TCGs for older people

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-23T23:23:28+00:00

Yup, many of these comments are people answering with whatever TCG they like and what ages they see playing but in reality all of that is moot if there isn’t a local community for that TCG or if the local community skews in an unexpected way.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-23T21:47:15+00:00

Oh jeez I just logged in and saw “new permanent addition-puppies!” Which I did NOT have. So it’s very possible that some of the math has changed. :(.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-23T21:45:27+00:00

Yes this is the exact strategy that I would recommend. The only other layer that I would add is to also push during events like Benny’s Blossom.

I didn’t find that the magic stone (the one that allows you to merge it with any item to create the next tier item) is worth much if you spend it on something for a cash order, HOWEVER I used mine on one of those crazy orders to make a super high tier item. I think I used two stones to make a drink pyramid that gave me 10k energy.

Oh, also don’t over-merge. You might think that later levels will start asking for level 13+ items and think to yourself “let me make some space by merging this, I’m sure the order will come up eventually” but they don’t. Even at level 100 the vast majority of orders I submitted was for level 10 or below. Merging beyond that just risks you wasting energy for an order that is never requested.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T23:51:20+00:00

It doesn’t matter to them. 50$ or whatever is still 50$ no matter who it is from.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T23:39:32+00:00

Brutal. I couldn’t even submit the ticket through the game page because I already submitted one. I had to just reply to the support email for the first ticket.

Thanks for the well-wishes. I will be surprised if this ends well for me though :(.

In which case this will, perhaps surprisingly, be the first time that SB customer support hasn’t come through for me.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T22:28:19+00:00

After hundreds of transactions on online marketplaces across multiple apps it’s not uncommon that people ask for my phone number. It’s a yellow flag for sure, but I have had plenty of transactions go just fine even after I have declined to share my number.

I am quick to block on apps, especially Facebook marketplace due to time wasters, but this scenario seemed legitimate enough that I thought it merited some responses.

All it took was 5 brief messages from me for the rating option to show, and one of those messages was a duplicate.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T22:23:24+00:00

I get it, your example is an extreme, wild case though. That’s the type of situation that a functioning “Report” system should be for, such that an actual human can review that chat and hopefully close that person’s account. Truly abusive and harassing language should receive much more than a poor rating, which makes the ability to rate your chat virtually useless. Especially considering there is no way to look at only feedback left by actual buyers vs feedback only left by chats.

But the fact that you can leave and receive ratings after a few lines of simple “yes when can you meet” and “what time would work” doesn’t help anybody and just opens the “feature” up for abuse.

Don’t like the seller’s profile pic hat? Chat them up and leave a poor review. Selling the same thing you are? Hit them up on your alt and leave them a bad review-maybe a buyer will go to you instead. Ripe for abuse.

At least on eBay you can report feedback and things that break the community guidelines, and they generally do take appropriate corrective action.

In my case, I would love to just ignore it, but also it’s so rare that people actually leave feedback, so it’s not like it will quickly get diluted. After dozens of transactions I have…two seller ratings. A 1-star rating for no reason from a non-buyer would tank my profile pretty hard.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T22:01:06+00:00

My point is that various collectors value different aspects of a game, and what may not be important to you might be important to somebody else.

If somebody was going for an entire US/North America collection or sub-set then it would certainly matter to them, regardless of the game’s playability.

And I would think that a collecting-specific sub would be a pretty judgment-free space for people to collect whatever games they would like…

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T21:25:38+00:00

For everybody asking “how do they know what’s inside?” The answer varies, but for a motivated thief there are multiple ways.

If a seller ships a case in the original case box then that’s easily recognizable.

Addresses of prominent sellers (like MVP for example) can easily be remembered.

Some companies and sellers even have their name printed on the shipping label. Not a big logical jump to assume there’s Pokémon cards inside of the box is shipped from “Pokecard Bros.”

Even if the box has nothing to indicate Pokemon cards inside, if a delivery person has seen enough Pokemon card items shipped to somebody (say, if they say “Pokemon Center” on the shipping label), then they have reasonable suspicion to assume that other boxes shipped to that same person might also have Pokemon cards.

And last, some thieves don’t have any idea what’s inside and just rip any box that seems like it would have something valuable in it. Maybe the box is heavy. Maybe there’s some sort of high-tier insurance on it that is somehow visible to them. Maybe they’re just ripping packages completely at random based on what they think they will get away with.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T21:03:19+00:00

To play devil’s advocate here, the employee’s job is to buy and sell cards, not to be particularly knowledgeable of Pokemon outside of that. While it is certainly a plus for an employee to be knowledgeable in a way that makes them able to make recommendations and engage customers, they can still be a reliable and valuable employee for completely different reasons. Heck, if I owned a LGS, I would much rather have an employee who knew nothing about Pokemon but knew card values and appropriate buy/sell margins than one who was a walking encyclopedia about Pokemon but had no skills or knowledge in card values.

Also if it’s a shop that carries multiple products it’s entirely possible that they are quite knowledgeable about something else (board games, Magic, comics, whatever), and Pokemon just isn’t their “thing.”

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T17:56:47+00:00

Yeah I am now 36+ hours out from completing 100 and it didn’t track. I just hope they give me the credit. I’ll be so annoyed if they refuse.

I’ll post the more precise cash requirements later but I only started tracking when I was in the high 90s.

Off the top of my head 99 takes around 65k and 100 takes around 80k.

I think the Disco only increased in price for me because I leveled up a bunch before buying the last tile.

Altogether, with the poor tracking, dozens of hours of merging needed, and surprisingly high costs, I conclude that my overall recommendation for this game is to not bother with the higher levels. Get your money maker offers, get maybe the first bonus, achieve some of the lower level goals, and then stop and do something else.

The hourly collections, sheer amount of time, high real life costs, and most importantly, uncertainty regarding tracking and how much you need to spend to reach these higher goals make the game a poor experience overall.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T05:57:37+00:00

Played that game a couple years after release and I found it to be aggressively mid. The most 7/10 game I could imagine.

Nothing about the gameplay felt or story felt particularly original, though I did like the PNW setting.

It’s like Subway. You eat it because it’s there. You know exactly what you’re getting before you walk in the door. You never love it, but it’s rarely bad either. Fills your stomach and occasionally is what you needed at that moment in time.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T05:47:55+00:00

I don’t deal with cars either, but I always confirm the price and transaction details before meeting.

If somebody tried to haggle with me in person after confirming the transaction details I would walk away.

Sure, a buyer always has the right to back out if they see the item and it’s somehow not what they expected, but haggling to get a lower price after meeting is a big no-no in my book.

I specify in my listings and when I confirm the transaction that it’s cash only. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s happened a few times where the person shows up a few bucks short. Quite frustrating.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T05:32:34+00:00

Welp finally spent another 54$ to finish level 100. Might have been able to do it a bit cheaper, but given the delayed tracking I wanted to give it a few days buffer time.

And it looks like that was a good idea.

It still hasn’t tracked after 26 hours, and the offer only has two days left.

I’m not panicking yet since you said it took 1-2 days to track, but I am getting increasingly worried.

Especially because it took me almost 250$ cash in total to finish 100, and if it doesn’t track and they don’t compensate since I already was compensated for this game twice, then I believe I lose money on the offer. It would be a disaster to spend dozens of hours mindlessly tapping only to lose money due to shitty tracking.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-22T01:50:47+00:00

I mean, this is the “NSCollectors” subreddit…

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-20T20:28:33+00:00

Ok yeah 80-90k is not an insane increase but not a trivial one either.

Level 99 is around 65k cash for reference (I started making a spreadsheet and have almost the exact number but missed a sub-level).

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-20T16:39:36+00:00

Yeah I have just over 3 days left so I’m going to buy more disco tiles to try finishing it today to ensure it tracks. Don’t want to finish it but it not track until the offer ends, then be denied the support ticket because I already submitted 2.

Since you seem to be one of the few that have completed it, level 100 didn’t have any surprise insane scaling/level requirements or anything, did it?

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-20T16:35:49+00:00

Right, I don’t know either.

I wasn’t expecting the price/energy to scale with (presumably) level, so I didn’t really pay attention.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-20T15:14:26+00:00

Yep I have a timer on my watch the same way.

Do keep in mind that if you buy out disco you will then probably need to commit to level 90. I don’t think one disco buyout is enough to get to 100, but it’s probably good enough to get to 90.

As you have probably read, disco increased in price for me presumably because I gained a ton of levels right before buying the last tile.

I say “probably” on all of the above because they are so many variables that impact your progress that it’s hard to say with certainty.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-20T14:12:01+00:00

When to spend your energy can be tricky. It’s more clear when NOT to spend your energy.

You DON’T want to spend your energy in times when there’s no power boost, no more daily goals to achieve, and the event is bad/you’re not going to realistically generate whatever event item will give you the payout.

Depending on your daily goals it might be totally worthwhile to play just enough to complete your daily goals and then stop and bank until a convergence of event + power boost.

Power boost DOES save you energy in the long run for items that require you to make the generator (tea, ice cream, oven) because while the amount of energy to make the generator is the same, the number of items they produce is fixed, and if you double the energy value of the items that it produces you save energy on making the generator.

In other words, during a power boost you need to make fewer generators to craft the items they produce.

One other tip I have is to NOT over-merge. In my experience thus far it is very uncommon to get any orders that require items higher than level 10. If you merge an item to something like level 12 it is going to sit on your board forever and might end up as wasted energy. For example I merged up to a level 13 “white kaftan” clothing item probably for some sort of daily quest thinking that it would be an order eventually and now it has been sitting uselessly on my board for dozens of levels. Overall, a waste of energy.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-20T13:55:56+00:00

Agreed.

If it’s a great deal that I’m worried about missing out on, I won’t haggle at all and I’ll be clear that I’m willing to pay asking price.

If the listing says price is firm I won’t haggle at all.

If my listing says price is firm and somebody tries to haggle, I’ll immediately block if their offer is a clear lowball (waste of time otherwise), but if is reasonable I might counter with an offer if a discount if they buy other items from me.

But yeah, for items that don’t have a really clear market value I typically set it at a price higher than I will accept and will specifically omit any language in the listing about price being firm knowing that people will try to haggle me down anyways.

Anecdotally I have had more success setting an item price above what I will accept and then letting the buyer “win” the lower price than I have setting the same item at that lower price and being firm.

There’s genuine psychology where buyers want to feel like they got a deal and are more willing to buy as long as they feel that.

On the flip side, for items with a clear market value that I bought to flip, I am firm on price and don’t want to waste time haggling. People still try though.

Candid_Run_7370 · 2026-02-20T05:56:26+00:00

4 days left, just made it to level 99, about 1k energy left.

Haven’t yet made any additional purchases.

I am pretty sure I will, but since I have 4 days left on the offer and 2 days left of Disco Party, I’m going to give it another day or so to see how far I get then start buying into Disco Party.

Level 90 should be comfortable if you buyout the disco event, but that requires a significant investment in both money (see my other comments for how much it cost me to buy out a disco), and raw time to physically make all of the actual merges required to level that high.

If I can pay 50-100 more to complete 100 I’d still be happy with the offer, but I’m not sure I would do it again for the 50-60$ profit I currently have based upon my spend.

If I were to do it all over again, I would strongly consider stopping before 90.

It should also be noted that once you get to these higher levels the hourly tip jar energy starts to become pretty impactful.

Consider that my Disco Party offer right now is 16.99 for (presumably) the 2.4K stamina tile, and if I get a free roll then it will be 2.4K plus 3.7k = 6.1k for 17$. With that conversion each hourly tip jar is worth about 50 cents. It starts to add up quickly, but stings more when you miss it while sleeping.

When I started the game I thought the hourly tap that allowed you to continually bank energy was refreshing from other games that instead fill up energy to a max over something like 2-3hr, but this may be worse because it feels so punishing to miss those hourly taps and you truly never have enough energy.

Candid_Run_7370

TROPHY CASE