The Nameless One

Woah what a card! ...srsly, this is the "more valuable" variant?

Double Blaze, Reshiram & Charizard GX Ultra Rare, #007/095, Declared Value: $100 Holy smokes! Much better, right? Much... cheaper, right? Mitsuhiro Arita, the legend of legends... what a fantastic card... these are the kinds of cards I want as display pieces less than the hits

May as well go over my spectrum of big lizard boi Double Blaze, Reshiram & Charizard GX Hyper Rare, #108/95 Declared Value: $400 I want to go on an aesthetic rant. Rainbow cards are hard to pull off, and these cards illustrated by "CG Works" are kinda ugly, imo. It's like people are paying for the rarity and the fact that it is a charizard as opposed to aesthetic value. I'm very critical of the rarity tiers, it seems like people value cards well beyond that aspect. This is the big hit from Double Blaze... now I want to show you the... cheaper, more dignified version of this card

Beautiful 'zards! That's a healthy chunk for the kids! That's a good leadup to my next card Shiny Star V, Charizard VMAX, #308/190 Declared Value: $600cdn Whew, the pokemon company loves this art, eh? I'm not a charizard fan but this is just RAD! The point I want to make about this card is that for the first time in maybe pokemon history... Charizard isn't the big chase card! Marnie is! What???? That, to me, is a serious paradigm shift. Now, is charizard a slouch? No way, immortal investment, I think this card will grow and grow where Marnie is in a bit of a spotlight phase. Time will tell, that's one of those "no crystal ball" moments, it's inevitable that Marnie will get printed in English, but does that affect the Japanese value? This is one big section of the hobby I have a magnifying lens to. I don't want to say charizard is struggling as a whole but might be in a bit of a temporary slouch given the extent of people chasing 'zards. It's healthy that Marnie came along and made people reevaluate what a chase card can be, she's the perfect storm in that she's only currently available in Shiny Star V where 'Zard is more spread out

Yes, it's probably best to keep this conversation contained to a single thread, this situation isn't going to lose relevance any time soon so if people need to air their grievances it might be best to direct them here.

Ah, this is the good stuff. Reminds me of working in the law office as a kid, it's amazing how they break this stuff down. So, I would argue that both words maintain the same spirit when used in the context of calculating a certain timeframe. Ultimately, they both functions as qualities which are not "exact". Consider the "7X", and "10X" time frames to be atoms, revolving around them are the approximations. It could happen sooner, it could happen later. Generally speaking, the timeframe around these dates doesn't tend to be extreme. Extreme, in my opinion, is that atomic jump from 7X to 10X, especially given the data swarming around that even getting your package processed is, well... It's kind of a "hope for the best" situation given what's being communicated. We should probably expect "later" as opposed to "sooner" as far as where that approximate sits on the atom that is "10X".

The semantics are out of control! Please, explain the disparity between these two definitions: Estimate: roughly calculate or judge the value, number, quantity, or extent of. Approximate: close to the actual, but not completely accurate or exact.

Alright, got issued my "warning", oh no! Bad Nameless, *slaps own hand*

Fine leadup to my next point. Nameless and the law of approximates Everything is messy when you try to be precise. No one calculates with the entirety of Pi, 3.14 will do for most occasions. It's all about getting the basic idea down, right, it's far more relaxing. Striving for perfection is always found in vain. I respect a company who deals in approximates... So, what happens when the law of approximates is broken and what does that look like? Okay, to make our interesting friend, Angel, feel a little better we will stick to "not guaranteed". So, my "not guaranteed" time went from 7X to 10X days. The 7X was an approximation, the 10X is... still an approximation. You can understand the problem here, I hope. It gets to a point where these words lose meaning, where the fine print gets rendered into dust. Here we are arguing the semantics of words which mean the same thing while dodging the reality of what's occurring. Language is being abused by the marketing, and this always makes the customer unhappy. Us magicians take this kind of thing very seriously, you need a little more precision or the idea of approximates can be endlessly abused...

Implying that I have money to waste, lmao. I'm working with scraps here. Keep talking from your ivory tower, and try, for the love of conversation, to learn some proper grammar. What a headache

Why are you so testy about this issue? You are a comic collector, what stake do you have in a bunch of people doing something you have no interest in, let alone expect people to engage you in any sensible manner? Entitled much

Final card before bed Shiny Star V, Zacian V, #329/190 Gold Ultra Rare. Declared Value: $400cdn Out of all the hyper modern stuff going on, this is my favorite pokemon of the bunch. SWORD DOG! DOG WITH SWORD! I was so thrilled to pull this, and I'm starting a lil Zacian collection to honor the draw. This is an investment card, Sword and Shield is fresh so it'll take time for this legendary pokemon to mature. Investors consider this to be a wise card to hold onto and that it's currently undervalued, especially given the rarity. I have a feeling this pokemon will pop off in 5-10 years.

Shiny Star V, Poké Kid, #197/190 Secret Rare Full Art. Declared Value: $200cdn AHHHH THIS CARD IS SO CUTE. I'll guard it with my life! Stay away you fiends! You should see the holo design on it, all of these little hearts <3. The reason I'm showing off this card next is because of the sheer subjective joy it brings me, it's a fine work of art in my eyes, everything about it pops. I did get two of them so maybe I trade one... maybe... it is a popular card which fetches a decent amount on both the English and Japanese market. Eevee is a popular pokemon so eevee collectors probably want this in their collection. Tons of potential here

Shiny Star V, Marnie, #198/190 Secret Rare Full Art. Declared value: $1000cdn+ There you go you fiends, the meme card. I'm flippin' Marnies baby! Bought 20 Shiny Star V boxes for $2400cdn and pulled three of these suckers. So, what is this card to me? A hit lmao. Big money, baby! Jackpot! Nameless needs a brand new bag. Okay okay okay, I admit that this is a VERY nice card. Marnie is a mood, I get why people are attracted to her design. I might keep one for myself in case I'm wrong about character full arts and they remain relevant and that this card is not experiencing what is simply a brief peak... but the NA card market is teasing us that they might release this card as a... promo in NA??? Whew, I'm scared, better get this graded asap haha... why did I choose economy *slaps head*. Honestly, my OCD dictated that I wanted everything in the same package, haha, whatever. The idea is that this card can A) pay off my boxes and B) provide me with the capitol for more boxes. I want more cards, right? What did I do with one of my Charizards back in the day? Trade it for two inches of shiny cards. Absolutely I'm going to trade my hot tickets

Yeesh, everyone's grading this that and whatever. There's no rhyme, rhythm, or reason! Sheer madness! The tubes are all clogged! People pointing fingers and blaming this and that for the clogged tubes, we're all so nervous by the lack of intention! I guess I'm part of that clog so may as well shed some insight. I'm going to do the full story deal and don't expect the same from you haha, bare with me. This is why I'm grading in general Whew, feels like I'm in a AA meeting. Hi, I'm Nameless, I live on Vancouver Island, BC, I'm 30 and am riding the pokemon wave baby. Am I new to pokemon? Neup, I'm an OG, gen 1 yo, woke up at 6am to watch the pokemon cartoon. Do I have much of a collection to show for it? Ha ha, no. Do I regret that? Maybe a little, why are you looking at me weird? No, I'm not having a third life crisis and no I won't stop talking to myself! I love Pokemon, it's among my favorite series of video games. My fondest memories are built on Nintendo, I'm an avid gamer. My first console was one of those brick gameboys, our school had designated days where we could bring our gameboys and trade pokemon and whatnot. What magical times. *sigh* Flashforward to today, and I'm not going to get as real but... things are tough! 2020 was The Hardest Year for most of us. 2021 is no slouch, either. So here comes a bunch of youtubers and they go on a TEAR, throwing millions left and right at this hobby, unbudgeable trends are suddenly spiking, the market value is increasing, supply is limited, demand is crazy. People catch wind that this is an investment opportunity and here's me fresh off my four figure gains from dogecoin wondering what's next? Why are people going off about "chonk rainbow pikachu"... wow, it's selling for $1200 graded, whew, that'll be 10k eventually... I've been down this path before. So, let me get this straight, I love pokemon, I loved collecting pokemon cards, this is all going nuts, and I'm NOT going to take part in this? Yeah right, I'm a craze junky. I love sensations. I feel like I'm good at catching wind before it's too late to invest in something. So, how exactly does one go from a small investment to where we see a lot of youtubers today? I dunno about you but I want a piece of that action, I want a cool domain built of my interests! That takes hustle, however, and the pokemon hustle is fierce, but welcoming if you know where to look, who to listen to, and what to invest in. So, I hit the webs and the youtubes in order to get a handle on the collecting world. I made some mistakes along the way, but I don't regret them, this is all fun. This will reflect in some of the cards I'm grading. I'm going to start off with the big one...

Duly noted, I'll be putting work in here for sure! This is a clean forum. The thread I'm working on is "What we're grading and why", hopefully people offer their insight, every card has a reason. I'm thrilled that the trading card aspect of the forum is so fresh, lots to work with, this whole thing is just getting started. Cheers for the great ideas

Awesome! I dig Leonhart's vibe, I'm a fan of voice acting so he's a lot of fun. Might find myself on his Discord one day, it's worth casting a wide net with this community. I'll need to figure out the good portals to trade. I'd rather handle any business via community than something like ebay. Once everyone gets their hands back on their CGC slabs we'll want to show them off, trade them, sell them, talk about them, so on so forth. Lots to look forward to, people are worried about market deflation and whatnot but I dunno, this is fun, I'm a firm believer in enthusiasm and it's ability to hold up a concept such as collecting pokemon cards

Someone hates disabled people

"You should check out your their pokemon forum there" What an astonishing sentence. Well done!

Whew, why are you even here then? I'm absolutely grading stuff worth money, the majority of my collection is in a binder, yeesh, temper your ego, m8. I've gone over in detail the logic behind what I'm grading, why are you so salty at the customer exactly? Go soak your head

My favorite pokemon card youtuber is actually sponsored by CGC, Squeaks Game World. He's who helped me feel like I made an informed dive into this world. He just released a video which really goes off about what's going on in the market, how it impacts what we're going through, and so on so forth. If you currently have stake in this hobby, he's well worth watching, and this video is a nice expansion of this current discussion:

Shame that you got deleted, who knows, maybe I am getting too testy. If moderation thinks this is all too much, it's out of my power. I don't have moderation capabilities. The key is keeping it low key, I'm keeping things restricted to one thread, otherwise I just want to be a productive member of what seems to be a cool community. Ultimately, if I was a moderator (which I have dabbled in, too much stress), I'd like for things to stay contained. I'm not chasing Paul around demanding answers or phoning management day in and out, but I do need something of a void to scream in to make me feel better

We'll see how long that lasts, hehe. Forums are so cute, VPN and burner accounts for dayyys.

The "problem" with the paper handed sellers who are getting a bunch of monkeymons graded and expecting a return are simply that they be showing us their butts. But it's an butt I sympathize with. I sure hope that people are not digging a financial grave doing this, and if digging out of that grave requires selling a few monkeymons all the power to them. The fact is that CGC are happily taking in these orders and working through them. There is no vetting process, no gates strong enough to hold back this hoard without proper foresight. CGC offers good value, despite the complaining this is still the best I can do on the current market. It's easy to get tempted by the "free tendies", hell, if I get my cards back in a decent time this would be tremendous value - it's well worth the buy-in. CGC knew this, knows this, and they just keep on keeping on because, whew, we have no other choice. I absolutely want to fire up a grading company right about now, a real Canadian grading standard based in Vancouver. Focus entirely on Pokemon, that's one way to wrench power from the "big three" PSA, Beckett, and CGC. Become the standard grading company for Pokemon and only Pokemon. I'm sure a great deal of you comic, coin, magazine folks would love this

So, let's talk about my future bulk order. I have a healthy selection of beaten up cards from when I was younger, cards which all have a potent story to them and I wouldn't sell them for the world. I'm trying to preserve these memories here! Ultimately, the consumer and what they send in is not the problem, lordy people quit blaming the little people, it's top-end mismanagement and in no way our fault. It's not a waste of time for the company because they are getting paid, it's only us who have the short end of the stick. This current wave of poke-madness has been going on for well over a year, talk about a delayed reaction. Investors haaaate reactive companies, we loooove foresight and gauging trends. They should've been making adjustments as soon as Logan Paul dropped that 2 mil, shoulda woulda coulda. This could have been soooo much easier but no, someone near the top said "wait for the last second before it's well past the point of no return". Is CGC run by "Florida Man"?