The Joy of the Hobby Podcast

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Joy of the Hobby is a platform designated for all things fun and exciting about the card collectable hobby.
Matt and Ben aim to bring fun, uplifting content on the blog and podcast to keep collectors excited!

PODCAST HOSTS

Ben Mercer

Like many, I started collecting as a kid at 7 years old, took time off from college through my late 20s and came back 2018 after moving and rediscovering my childhood collection. The amount of elation I had going through those cards brought me back in. My focus is on baseball, with a concentration on the history of the sport through cards, combined with the history of the hobby and the developments through card innovation.

Matt Burrows

My passion for cards has been in my blood since I was very young thanks to my dad buying me 90-91 Upper Deck NHL. My love for player collecting started with goalie cards and carried into baseball with A-Rod, ending up where I am now collecting Marc-Andre Fleury and Darcy Kuemper. I have a deep passion for trading cards which I display through my job at Upper Deck and through our podcast!

Cards

Shout out to @leaftradingcards for getting my two favorite player’s patches on a card! #leaf #bonds #ichiro
2024 Topps Pristine 7 wonders /70. IMHO this would be an all time insert for Topps if they only did the /70 version and didn’t include the red /5 or the SuperFractors. #betts #dodgers #topps #pristine #casehits
Ahh… the ‘throw everything at a card at see what sticks’ - in the case of the 1998 Ultra Diamond producers everything stuck 😂 - I sometimes think this card is ugly but respect the amount of effort that went into putting this crazy
2004 Upper Deck SP game used MVP patch /25. This is the prime years of UD baseball patch design, and this one is an absolute beauty. #upperdeck #ichiro #patch # gameused
Back for 2026- took a long time off from posting rethinking how I want to keep this profile up moving forward. After a long hiatus I won’t be changing much other than actually posting a few times a week, not always something new, but a card or
Swipe to see how I saved another card from a slab prison!! The look of this 2020 Topps sapphire green /45 is so stunning without the slab to interfere with its brilliance. Anybody else cracked a card recently to enjoy how it looks? #saphire #topps #2
Interrupting the ‘B’ posts to circle back to a new pickup - 2000 SP Authentic Rick Ankiel auto. Always wanted one of his autos, just a great story and someone that’s inspiring. AND I’ve seen many copies of this card but never
For those of you that follow @joyofthehobby the DadCast is officially on tonight at 7CT - see you there! #thehobby #baseballcards #collecting #sportscards
Card 4/13 in the ‘B’ part of my collection. This one is a good reminder of how flexible the HOF can be. No knock on Harold, he was… good. And this set,especially the gold stamp versions are gorgeous cards so I like having one in my
3/13 from ‘B’ in the alphabetized portion of the PC. 1998 leaf statistical standouts die cut /250 Jeff Bagwell. I love 1997 and 1998 leaf, great inserts, sneaky rare parallels and an overall ‘lux’ feel to the product while sta
Card 2/13 from ‘B’ in the alphabetized part of the PC: 1975 Topps George Brett RC. Could I upgrade this copy? Absolutely, but this is the one my dad bought for me in 2002. Nostalgia FTW #1975 #topps #hof #royals
Time for letter ‘B’ of the alphabetized subset of my PC. 13 cards, card 1: 2014 bowman blue border Mookie Betts /500. Bought this back in 2020 thinking he was on a #hof trajectory for $11. Still want the chrome auto version as an upgrade!
Last card in the ‘A’ of my alphabetized portion of my collection. Had the opportunity to grab to grab this one after Ronald was injured last season. With the scratched slab I was able to get a nice discount on a card I think could be ico
Number 2 of 3 in my alphabetically organized ‘A’ part of the PC. 2001 upper deck UD decade 1970s Louis Aparicio jersey/auto. Bought this in 2001 with my mom, we were walking around a mall card show and she stopped and said ‘oh, Loui
As part of my ‘PC Audit’ I thought it’d be fun to start posting the part of my collection I have organized alphabetically. A lot of it is nostalgic, especially this one. 1999 Topps Tek Roberto Alomar 8B P1 gold 4/10. I pulled this o
We all love to post some HUGE cards when they come in, but I’d also like to start a trend of posting card that maybe you picked up just because you think they’re cool! Maybe start with a #1dollarcard - this is the 1994 Topps complete set
Even though Fleury won’t have another Synergy card, I still had two true base to chase down…now just 1! I know my buddy @lowmac12sc is a big fan of these as well. You just never know when these true base might show up in the open marke
2024-25 Waffleboarded Marc-Andre Fleury Gold /25 This new addition to the Fleury collection is a parallel I’ve been chasing since this product released! Despite being /25, it’s quite surprising how long a copy of this took to surface.
2024-25 PWHL Game Dated Moments of CJ @carlyjackson97 First off, for anyone that follows the PWHL, you’ll that that Carly is one the nicest people you could hope to meet! I was hoping we could make a card of CJ before the season ended and it
2024-25 Fleer Ultra Marc-Andre Fleury Fame Game SP ✨ 🏆 Big shout out to @billycelio for bringing this insert back after its inception in 1997 Ultra Baseball. Love the look of the sparkling foil 🤩. Obviously Flower fits perfectly into the themin
2023-24 E-X 2000 Marc-Andre Fleury Essential Credentials /99 From the announcement of this set, and knowing Flower was in the checklist, this was card #1 I wanted from the set. Fleury has never had an Essential Credentials until now! To say I was b
2023-24 Skybox E-X Marc-Andre Fleury E-Xceptional Case Hit SSP ‼️ Knowing that we brought this back was very exciting! While this product didn’t perform the way we hoped, there are some hidden gems within, including these! These are built j
2009-10 Ultimate Collection Shield Auto 1 of 1 🛡️ 🐧 🤩 There are great cards, there are spectacular cards, and then there is ONE card that will truly sit above the rest in our collections. I cannot say that I truly had a card like that until now&
1990-91 Upper Deck Jon Casey Personalized Inscription from the 2025 Fall Expo “Matt’s First Hockey Card” 🤩 🖊️ 🌟 Having the chance to meet Jon at the Expo and tell him my story of how this card lead me down the path to working a
2024 PWHL First Edition Marie-Philip Poulin Young Guns Outburst Red /25 ♦️♦️♦️ Arguably the second most important card ever released for the PWHL, outside of the Gold 1/1 outburst is this beauty of MPP! When this product first ca
2008-09 Upper Deck Masterpieces Manon Rheaume @manonrheaume33 Auto SP 🖊️ Out of all the sets that I’d love to see come back, This set is that one that I know would be extremely well received by the collecting community! Original art, hard
One of One 🚨 2011-12 Panini Contenders Marc-Andre Fleury Black Foil True 1 of 1! Massive shout out to my guy @felixpotvincollector as his buddy had this for trade. His buddy Justin had this and after chatting for a couple weeks, we came to an ag
2020-21 SpX Finite Achievements Patch 1 of 1 🤯 🌟 😎 This card falls into the category of “Wasn’t expecting to own this!” I was walking the floor when I came across this card and knew I had to make a trade for it. Jake is an Amer
2024-25 Ultimate Collection Marc-Andre Fleury Personal Scripts “Fries” 🍟 Back to the Easel!! While I’m likely done buying Flower Minnesota cards, this was one card I was really hoping to find a copy of. Despite it being /25, I
I typically post my rarer cards on here, but this is an insert I HAD to share with everyone. My co-worker Pat came up with the concept of these, and the design team knocked it out of the park with the design! Marc-Andre hasn't had a ton of cards
Over a month ago, @pdxhockeycards and I completed a deal which got him a set he was after, and in part, he sent me an upgrade for my Flower 2012-13 Retro Red PMG! These cards are pretty condition sensitive as most of you know, and I love this jerse
2009-10 Upper Deck Artifacts Marc-Andre Fleury Gold Spectrum /10 Any card that’s 10 years or older with a print run of 10 or less is more or less a card that’s you shouldn’t expect to find a copy of. Nevertheless, I found this bea

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