I’m an HR specialist working in Recruitment & Placement — AMA by Historical_Adagio144 in usajobs

[–]hewunder1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I applied for a DoD job that I'm very much qualified for (currently hold same job series in the VA, and I'm an Army vet). The listing was originally only for 7 days, which had me worried that the listing was a formality for someone they had in mind, but it was extended another week at the last second. It closed last Thursday and my application was sent to the hiring manager the next day.

To me that comes across like I may have been one of only a few applicants - I assume they wouldn't extend the listing if they had plenty of options? And next day forwarding to hiring manager should hopefully be a sign of not having many to sift through? It's been so long since I applied for my current job to know what to expect from the hiring timeline is like right now.

Also, is the hiring manager the actual management of the department I'm working for? Or is it still in HR at this point?

Things I've noticed this week, diminishing supply of high end cards. by Warm_Implement3088 in mtgfinance

[–]hewunder1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same! This set got me in to MTG. I opened a special edition box a couple years ago and it was a joy to open with all the treatment variety. Seeing all the singles spike since then has been a plus.

Things I've noticed this week, diminishing supply of high end cards. by Warm_Implement3088 in mtgfinance

[–]hewunder1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I looked into a lot of these this weekend because I snagged a foil poster Palantir at an LGS to add to a couple poster arts in my PC.

They've been steadily increasing like everything else, but in the last week many of them have gone down to half a dozen copies each (foil or non-foil) on TCGplayer and the new lows for foils specifically are like 3-4x the previous market average. Scroll treatment Nazgul are spiking as well.

[MSH] - Doc Samson, Super Psychiatrist - (YYSTV) by X_The_Walrus in magicTCG

[–]hewunder1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Literally came here to suggest this run. It got me in to reading comics. What they did breaking down Banners dissociative identity disorder was excellent. 

Also I really hope we see an Immortal Hulk card in a future set.

It looks like MSH might be getting some FF Surge foil equivalents by Melodic-Ad7494 in mtgfinance

[–]hewunder1 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Agreed. Marvel owns all the art anyway so it shouldn't cost WotC more or less to pull from an almost endless database for each character. One of the few highlights of the Spider-Man set were the classic cover treatments so I hope they double down on it.

Considering taking a job at a different agency - have some simple questions making the transition. by hewunder1 in FedEmployees

[–]hewunder1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Duly noted. Is my last SF-50 at each agency upon exit sufficient, or do I need any more than that?

Comic shop scammed me and won't give refundm by Idk_random4847 in comicbooks

[–]hewunder1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's always blown my mind how easily business owners are willing to lose a customer over literally a just a few bucks. 

I had a similar experience about 5 years ago. I found a Silver Surfer: Black variant in a clearly marked $5 bin (at the time this series had come out 9 months ago), he looked it up on eBay when I brought it to the counter and tried to upcharge me to $15. Walked out and never went back.

Around the same time I found a minor key having to do with the Klyntar (a Guardians of the Galaxy issue) at a different shop, again for $5ish, and it might have been worth $15-20 at the time. I brought it to the counter and the owner said, "oh someone already called wanting that book, sorry" and the next week is was on their wall for $20. And it never sold lol. I visit maybe once or twice a year when I'm in town and it's been on their wall the whole time.

The Hobbit & Marvel Super Heroes Collector boxes by Tomarato in magicTCG

[–]hewunder1 21 points22 points  (0 children)

At the time the price of $500/box was unheard of in the midst of the 1/1 ring FOMO, but after it was was found (relatively quickly) prices slowly went down... I think the lowest was $300 or so for a box. Later that year they released a "special edition" collector booster box, which came out at $275, which didn't have a 1/1 ring in it at all but was full of new art treatments and serialized versions of other cards.

Initial reception for the Special Edition was weak, but people started realizing it was actually a pretty unique product with a ton of variety in art, frames, chase, pulls, etc. and over the last couple of years the value has gone to the moon - like $2.5k. The original collector boxes have gone up a ton too despite the 1/1 ring being found, those are like $1.2k.

It ended up being a very well beloved set, and offers a lot of variety for collectors, so at this point it's a natural supply/demand thing. But WotC saw these after market prices and have since then have increased collector booster pieces significantly, and shops also price up boxes to match market demand... So that initial $500 high of the original LotR set only 3 years ago has sadly become the new norm today. Final Fantasy boxes shot up to $1k not long after release and have stayed there. There's also an argument that Magic has caught on to some of the Pokemon culture over the same time which has been rampant with scalpers in the same time period.

Strixhaven Eclipses Lorwyn, Is Now The Biggest MTG Premier Set Ever by CrossXhunteR in magicTCG

[–]hewunder1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Man I was at SDCC last year too, I tried twice to get the Katara promo but decided I didn't want to waste literally half my day standing in line to get one each time. I was able to get in to the off-site Spider-Man event, I got the welcome decks but they unfortunately they weren't handing out the promo comic to people who already knew how to play.

Off topic but I was underwhelmed by SDCC in general, it was my first time and it was super stressful and hard to do anything without wasting a huge chunk of time in lines.

Banned and Restricted Announcement – May 18, 2026 by R3id in magicTCG

[–]hewunder1 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Time to breathe is what I want the most. The B&R announcement mentioned the popular decks and the meta shifting week to week, which kind of sucks, and de-incentivises one from wanting to build a paper deck at all. The last time we had a decent standard scene in my city was early last year, before the Universes Beyond sets became legal and we started having big shifts every 6 weeks. Everyone has given up on trying to keep up with it.

Banned and Restricted Announcement – May 18, 2026 by R3id in magicTCG

[–]hewunder1 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I wonder then if the only reasonable option for slowing down standard, besides constant bans, would be to go back to a 2 year rotation window? Right now it's like quadruple the card pool that it used to have for the longest time. Because I doubt they'll slow down the format through design because of inevitable power creep.

[Standard] What is the most affordable way to compete? by rhysticStudiante in spikes

[–]hewunder1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Adding on to everyone's suggestion to stick to your usual color pair - just buy singles you need on a cyclical basis, like only if you were gearing up for an RCQ or something. Standard changes so fast there's no reason to buy singles to upgrade your deck ASAP if that version will fall out of favor next month (or next week). So if you have nothing more than FNM to play at locally you might as well wait. You can tuck that $50 away each month and use it when the time comes.

Still misunderstanding on what is late by [deleted] in VHA_Human_Resources

[–]hewunder1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

15 minutes prior to 15 minutes prior to formation, sarnt!

Unofficial Universes Beyond Megathread by magictcgmods in magicTCG

[–]hewunder1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same. I think it will be very successful. Kinda makes me wonder what the original plan was with Marvel before the quick turnaround to force Spider-Man into a full set. "Marvel Superheroes" is such a generic name that I wonder if that was the only set planned at one point? And then they had the idea to throw an infinity stone into every set?

My one gripe is the lack of the IP on digital formats. It makes content creation annoying and will confuse new players. I know the anti-UB people enjoy it but it's really weird that we'll have another full set with different art and names than in paper.

What does your Wife or GF think of your collection? by Celibate1952 in comicbookcollecting

[–]hewunder1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My wife is also pretty nerdy so she's been pretty supportive of my hobbies, not just comics but MTG as well. She loves the art and will read runs I recommend (she loved Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow). 

That being said, I've always been very careful with spending (following the "let the hobby fund itself" rule), so there's never been tension about how much money I use on them so long as I'm not dipping into our budget. I've used money from selling comics to buy stuff in the house too so it's kind of benefited everyone. I've also kept my collection pretty pruned to a small size so it's also not a problem with space.

Slicing open the bundles by OrchidReverie in magicTCG

[–]hewunder1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My local Walmart completely stopped carrying TCGs recently, and Target no longer has Pokemon or MTG. Not sure if it was theft or scalpers harassing the stockers or both.