Why are we expected to put up with this ? 2 2

[Bird]

20 minutes ago, DonLaGreca said:

This is why I cant get my cards back in a reasonable time...... Cheers

I see tons of sold cards today, are they decent prices? Are those cards selling on ebay mostly $9 subs? I no nothing about them but if they are bulk subs they are getting good prices for what we comics call drek (common crapola)

[Yeahiwasder4dat]

1 minute ago, Bird said:

I see tons of sold cards today, are they decent prices? Are those cards selling on ebay mostly $9 subs? I no nothing about them but if they are bulk subs they are getting good prices for what we comics call drek (common crapola)

Stuff like that is trash. Shouldn't even be worth the grading fees.

[The Nameless One]

16 minutes ago, DonLaGreca said:

This is why I cant get my cards back in a reasonable time...... Cheers

I'm loling now because that's the exact kinda card I would scoop. I'm a fan of Litten who is my favorite starter pokemon since Squirtle, so that one has potential nostalgia value down the line on top of the potential of being a promo. I've ranted a lot about NA cards but I like their promo market and collect sets with good promos with plans on getting a few graded. I paid 90cdn for three tins, each with promos I consider to be well worth 90 each in the near future, plus I got 12 packs and pulled a couple nice cards. The tins are beautiful too, nice to have those as display pieces for my future nerd wall

[Yeahiwasder4dat]

4 minutes ago, Bird said:

I see tons of sold cards today, are they decent prices? Are those cards selling on ebay mostly $9 subs? I no nothing about them but if they are bulk subs they are getting good prices for what we comics call drek (common crapola)

Like this for example. 

[Bird]

3 minutes ago, The Nameless One said:

my favorite starter pokemon since Squirtle

when my daughter was born in 1999 I worked with children at a hospital. We would have tons of toys and coloring books and comics and cards for them to play with. Wifey and I started calling my newborn daughter Squirtle because she was, well, squirting a lot (our first child, this goes to the bathroom all day long!). I'd open cards with kids and got a Squirtle. It is still on my refrigerator

[Bird]

2 minutes ago, Yeahiwasder4dat said:

Like this for example. 

D'OH!

I was looking at sold prices, everything seemed to be $25+. I wouldn't know what to look for though.

[The Nameless One]

Bulk is interesting because, yeah, hard to gauge if your bulk is worth grading. I consider my bulk cards to be less valuable now while having potential for future growth. I want a lot of Dream League pikachus, they are gorgeous and pikachus tend to hold value as commons. Pikachu is one of those things where you grade every pika you can. From my Shiny Star V opening I have an absurd number of Amazing Rares which it seems like might be a thing the Pokemon Company will not continue to do, so those cards have a lot of potential down the line. I tend to pick card genres which traditionally fare well, I mean, look at this Dream League pikachu. Gorgeous card

[The Nameless One]

2 minutes ago, Bird said:

when my daughter was born in 1999 I worked with children at a hospital. We would have tons of toys and coloring books and comics and cards for them to play with. Wifey and I started calling my newborn daughter Squirtle because she was, well, squirting a lot (our first child, this goes to the bathroom all day long!). I'd open cards with kids and got a Squirtle. It is still on my refrigerator

Priceless :). Kids are the best, I hopped over to our drug store and picked up a "Pokemon Battle Academy" for the school, comes with three constructed decks, a high quality playmat, all the things you need to get a classroom going. I hope some of my cards end up on people's refrigerators, that's way better than a trophy case

[DonLaGreca]

37 minutes ago, The Nameless One said:

I'm loling now because that's the exact kinda card I would scoop. I'm a fan of Litten who is my favorite starter pokemon since Squirtle, so that one has potential nostalgia value down the line on top of the potential of being a promo. I've ranted a lot about NA cards but I like their promo market and collect sets with good promos with plans on getting a few graded. I paid 90cdn for three tins, each with promos I consider to be well worth 90 each in the near future, plus I got 12 packs and pulled a couple nice cards. The tins are beautiful too, nice to have those as display pieces for my future nerd wall

I mean its a 7.5 Litten promo card, people need to take a look at their cards before they send them in at least. This card was a literal waste of CGCs time and in turn all of our time. 

[The Nameless One]

The overwhelming subjectivity of the Pokemon market

It's all by design what's all occurring. South Park warned you all! So, as a kid, these choices presented in the game's design are profound memories. Choosing Red over Blue or vice versa, choosing one of three starting pokemon, choosing the evolution stone for eevee, choosing the fossil pokemon, choosing which pokemon ends up in your masterball, the legendary birds, the elusive mew... how does nostalgia form? It's through our own decisions, this is the selection of pokemon which really just speaks... me, you know? Then you have the massive anime and the character relationships which form as a result. Hey, I grew up with Misty, I like redheads. It's a curse, I also happen to be one. So my attraction to water pokemon formulated as a result. Then we have the whole cubone sequence, wow, that was some dark stuff for a kids game, and you run into all of these ghost pokemon. I LOVE Gengar, and that's a pricy pokemon nowadays.

Then there's Mew... what a legacy. We all though we could move that truck with "strength" near the SS Anne and that Mew would just pop out, haha, that's how deep that well goes, buncha kids fishing for rumors in Nintendo Power who knew very well what they were hyping up. Then they bust out Mew in the Pokemon Movie and that was SO HYPE, omg, I was a Mew freak. Overall, I like water and psychic pokemon, and I'm very blue and purple, what nice aesthetic. I would love me a wall of shiny blue, purple, pink... frankly, I'm surprised that charizard rose to the top of the list, blastoise kicks charizard's ... venesaur kicks blastoise's yet that's the least pricy main! Haha, but you can see how weird it is that these moments so thoroughly defined that market we see today. Know what set is going to spike in nostalgia? Black and White era, those games were AMAZING, best pokemon games hands down and I'll fight anyone, those games had a great story and the best combat in the series and the music makes your head explode. Those will be serious cash grab sets, and Sun & Moon is no slouch. I think Sword & Shield is the weakest offering yet, not a fan, so the very current sets don't hold as much interest. The fabled Marnie is a Sword and Shield character, no nostalgia for me, just a current hotness I'm happy to pawn off to some freak willing to pay 1000 for a waifu *shifty eyes*

So, that's my logic behind Litten there, pokemon have a maturity rate now where we'll see waves of nostalgia adhering to different periods of poke-legacy. When the next generation turns 30 and I'm a crumbling 40 year old, who freggin knows, if 2021 can be this drastic in three months like... can this trend slow down? Will printing to capacity stabilize, or deflate, the market? I'm not so sure of that, pokemon has such a good foundation to it and people really want to attend competitive events again when we're all vaccinated. Those memories, that nostalgia will never fade from my mind, so that whole era will continue to grow in value as we get older. My pokemon interest ebbed and flowed through the ages, YuGiOh was the hotter ticket for a long time and I liked playing the game more. It felt more "mature" more "dark and twisted" which adhered to my edgy 14 year old mall goth phase which hasn't exactly died. Then I got a DS Lite and it was back to Pokemon, but only Diamond and Pearl, and Black and White. I respect both series and we're about to go on a Diamond and Pearl tear with the remakes coming out. 

Edited March 21, 2021 by The Nameless One

[The Nameless One]

8 minutes ago, DonLaGreca said:

I mean its a 7.5 Litten promo card, people need to take a look at their cards before they send them in at least. This card was a literal waste of CGCs time and in turn all of our time. 

I both agree and disagree. I agree that the consumer in question is selling the card too early, I disagree that the card has no value. Not looking at the price, I'd buy that card for... $30cdn on the spot, maybe pay the shipping because I'm feeling nice to the poor kid trying to hustle the big bad pokemon market... is that worth the grading and time? Probably not, people are going crazy right now doing whatever and I don't disagree that I've seen a lot of bad, weird, why would I grade this cards. If I had this card in nice condition, I would consider getting it graded

Personally, I feel like that card could be $100-$200 in five years, "sequin holo rare promo"? Neat. One of my favorite starters, not just a pokemon but one of the pokemon you had to choose? Priceless. Would I plan on selling it? Probably not, I think it's a cool keepsake. Maybe in 10-20 years we get some serious Litten hype and that sequence of evolutions becomes the new Charizard. Who knows!

[Yeahiwasder4dat]

52 minutes ago, Bird said:

D'OH!

I was looking at sold prices, everything seemed to be $25+. I wouldn't know what to look for though.

I often wonder who's buying some of this. You need an Abra for your set? Sure. Do you need a graded card worth under a dollar? Uhhhhhhh, no.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Yeahiwasder4dat

[PokemanDude90]

1 hour ago, The Nameless One said:

I'm in a mode today, Sunday is a good day for content.

Tarot and the hastening of karma

I practice tarot, particularly Crowley's Thoth. I could write 50 pages on the spot about Thoth so how to TL;DR this? I guess the easy way to understand me is that I'm attracted to "chance". Chance, in tarot, is God itself. Shuffle the deck, cut it, flip a coin, roll some dice, the more chance involved the more potent the reading, the more divine. Every single draw is a miracle of chance, just like the chance of being born, and every unrevealed card is pregnant, giving birth to revelation upon reveal. The idea is that you can, via a complex system of art imprinted on cardboard meaning certain things which adhere to several complex, religious structures which formulate to reveal the concepts of Thelema and the law: do what thou wilt. Your mind is a portal to a complex multiverse, so what is holding one back from exploring it? And what in the gods' green earth has this to do with CGC? 

Tarot aims to unlock these pathways through divine chance. The law of attraction is tested in this instance, the intimacy of chance is intoxicating. People lust after chance. How exactly does one perform magic with such a concept? How does one "exploit" chance? Language. It's entirely subjective, the trick is making it sound objective. Business 101. Alan Moore: "The true working magicians are those in the advertisement industry"

How, exactly, through the test of time and the evolving state of symbolism does a freaking shiny rainbow chonky pikachu send me on this journey? It's a MIRACLE. That card is a freaking miracle, pulling that card will send you so close to the divine that it will take a crane to get you off cloud 9. What a potent business model, like, there would be no joy in dropping 400 on a copy of that card, you NEED to open that for yourself, you need to chase that miracle. That trap cost me a cool chunk of change, my position is unfortunately not as stable as I would like. Fortunately, when I have no packs to crack, tarot provides my mind with the same satisfaction, for a much more "economic" price. We're going to have all of these Poke-addicts weening off packs and what do? Learn tarot haha

So, hastening karma, what does that mean? How does that unlock pathways to the expanse of the brain? Tarot cards, and what they communicate, hasten the approach to your problems. It's like finding yourself speeding down a hill and seeing the headlights and doing everything in your power to react properly so you come out alive. So, in one quick moment which feels like an eternity, you meet your problem and I use language, to the best of my ability, to communicate a perspective on what this could mean to you and how to overcome this sensation drawn out by the cards. Shells get cracked open and the resulting chick opens their eyes and the entire universe is formed. It's amazing how long some entities spend in their respective eggs. So, I'm going to work on a reading for this particular situation...

alright on a separate thread or sub-section of this forum I’ll have to pick your brain on Crowley and black magick one day. All of that occult stuff is fascinating but a little difficult for me to fully grasp haha. 

[vheflin]

34 minutes ago, The Nameless One said:

The overwhelming subjectivity of the Pokemon market

It's all by design what's all occurring. South Park warned you all! So, as a kid, these choices presented in the game's design are profound memories. Choosing Red over Blue or vice versa, choosing one of three starting pokemon, choosing the evolution stone for eevee, choosing the fossil pokemon, choosing which pokemon ends up in your masterball, the legendary birds, the elusive mew... how does nostalgia form? It's through our own decisions, this is the selection of pokemon which really just speaks... me, you know? Then you have the massive anime and the character relationships which form as a result. Hey, I grew up with Misty, I like redheads. It's a curse, I also happen to be one. So my attraction to water pokemon formulated as a result. Then we have the whole cubone sequence, wow, that was some dark stuff for a kids game, and you run into all of these ghost pokemon. I LOVE Gengar, and that's a pricy pokemon nowadays.

Then there's Mew... what a legacy. We all though we could move that truck with "strength" near the SS Anne and that Mew would just pop out, haha, that's how deep that well goes, buncha kids fishing for rumors in Nintendo Power who knew very well what they were hyping up. Then they bust out Mew in the Pokemon Movie and that was SO HYPE, omg, I was a Mew freak. Overall, I like water and psychic pokemon, and I'm very blue and purple, what nice aesthetic. I would love me a wall of shiny blue, purple, pink... frankly, I'm surprised that charizard rose to the top of the list, blastoise kicks charizard's ... venesaur kicks blastoise's yet that's the least pricy main! Haha, but you can see how weird it is that these moments so thoroughly defined that market we see today. Know what set is going to spike in nostalgia? Black and White era, those games were AMAZING, best pokemon games hands down and I'll fight anyone, those games had a great story and the best combat in the series and the music makes your head explode. Those will be serious cash grab sets, and Sun & Moon is no slouch. I think Sword & Shield is the weakest offering yet, not a fan, so the very current sets don't hold as much interest. The fabled Marnie is a Sword and Shield character, no nostalgia for me, just a current hotness I'm happy to pawn off to some freak willing to pay 1000 for a waifu *shifty eyes*

So, that's my logic behind Litten there, pokemon have a maturity rate now where we'll see waves of nostalgia adhering to different periods of poke-legacy. When the next generation turns 30 and I'm a crumbling 40 year old, who freggin knows, if 2021 can be this drastic in three months like... can this trend slow down? Will printing to capacity stabilize, or deflate, the market? I'm not so sure of that, pokemon has such a good foundation to it and people really want to attend competitive events again when we're all vaccinated. Those memories, that nostalgia will never fade from my mind, so that whole era will continue to grow in value as we get older. My pokemon interest ebbed and flowed through the ages, YuGiOh was the hotter ticket for a long time and I liked playing the game more. It felt more "mature" more "dark and twisted" which adhered to my edgy 14 year old mall goth phase which hasn't exactly died. Then I got a DS Lite and it was back to Pokemon, but only Diamond and Pearl, and Black and White. I respect both series and we're about to go on a Diamond and Pearl tear with the remakes coming out. 

ok, do these cards come with a stick of gum?

[The Nameless One]

1 minute ago, PokemanDude90 said:

alright on a separate thread or sub-section of this forum I’ll have to pick your brain on Crowley and black magick one day. All of that occult stuff is fascinating but a little difficult for me to fully grasp haha. 

I'm happy to oblige! I'll need a hand from some experienced forum hierophant on where exactly to hold such conversation. I'm happy to develop some comfy forum staple threads like "off-topic thread" where we can all hang out in and chat about whatever. In due time, though, I don't want to overwhelm the place, overall I can see myself posting here a bunch so having "sit around the campfire" threads like this is nice, so if you have any inquiries I'm happy to write in here and keep this whole stream of consciousness consistent. More of that post will make sense when I droll out my tarot reading, I'll post images of the cards and really go hard on this one, I can make it as something of a crash course of the process. I heartily recommend anyone who is curious to read The Book of Thoth and buy themselves a deck, but before that I would consider reading Alan Moore's comic series, Promethea. It's a potent exploration of magick, and the series which turned me onto Crowley's work. That's about the most cost effective school of magick I can think of. 

[The Nameless One]

1 minute ago, vheflin said:

ok, do these cards come with a stick of gum?

I have some 23 year old pikachu gum haha but no, pokefans have terrible breath 

[The Nameless One]

We've curved the chewing tabacco thing, however

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

15 minutes ago, vheflin said:

ok, do these cards come with a stick of gum?

That would just clog the pipe even further.  

[Bird]

23 minutes ago, The Nameless One said:

I'm happy to oblige! I'll need a hand from some experienced forum hierophant on where exactly to hold such conversation. I'm happy to develop some comfy forum staple threads like "off-topic thread" where we can all hang out in and chat about whatever. In due time, though, I don't want to overwhelm the place, overall I can see myself posting here a bunch so having "sit around the campfire" threads like this is nice, so if you have any inquiries I'm happy to write in here and keep this whole stream of consciousness consistent. More of that post will make sense when I droll out my tarot reading, I'll post images of the cards and really go hard on this one, I can make it as something of a crash course of the process. I heartily recommend anyone who is curious to read The Book of Thoth and buy themselves a deck, but before that I would consider reading Alan Moore's comic series, Promethea. It's a potent exploration of magick, and the series which turned me onto Crowley's work. That's about the most cost effective school of magick I can think of. 

there is the water cooler for off topic discussions and a journal area that used to be well populated but they changed the format and it killed the section by and large

water cooler here on cgc boards

Edited March 21, 2021 by Bird

[DonLaGreca]

2 hours ago, The Nameless One said:

I both agree and disagree. I agree that the consumer in question is selling the card too early, I disagree that the card has no value. Not looking at the price, I'd buy that card for... $30cdn on the spot, maybe pay the shipping because I'm feeling nice to the poor kid trying to hustle the big bad pokemon market... is that worth the grading and time? Probably not, people are going crazy right now doing whatever and I don't disagree that I've seen a lot of bad, weird, why would I grade this cards. If I had this card in nice condition, I would consider getting it graded

Personally, I feel like that card could be $100-$200 in five years, "sequin holo rare promo"? Neat. One of my favorite starters, not just a pokemon but one of the pokemon you had to choose? Priceless. Would I plan on selling it? Probably not, I think it's a cool keepsake. Maybe in 10-20 years we get some serious Litten hype and that sequence of evolutions becomes the new Charizard. Who knows!

my point is, the card is not all that popular, and it got a 7.5. No one wants a 7.5 of a random promo card. I am sure if the person took the time to carefully review the card they could have noticed many of the flaws CGC picked up and not wasted valuable time and resources from CGC that they are terribly lacking right now. Its common sense. 

Edited March 21, 2021 by DonLaGreca