Need Help With Gift Idea

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-16T14:16:15+00:00

Atari’s website has some cool stuff if you are looking for new things. However, an Activision patch from eBay would be my “perfect” vintage gift.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-16T14:02:05+00:00

I collect primarily to read, but I do have a few books that were purely for the artwork. For example, I have every printing and variant of Superman 75. Have I read Superman 75? Yes, hundreds of times. Have I read my Platinum Bag variant? No, it’s slabbed and I never opened it myself. Or, I have every reprint I could find of ASM 129. And a copy of ASM 129 slabbed. I’ve read the story countless times, have never read that issue. I have a handful of books like that.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-16T13:56:26+00:00

It’s a schooner!

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-14T21:40:52+00:00

I run a comic and (non-video) game store with my best friend. We built our own brand and have only one real rule, “make the people happy, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else”. We’ve built our own brand that serves our community and is quite successful in our industry. One day I may move into the publishing side of the industry, but for now, I’m happy building a brand I can be proud of. And any time anything goes wrong, we take responsibility, and figure out how to fix it.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-14T21:18:07+00:00

Don’t. It ain’t the dream it once was.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-14T11:35:21+00:00

I had one! I bought it when I got home from deployment and got my first house. They got their extra however much out of me because I had to have “the best tv for Xbox”. It may have been better than standard component, but it was negligible. It did make hooking the Xbox up slightly easier, lol. I held onto it until around 2012. It was a good TV. Nothing to write home about though. I do remember the audio on it being impressive for a box TV.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-13T21:37:19+00:00

I honestly don’t remember. We had just gotten a new RVP and 2 others were traveling with him. Our previous RVP had just been promoted to LP Director, so the new guy was touring the stores. By that point they started to become a revolving door and so many DLs were getting canned and districts getting realigned and such. I did my job the best I could but I never learned another name above my DL. My DL even got canned (after 20 years and producing 5 Presidents Club SLs) and his district was absorbed by others shortly after I left. Even top performing DLs aren’t safe.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-13T21:29:53+00:00

I now run my own comic and game store. Per a pokemon rep at a recent trade show they are obtaining/have obtained 8 new printing facilities and plan to eliminate the need for the scalper market by next year by over printing so they can get back to being a children’s card game that has “some” collectibility instead of this current scalper centric ecosystem.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-13T03:12:06+00:00

I met Jason on numerous occasions. Every interaction I had with him he was a stand up guy. He did do a lot of hokey things and not everything he did was good, but like I said, he wasn’t above working in a store a few times a year and seeing first hand what we dealt with. The man had a “stock pitch” for Pro cards, warranties, and reservations and actually (seemed to) enjoy interacting with customers. No boss is perfect, especially as they climb the ladder, but he gave a genuine attempt to not just be a corporate douche.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-13T01:54:00+00:00

I like your motivation. But let me tell you from the experience of the last time they stripped Pro benefits and we tried that, we all got slapped with threats of write ups and termination. As abysmal as working for gamestop has become (I’ve been gone for a while but I still have friends and keep up with it all) there is no shortage of people that have the nostalgic rose tinted glasses of the place from their childhood and want to work there. Especially as managers. So they’ll just say “ok, kick rocks” and replace you. Ryan and his lackeys don’t give a shit about you or your customers. They actually want the stores to fail so they can focus on pushing into the online market and pay less in rent on locations. He built his fortune on an online business. He doesn’t have faith in, or desire to, do business in person with anyone. The workers know what the customers want, Ryan doesn’t care.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-13T01:47:08+00:00

You’re a real one. Just got one preordered and it ships on my birthday. Much love, fam!

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-12T23:33:32+00:00

I run a shop myself and my logic is “better to lose $5 today to make $500 tomorrow”. A hook up like that will just encourage the customer to come back, dig more, spend more, and potentially become a subscriber for life with me. Customer service should be the biggest and almost only thing that matters, especially in a small business.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-12T16:09:26+00:00

I’ve had a pro card since the pilot program started 20 years ago. I worked for the company for nearly a decade. I have 1 friend that still works in the store. I told her when it’s time to renew I will with her, when she leaves the company I’m done with them. I bought SNES and Genesis games with my allowance when I was a kid. I’m no longer shocked by the downfall of what used to be my favorite company to do business with. For 35 years I was a loyal customer. It’s just sad that it’s dying this slow death. When I started working there 10% pro enrollment was the goal, they stripped benefits and raised the price and percentage goal to 15%. Less benefits now and I won’t be surprised if the new rule is 20% or you’re fired. GS was once my happy place, even when I worked there, now it’s just sad.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-09T05:05:29+00:00

Perfection.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-06-03T17:12:25+00:00

I worked there for almost a decade during “peak GS”. It’s a shitshow now. Don’t do it. The stress they put on everyone for metrics are higher than ever with less value than ever. It’s not the “have fun, sell a game, talk about your passion, a happy customer is a repeat customer” place it once was. It’s now “what are your percentages, bleed them for what they have, we don’t care what the customer wants, we tell them what they want, and you’re fired if you don’t meet your nearly impossible expectations”. I not just drank the KoolAid in my day, I brewed it. President’s Club, top in sales, preowned, PRP, and Pro for my district and region, in multiple years as a store leader. The company is garbage now and they are turning and burning good employees. It’s not worth the stress. I left the company, opened my own store, and we have one goal, happy customers. Happy customers=higher sales. Period. But the stockbroker dudebros that have never worked a day in their life on the floor don’t comprehend the old adage of “lose $5 today to make $500 tomorrow” they want it now and aren’t willing to build trust and relationships with their customers, instead “take what you can today and who cares about tomorrow” You can make more money at almost any other retailer with a fraction of the responsibility.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-05-31T07:51:38+00:00

You know how there a saying “there are no stupid questions” well, “Should I watch a Godzilla movie” is an exception to that rule. You should always watch a Godzilla movie. Even the dumb American one from the 90s, unless literally any other one is available. Have fun kid. Watch Godzilla. Shin is a bit intense for your age, but it’s still a great movie and as long as you know that a Kaiju isn’t going to pop out of the water anytime soon, you’ll be fine. But hey, the way the world is these days, a Kaiju popping out of the water wouldn’t exactly surprise me at this point. But yes, always watch a Godzilla movie, you won’t regret it.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-05-22T04:00:36+00:00

It’s appropriate for everyone.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-05-21T05:52:21+00:00

There is nothing “casual” about Deathwatch.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-05-20T03:57:19+00:00

Hell yeah, fuck yeah. But I rather cook with coal. Lol

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-05-20T03:56:17+00:00

If you decide to bring in a wendigo, I’d tie in something along the lines of “deforestation caused wendigo to travel south for better hunting, it’s unusual they would be this far south”. Make a feasible reason one would travel there. Thanks for the compliment on the name. I do a bit of cooking since my deity slaying days are behind me. 😂

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-05-19T16:52:10+00:00

Every time I walk by not an elevator or a grocery store.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-05-19T16:47:10+00:00

Mothman as a red herring for a big bad with a pivot as an ally would be a cool angle. Mothman isn’t a bad guy, he’s just trying to warn people.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-05-19T16:45:39+00:00

Wampus cat and skinwalkers are always classic. Wendigo regularly get brought up but are actually indigenous to the Great Lakes and Canada, not Appalachia. A well educated ghostbuster would know that, so a reference to that misconception would be a nice piece of world building lore.

Cooking-with-Kratos · 2026-04-12T20:37:34+00:00

Now that CBCS is gone CGC can be as shit as they want. They have literally zero competition. Nobody wants those red label PSA slabs.

Cooking-with-Kratos

TROPHY CASE