The Nameless One

Woof, got a Dream League box in the mail today and this is what I see when I opened it up. Nothing's safe! Dogs eating dogs! Everything is out to get me augugghghh, what happened to my precious sense of control! Whew, I can get a refund but what a waste of time, at least they left those delicious, pricy pikachus for me, . But, yeaaaaah, maybe avoid Amazon, particularly "ACCESS-JAPAN", for Japanese product and stick to the source. I've had very positive experiences with toysonejapan and they offer great prices, I just wanted *cough* my fix for the weekend *shifty eyes*. I'm a greedy greedy goblin and I want my gold!

Who is clamoring to be first in line here? I just want my package to be entered into the system, yeesh. Why are people upset right now? Especially at callous forum posters? Covid and the Economy of Grief Whew, what a year. I lost my best friend and beloved grandfather to this nightmare, I'm positively grief-stricken. Grief is like a portal to an earlier dimension in one's mind, people tend to go backwards in effort to preserve that innocence. My earliest memory with my friend was buying Pokemon Red in response to his Blue along with a Gameboy link cable. He wanted a mankey, and thus the economy of pokemon emerged. My grandmother is responsible for my first pokemon cards, I introduced that concept to my elementary school, and every time I found myself in a 7/11 I'd spend my allowance on two packs. One miraculous day I opened two charizards in a row, I was the talk of the town. I ended up trading one to a third grader for a stack of shiny cards two inches thick! Shame that my collection got lost through the ravages of time. Nonetheless, that experience is engrained in my memory as one of the sheerest joys. Flash forward to now, and I'm going to get real here: 2.5 million dead, a climate on the verge of collapse, and to avoid politics... uh, whatever the hell your country was up to these past four years. That's... a lot of grief. That's a lot of will money. On top of that we have the unemployment crisis and whatever is happening with stim cheques. It doesn't surprise me at all that people are going ham over a nostalgic investment entity. This is why I'm particularly sensitive when it comes to being wrenched around by the Company, like, this isn't a happy ordeal! People aren't going "wheeee pokemon cards!", it's more like "help, this is an economic death rattle and I'm holding onto whatever sliver of joy I have haha". And the Company gets richer, and richer, and richer, removed from the street level reality that goes into the decisions of each individual package currently stagnating in the CGC holding room. Valued customers, indeed, more like valued meat puppets who act as batteries for the Matrix, slithering around in our goo pods

It's a good opinion! There is absolutely a bubble period involved and, given the chatter, it will take about 15 months for the pokemon company to fully ramp things up. The pandemic is wild, the 25th Pokemon Anniversary is wild, these might be once in a lifetime trends. NA collecting is in an abysmal state, product is scarce, the card quality is horrid, and there are no tourneys to play our quality cards in (srsly, I've opened 5 NA booster boxes and got next to nothing worth grading, so excuse my subjective salt :p). Japanese product availability, however, is rock solid, I have had no trouble finding MSRP boxes of higher quality (for grading purposes) cards. This leads me to believe that the pokemon card market isn't as globally insane as one would think. The English Logan Paul influenced market is buck wild, yes, so I just avoid that spectrum altogether now, lesson learned. NA product is worth keeping sealed and I simply don't have the investment base to buy boxes and sit on them for five years until the 30th Anniversary hits and all of these cards which may temporarily go down will shoot up again, especially with the sets being collected now going out of print. Like, the fact I can get an out of print Dream League box for $120 is astonishing, it really screams that through the chaos people haven't quiiiiiiite figured out the trick to all of this. Ultimately, the bulk of my collection is for that magical 30th Anniversary. This period, to me, is "won't make that mistake again" in wake of not stocking up on older sets, now people are laser focused on dissecting this time period and evaluating the market trends which are rock solid - the zards, chus, and waifus and whatnot The big speculation is what sets will the pokemon company reprint in wake of the shortages? Likely Vivid Voltage, so, the chonk rainbow pikachu chasers better be sweating, along with the people sitting on sealed VV product. Future sets will all print to capacity, that capacity has increased, thus the market is diluted. There will be more chase cards floating about, maybe the 30th anniversary lands with a total thud and all of the stock we've accumulated becomes commonplace. Another reason I go Japanese, they print to a smaller capacity and, thus, is not impacted by the growing NA supply. Time will tell, I don't have a crystal ball but this is at least my logic moving forward. Whatever helps me sleep at night! haha

Thank you so much for the kind post, I needed that, and cheers for the welcome. I just see "buzz words" from previous threads and my journalistic sense tingles, I like transcribing whatever it is I'm interested in. I get the trial by fire aspect of starting out in a forum, if I'm going to do anything about it it's provide the best content I can (while hopefully not digging too deep into the collective nerve). I hope my small sliver of experience provides some insight on what is going on and why people are on edge

There seems to be something of a misconception as to what exactly we are all doing here. I collect comics (say hi to Alan Moore in my profile pic) and, recently, pokerman cards. I operate on a limited budget (I made a chunk trading dogecoin lmao) and want to maximize my collection with said budget. I did my research, invested in the modern sets which I believe will hold value, and managed to get very lucky with my pulls So, what is a flipper? I mean, I could have just sold my three Shiny Star V Marnie cards raw for around $1200 total (all prices are CDN). I decided to go the long route and get my cards properly evaluated, I spent $2400 on Shiny Star V and need to recoup my investment where a couple of high grade Marnie cards can pay that off. Big risk, however, the thing with Marnie is her value could have the rug pulled from under her at any moment. The recent English translation of Shiny Star V, Shining Fates, didn't print Marnie so that card is exclusive to Japanese sets. If she gets printed in English during the span of this grading process, the stock that card yields could plummet. Plus, character cards struggle maintaining relevance as new games come out and new character rosters take over. It's interesting because, currently, she is worth more than the Charizard VMAX, but that's temporary. Charizard is immortal, I imagine that card will fetch 2-4x in five years when the pokemon 30th anniversary strikes, so that's a card I hold. Each individual card is a stock, the stock market is crazy right now The "free tendie" set to open and flip is the Japanese set, Dream League. Personally, I'm trying to complete the CHR (character rare) collection, they are beautiful cards. The doubles, secret rares/hyper rares, and pikachus are good to flip. The pikachu is a common and the recent graded sale went for $160. You tell me, why do I need seven pikachus exactly? I don't collect pikachu, however, I invest in pikachu because market trends dictate that pikachu is a hot ticket. I'm an outlier because I don't have a connection to charizards, pikachus, or Marnies (read: waifu cards), they aren't valuable cards to me. The reality is, this is a TRADING card game, so, those are cards I trade. What cards do I want? Mew and a smattering of water pokermans. Alright, I want full flexibility when it comes to my Mew purchases, surely in these covid ridden times I'm not trading cards at competitive events, so where do I shop. Ebay, largely, and there it's "cash rules everything around me, cream get the money, dolla dolla bill y'all". Why be pretentious about it, I want what I want, I have what you want, so, let's trade. That's what this is all about, pokemon is predicated on trading. I have no idea what the people chirping on about flippers do with their money, time, and collection... that sounds like a privileged position to be in - I don't have extra money to throw at this, I literally have to make something out of nothing, I have to pull off the greatest trick in alchemy and render some shiny cardboard encapsulated in plastic into gold or my hobby will stagnate and die. So, you can start to understand the stress involved with, say, TATs and wondering if your Marnie is going to be worth it in wake of striking while the iron is hot. Investing is tough! Personally, I like opening product, I like evaluating it, I like thinking about what other people want and offering a fair price - this stuff takes time, money, and work and people are going on as if life's some fluffy mound of clouds. As if

What's this here "mefirstgeneration"?

That, er, wasn't meant as a flex. Do they teach nuance in the states?

Because I am my own person with my own feelings and feel like containing them in my thread instead of taking someone else's thoughts over. Sorry, efficient? Are forums a business? Buddy, I was the #1 contributor on Rotten Tomatoes when they were a top 5 forum in terms of size, none of this means anything.

I hope everyone has a nice night/weekend/week/month/year/life, I've said my piece. I hope the best for CGC's expansion, I wouldn't choose this company if they weren't the top in my eyes. I feel like I will get the most quality service, the most quality cases, and all that good stuff. I think people will look at their tough grading standards respectfully in the future. Ultimately, despite all the whatever, I feel like I made a wise investment and, in the end, I'm happy to support a cool, niche endeavor. We can only hope this collector stuff grows in popularity, we all win if that's the case. Peace and love

And this goes to all of you who feel indifferent, you are free to go post your own threads about your own topics, this is an open forum.

That's the plan, I mean, it's not like this is going to make anything go faster, I just feel that it's fair to point out that the "shoulda-woulda-coulda" factor of increasing capacity ahead of time in wake of the well advertised boom in collectables instead of saving this for the last moment before we're already locked in could be better addressed to maybe prevent some of this abrasion we're feeling. It's frustrating! I don't care about the raw data of waiting for whatever amount of time less than the spirit of it all. It's not fun being in this position and, yes, I'm trying to work my way out of it. It sucks choosing the objective best option, on paper, doing the research, taking the time, the math, etc, and having it backfire in some sense, there is only so much fine print in the world which can make you feel comfortable with what's happening

I mean, sure, let's all get high and mighty as we encapsulate silly things we liked as kids in plastic with a few subjective grading criteria so they turn into something more than they realistically are (a game that you play, a book that you read), like, some self awareness please? We live in clown world! I'm just trying to have fun here and this is kinda sapping the enjoyment factor from collecting, I'm honestly surprised at the typical forum oldster crowd, especially here... this is a small forum haha, whew, like, you have no relevance, so why play the heel? We're all on the same side

"Flipping marnies! haha!", as if I'm not on board with the sheer absurdity of the whole situation. Sophisticated bunch

Public service announcement, everyone! Thank you, valued customers, for making us money. With this money we are going to use it to make more money. All you plebs get shafted. Whatever! *honk honk*

You aren't supposed to feel sorry, and as if you wouldn't sell your extra Marnies while the market is hot. I'm holding onto the majority of my order for long term purposes, and yeah, whatever, I want to sell a few cards so I can make more cards (resulting in more cards needing to be graded, see how this economy works now, kid?). You telling me that's not what this is all about?

Oh, I'm so sorry that you are tired and not having fun! Shame that you can't simply avoid the inch worth of internet page which leads to this thread, whew

I sure hope to be giving away any good idea, we like CGC doing good things and being the best because it increases our investment value

In the end, I'm glad that a few of you are having a constructive conversation about all of this and maybe planting some seeds as to what could possible help alleviate some consumer concerns. These are weird times so there's an opportunity to be the gold standard and offer something in wake of inconveniencing the customer base. My frustrations spiked because I have to upgrade my entire package to standard if I want to dodge the delay (where a great deal of these cards are not worth grading standard), and pay a 15 USD fee on top of that to change the order. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, I guess, I admit to being new here and making mistakes with my order, but I would've held my breath if that economy time wasn't what it was. There were measures which could've been instilled to protect the consumer and not have them walk into a bottleneck which the company in question seems to be more than happy to capitalize on. So, what happens when everyone starts upgrading their bulk/economy to standard? Am I supposed to feel secure about the 30 day TAT? It's already been two business weeks since my package was received, and who knows, maybe my concerns actually do resonate through the company and someone sees my name in the cards and I get a pile of 7s and 8s which aren't worth the plastic they are cased in. Honestly, that would be pretty funny and it would give my collection a cool story, so please do that. In the end, some form of compensation should be offered to those who are, rightfully, inconvenienced, like, what's this 15 USD fee? What a slap in the face

Here's the straight, I am new here, I'm voicing my numerous frustrations which I've experienced since my package has been received in some mystery land which serves to only pad the approximate TATs. I get it that it's busy, but that's a sorry problem to have, no? When I did 2am baking, we hired for Christmas, we worked weekends, I spent two weeks working two shifts a day, basically. So, do I feel bad about any of this? No, I don't, you can fluff my minimum wage butt. Understanding only goes so far when it's Big Money Getting Richer and little person trying to flip their spare Marnies. It's worth complaining about, have some self worth instead of being a bunch of bootlickers

I like how people are legit trying to badmouth me, I didn't say anything to any respective member yet here you all are thinking you are worth more than fertilizer posting here. What a bunch of clowns, get real

Uh oh, the 18k post dead forum arbiter is here lmao

Let me get this straight: instead of suspending bulk/economy submission for a month while you figure your stuff out, instead of communicating clearly ahead of time that this will be happening to the consumer (while offering no reprisal for the consumer), by somehow arguing that "approximate time" can jump a month on you and still remain "approximate"... you are stockpiling people's wealth and saying we have no control over it. I hope your company gets slapped, honestly, we are very right to be mad at what's going on. I paid for an advertised service, period, and every step past that has been atrocious and I'm expected to hold my nose while throwing thousands at your company. Good luck

Worth noting that you cannot upgrade select cards but are required to upgrade the whole package.