The community rushed to embrace these new and returning collectors who would help bring new life to our “dying” hobby, right? Well, not exactly. Some perceived it as unwanted attention. Instead of helping educate these new collectors, some derided them as foolish sheep who were being duped. Others complained that this new attention was driving up prices on the cards they wanted to purchase.
In my opinion this is short sighted. We should be taking full advantage of this opportunity to attract and retain a new collecting base. Maybe they want to “collect”. Maybe they just want to “flip”. Who cares why they started to express interest, all that matters is that we jump at the opportunity to educate and welcome these new entrants into the market. Some will fall away, but not all of them will. Some will stick around and help breathe new life into the market.
Give it Away, Give it Away, Give it Away Now
This brings me to the second principle.
Principle 2: Approach life with a Serve First mentality and success will follow.
This is one of the things that impresses me most about Gary. He gives all the best content away to his audience for free. His podcast? Free. YouTube? Free. Step by Step Content Model Decks? Free. If you are paying attention, you get to hear almost every single keynote speech he gives and countless business coaching sessions for free. He just gives it away.
By building a community of fans who have personally benefited from the material he shares, he knows some of them will go out of their way to “pay him back” some day in the future. He doesn’t try to extract maximum value out of every person, he knows that if he can help enough people, that some of them will want to return the favor. They do that though word of mouth promotion or by purchasing some of the other products he develops like shoes, wine, or cards.
I think this is an area that we in the collecting community can do better in. We can do more to instill a Serve First mentality in the hobby. There are some great organizations like Signatures for Soldiers and Commons for Kids who are striving to help others, and I know there are segments of collectors who have come together to help others in need. We need more of that! However, there are others who appear to try and extract the most out of every sale. Some lie, cheat, and steal to make a quick buck. That will only lead to a short term gain.
Instead, we should focus on selflessly serving the community. If you are a content creator, people will notice and your following will grow. If you are a dealer or shop owner, your customers will notice and will tell their friends. Serve first and success will follow.
What Makes You Happy?
Principle 3: Pursue your Passion
Don’t do something solely because of money. Don’t do it because others expect it from you. Success comes when we are living out our passion with the people we care about.
I love how Gary tries to get people to focus in on what makes them happy. If you get joy from building a multi-million dollar business, great! If you get more fulfillment from being an accountant making $45K a year and getting to play softball and coach your kids little league team in the evenings, then great! Pursue a path in life that fulfills you and leads to joy. You, your family, and your friends will appreciate it.
Starting my blog opened up an entirely new path to happiness for me. When I fell back in love with collecting, none of my friends were interested. When I tried to discuss it with them, some made fun of me, and others were apathetic at best. A few local people helped me get back into the hobby, but I wanted to find more people who were also into collecting. The blog allowed me to both meet new people and give back to the community. I find writing and sharing my hobby thoughts extremely rewarding, and hearing how my articles have helped other collectors is amazing.
Hopefully, the fun I’m having building the website and interacting on Twitter comes through in the content I’m creating.
If anything, this principle should guide us to collect what we want. Buy what you enjoy. Don’t worry about chasing the next big thing. Who cares if other collectors think your favorite set is worthless, junk wax garbage. If you like it, collect it.
Be Accountable for Your Wins and Losses
Principle 4: Accountability Leads to Happiness
Whether you succeed or whether you fail, either way it’s on you.
Success is sweeter when you know you did the work that made it happen. Even your failures don’t sting as much when you know you are responsible for learning from them and taking action to make sure they don’t happen again.
I used some card flip profits to pick up a pair of Gary Vee 005’s from K-Swiss!
When we blame other people if things don’t go right, we are giving them control over our lives. When we rely on people to bail us out of sticky situations, we internalize a mindset that says you aren’t capable of winning. Neither of those leads to happiness.
When you find success in life, celebrate the victory and thank the people who did it with you. If you fail, own the failure and do better next time. If your business isn’t growing, figure out why and fix it. Don’t just blame the economy, president, family, your employees, etc. If you want to hit more of your collecting goals, figure out how to learn and adapt. Don’t blame Ebay, Topps, “Investors”, Panini, and Gary Vee.
Over the last two years as I began building the WaxPackHero empire(lol), I failed a lot. I had posts that fell flat, Tweets that seemed to flutter on deaf ears, and I tried some flips that flopped. At first, I had to fight the urge to come up with excuses on why something didn’t work. It turns out it was because I didn’t know what I was doing, and I sucked. Once I became ok with owning that, I could free myself to figure out how to grow and improve. I’m better for it, and you will be too.
Just Do It
Principle 5: Take Action
The vision is set. The knowledge is there. You know what you want to do, now you just need to do it.
If you are going to be accountable for your wins and losses, you need to take action. Action to build on what’s working, and action to change what needs fixing. Set a goal and start taking steps to make it happen.
Sometimes inaction shows that you don’t really care all that much. It shows you can talk a big game, but don’t want to work hard to achieve success. Other times, we fail to act because we are worried about what others will think if we fail. It can seem easier to just coast along.
You will not reach your potential, or find true fulfillment, if you settle for the status quo.
After college, Gary went back to work at his dad’s liquor store and helped grow it into a multi-million dollar operation. He then left to start his own company using nothing but the money he had saved from years on living on less than he made. Over the next decade he has built his own business into a huge operation. He wins by identifying opportunities and then taking action. Currently, he sees opportunity in buying and selling sports cards. He thinks the market will grow over the next couple years and he is working to help others capitalize on that opportunity.
I often discuss how I enjoy both the collecting and business side of cards. Building a collection that pays for itself from buying and selling other cards and creating hobby content is super fun for me. I started the blog with absolutely zero knowledge on how to build a website. I knew nothing about building a brand on social media. The first collection I bought to flip cost me somewhere around $100. I didn’t exactly how to start building, but I did know I had to do something.
I found podcasts to learn from. I reached out to people to learn from their success. I read all I could on the hobby. I worked hard. I took action. Most collectors can do this same thing. They could generate funds to offset the cost of the hobby or even add to their family’s income. It’s possible if you are willing to put in some work and take action.
Wrapping It Up
I’ve having more fun then ever collecting and talking cards with others in the hobby. I’m finding early success in building a self sustaining hobby and I’m even generating a little extra cash on top. In fact, I see the potential for me to build something that can supplement my retirement savings at some point. That’s a long term goal, but the work I’m putting in now is setting the stage for the future. I have patience and don’t expect it to happen overnight, but I can see the opportunity is there and I plan to pursue it.
These five principles that Gary teaches have contributed to the success I’ve seen so far. Go ahead and call him names if you want. Make fun of those who are fans of his content if you must. At the end of the day, facts are facts, and truth is truth.
Taking the time to figure out how you can apply these concepts will help you grow. If more of us put them into practice, the hobby would be stronger for it. You don’t have to agree with everything he says, but that doesn’t mean you should dismiss everything.
So what will you do? Will you look to find value? Will you look for inspiration on how to make our hobby stronger? Will you take action to make things better? Or are you content in focusing on the negative and continuing to cynically tear people down?
It’s up to you.
I chose growth. I choose positivity. I choose the pursuit of happiness. I choose to stop blaming others and to take charge of my future.
Don’t like it Johnypants005? That’s fine.
Your opinion doesn’t define my success. At the end of the day, the results will speak for themselves.