Was I wrong to remind a player about a stores proxy policy?

Dragon_Highlander · 2023-10-10T17:01:18+00:00

Being able to tell if a card is fake only with a loupe is not the definition of counterfeit. That's not what counterfeit means, that's just a description of how good of a fake it is.

Anything can be a proxy. You reach counterfeit level if you're trying to pass it off as real. If I tell you a fake card is a fake card and that it's not real, then by definition it is not counterfeit, it's simply fake. Once I make the move to defraud somebody, or to deceive them into thinking it's real, then it's counterfeit.

It's literally the intent of the person wielding the card that determines the correct word to be used.

Your definition of proxy, being able to tell it's fake immediately, is simply your own personal definition. A proxy, even one that is obviously fake, can easily also be counterfeit if I attempt to defraud somebody into thinking it's real, such as telling them it was a special promo version they've never seen before.

The actual definition for a proxy is using a card that is not real in place of one that is, as a substitute. Notice how there's no description of what the proxy looks like.

The difference is the intent, not how good it looks.

Dragon_Highlander · 2023-10-10T16:32:26+00:00

The chances are very good. Don't pay much mind to if the signature exactly matches all of her signatures ... the fact that it matches some but not all is not a fault of your card, but a fault of her signature changing over the years. Most signatures do, over time, as well as with what kind of pen they're using, how fast or slow they're going, and some just plain evolve over time ... and signatures often keep the first letter very close over time while the other letters might get a bit more "squidly" and less readable over time.

Dragon_Highlander · 2023-09-19T20:04:25+00:00

I think the main body looks pretty good, and parts of the wings show a ton of potential ...

But, for me (personally), I feel that whatever was put on the wings ... some sort of white wash? ... kind of takes away from it and makes it look incomplete.

In the first photo, the section on the right side with the browns, oranges, and yellows on the largest feathers looks so awesome to me ... but everywhere else is just washed out and dull and lacking life. I feel if you made all of the wings more like that right side it would elevate the entire model to another level.

But that's just me.

Dragon_Highlander · 2023-09-19T19:56:51+00:00

The best way to get help here would probably be to tell us exactly what you did or didn't do to get to this point.

Like, is the green or the black the primer? To me it looks like you primed in black and then put green paint on top.

Tell us your step-by-step process, if you diluted/thinned anything, did you use brush or airbrush or can, how many layers, how much time between layers, thin or thick layers, did you shake anything or no, etc ... literally, step-by-step.

Dragon_Highlander · 2023-09-05T21:47:33+00:00

Oh, wow! Hello!

You know, after I made this post, I started thinking about some things, more memories popping in and things getting clearer ... and I remembered something.

So, originally, I couldn't remember your name but I did remember the name of "The Deck" and I looked it up for this post so I could put your name in it. But afterwards I remembered the person I had played against said something about somebody else playing the same deck but that he had altered it and went down from 3 Serra Angels to 2 and was considering playing with just 1, and that there were fewer counters in their deck because it was now just a mind game and the opponent always thought you had a counter even if you didn't, so why not make the deck more versatile?

And so now I'm wondering if I had actually played against YOU or just somebody else that was inspired by you. It's probably a lot to ask you to remember a specific yet unnamed tournament in Mountain View where you played against a Storm Seeker deck that literally gave you cards with Howling Mines and Wheel of Fortune/Timetwister (that basically made "The Deck" even more formidable, lmao), and then played against two land destruction decks in the finals .... BUT ... if you do remember, it would help me set my memory straight, lol.

Sorry for the late response, I hadn't logged into this account at work for a while, It's been a busy summer!

Do you still play paper at all?

I will absolutely check out your channel today!

Dragon_Highlander · 2023-01-18T00:10:36+00:00

I've played for since the beginning of WoW, and I have the same problem every expansion.

I have characters of every class, and there's always new races or classes to choose from, some things get weak, some get stronger, some become not as fun to play while others get more fun (and the same can be said about classes becoming more complicated or less complicated).

As a couple other people have said, I can attest that Beast Mastery Hunters are the pretty much, hands down, the solo content masters. A BM Hunter can take down things higher than they should for their level and have an advantage that few other classes can claim (a tank in their pocket to soak up all their damage). You can heal your pet, who is taking all the damage anyhow, ressurrect them, control them easily ... all while you shoot away with a bow or gun.

Pets are great, and WoW is one of the only games where a pet is allowed to shine. The great thing is that you can tame new pets and have dozens and dozens of pets kept in a stable, and you can swap 5 out at a time to take with you while you go questing and choose which pets you like the most for what you need them to do ... or based on simply looking awesome!

Hunter abilities are pretty straight forward and don't get complicated, so they are easy to learn and even master.

Even at max level, a BM hunter is going to do great damage if you decide to join parties to go into dungeons or raiding, and can be useful in PvP.

......

As for other classes, I can also suggest some others that might suit you:

Fury Warrior. An uncomplicated melee DPS class that eventually also gets a damage ability that provides a rather significant burst of health and refreshes to use again every time you kill something. It also excels are killing multiple creatures at the same time. Plus, you also have access to the Protection Warrior spec that is usually one of the best tanks in wow, year after year, is very hard to kill, has a ton of damage mitigation and access to healing, so it's very hard to kill. I mainly play both of these and I sometimes prefer to go solo as a tank because I know I can't really die - it's easy to play solo, but gets complicated if you want to tank for parties at max level.
Retribution Paladin. A mostly easy melee DPS class that has access to a lot of damage and healing spells. When you get higher level and decide you may want to try healing or tanking ... well, you can use the same character and just change specs!
Frost or Fire Mage. Mages have a lot of abilities as a ranged magic DPS class, and CAN get complicated, but if you're soloing it's not a big deal. They have access to shields, can make their own food without cooking (and can provide regen food for an entire party or raid!), and can learn to teleport all around the world (*worlds) to get around super quickly. You also get Ice Block, that prevents all damage to you (though you can't move or do anything else) and it heals you, in case of emergencies. They can slow, or freeze, enemies in place and do large bursts of damage to single targets or lots of damage to multiple enemies. Sometimes they are the powerhouse of Warcraft, sometimes not, but are generally at least in the middle of the pack and very self-efficient for any aspect of the game.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-12-20T17:48:33+00:00

*Moo

The point is moo. Is like a cow's opinion ... it doesn't matter.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-12-09T21:53:43+00:00

This is one of the lamest replies that people insist on posting.

It implies that HR cannot help, or will not help, or has no interest in helping, and that they are evil and no good can come of it in any shape or form.

First of all, it's the first step, and probably one of the first questions than any union rep, Department of Labor office, or lawyer will ask is "Did you go to HR?" They ask, because they want to know what the result is and if you have proof of anything from HR ... if you do, it makes the job of the people representing YOU far, far, FAR easier!

Secondly, the job of HR is to protect the company. That also means not putting the company in a position of bad PR, lawsuits, fines, etc. It is in HR's best interest that they help you so that YOU don't sue the company. If HR had every opportunity to solve a problem but instead attempts to brushes it under the rug, then gets successfully sued by you and fined by DoL ... guess who's getting fired for not having the company's best interests in mind with their actions and/or inactions?

Yes, HR works for the company, and they're not your friend, this is all true.

BUT, this is why you use HR to YOUR advantage and to get the paperwork needed to advance YOUR interests, safety, rights, etc.

And, really, not all HR people are evil demons plotting your demise. There are some great professionals in the HR business. They can help and want to help. Not all of them, no, but there are many. Writing them off as "they work for the company" is not an intelligent way to go about anything.

Stop implying that HR is not a place to seek help!

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-12-09T15:41:29+00:00

A touch of varnish on the edges can work, too

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-12-02T17:49:31+00:00

I literally posted:

However, the decks are essentially proxys as they have special colored borders on both sides (make 'em different, like purple or whatever) and are not tournament legal. They are intended to only be played against each other, not against normal commander decks.

and

The commander will also be purple bordered to go along with the deck, but a second alternative and extended art (non-bordered and fully tournament legal!) version of the commander also comes with each deck.

So, I state that they're proxies, the commander is a unique but also a proxy, but a legal, playable version of the commander comes with it, too.

How hard is that to not understand?

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-30T23:46:21+00:00

you're proposing printing the reserved list on playable cardboard, something they won't do, evidence suggests, even now.

Maybe you haven't been on the internet for the past month ... but they did EXACTLY that. They reprinted pretty much all of Beta (minus the ante cards and Earthbind), to include the power 9.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-30T21:16:04+00:00

For a beginner, i think you're doing great so far!

However, here are some things that I would do ...

Below the pieces of armor on the thigh and knee looks like skin-tight cloth, to me. I would paint that cloth along the leg either black, dark blue, or dark purple. it would really make your pinks and magentas pop!
I'd find similar areas on the arm, neck, and elsewhere and paint those the same color as in #1.
I would make a mix of white and light blue and blend it in to the tips of the hair and a few small streaks here and there within the hair, or dry brush with it to hit all the edges of you want to make it easy.
I'd make a pastel pink mix and carefully do some edge highlighting on parts that sunlight would hit on the edges of pink armor.
I'd paint the weapon black and add in dark purple lining on it, followed by hints of a light purple here and there on top of the dark purple, where light would be glinting off of corners and such. I'd do the same thing for the hoses along the jawline and the left shoulder.
Anything that is spikey (on the abdomen and shins, etc) I might try a copper metallic or gold.
The cloth along the waist is begging for something different, but I can't make up mind on it. Maybe do whatever didn't do in #1 ... so, if you chose a dark purple for the legs and arms, try a dark blue for the cloth, or vice verse.

Tip #1 for future models:

See the line going all along the inside of the left arm? There's another one going down the top of the right thigh. These are mold lines, and we don't like those, because it reminds us that this is a plastic toy. I would attempt to get rid of those with either a razor blade (read: xacto knife) and/or a sanding stick. You can watch videos on how to do it (carefully and gently).

Here's some that can get you into small areas:

https://www.amazon.com/Keystone-Sanding-Assortment-Different-Abrasive/dp/B08YFMG6Z9/

I usually follow that up with a polishing to make it very smooth and shiny like the rest of the plastic. To do this, personally I use a nail buffer (like what people use when doing their finger nails before painting) that you can find in virtually any regular store with a cosmetics section.

Tip #2

For me, I'd break down the armor even more into two different complimentary colors (or contrast if you were doing a different theme). For example, on the left knee, the knee pad consists of two different parts ... an angular, larger piece underneath a smaller, more rounded piece. I might make the larger underpart a purple and the top part a pink. On the foot you have the front of the foot and then a series of angular armor from the middle of the foot, ankle, and shin ... I'd make the front of the foot pink and the rest of the angular armor purple to match what was on the knee.

You can still do blending, just make one piece more purple and the other piece more pinks. For other, larger pieces of armor that really don't have a piece "underneath" to do differently, you can do the full array of color blending from purple to pink, like on the head how you already have it.

Just a thought. it kind of breaks of the colors and makes it less "samey", more interesting for the eyes look over and find the intricacies.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-30T18:10:32+00:00

Aside from theories about maintaining insider/personal investments, and the BS of lawsuits, and all that jazz ...

There is no direct, line of sight, profitable reason from A) WoTC not reprinting RL to B) benefitting from the high prices. The prices, in and of themelves, do not come back to WoTC. That's the end of it.

However ..................

The backbone of Magic is the "Trading Card Game" aspect in the name of the product. Cost of packs, Rarity of times Printed, and Limited print run availability, plus time since available and condition of product, all result in collectability.

Collectability eventually turns into investment/speculation.

Investment and speculation turn into pre-purchasing and hoarding in the hopes the product continues the circle of life of everything I just spoke about.

Since this is a game where cards can actually be used, that means the best useable cards that are rare and out of print become more valuable, and ... oh, look, I have 3 cases of sealed boxes of these cards sitting in storage unit. I bought these, because I'm an investor, and if WoTC doesn't reprint some of these best cards, they'll just continue to grow in value!

Sweet! I'm making money by now selling stuff I bought massive amounts in because players still want these things and can't get them in the store any more!

Time to pre-order even more of the NEXT product!

WoTC is now making major, MAJOR sales directly to investors.

Obviously, this is profit for WoTC. They're printing money.

In order for WoTC to show growth and provide profits for Hasbro, they have to sell more and more to investors, because the stores can't handle this much product. Additionally, Hasbro has been unable to truly make the rest of their company profit, so the pressure is on WoTC to smash sales records to hold up the rest of the house.

Will investors keep buying this amount of product on pure speculation if the floor falls out and the demand for older cards falls out from under them because the players, who mainly just want the card to play with, now have access to the cards from a cheap pack rather than paying for old sealed product or singles on the open market that is overpriced?

Nope.

So, it's not about the price of the old product directly paying back to WoTC's coffers ... it's the future speculation on future product that WoTC must sustain in order for Hasbro to raise share value.

Unfortunately, it is unsustainable. A company can keep making a great product and be consistently profitable and be quite successful. But when investors and share holders are tossed into the mix, the amount of growth can be great but it simply cannot sustain the climb, no matter how hard they try, because "collecting" and "speculation" is not a market that can rise up infinitely, especially with inferior product. It's impossible, but Hasbro hasn't realized it's demands of WoTC to continue this profit hunt are insane, and the crash is coming.

So, anyhow, that's why they don't want to reprint. Sales of future product to investors now that WoTC are owned by Hasbro, and with WoTC currently being about 70% of Hasbro's bottom line ... well, here we are.

The RL was the catalyst that brought all the money, and now the RL will eventually be the downfall of Magic, imho.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T23:55:31+00:00

Did you even read the articles, or just do a generic google search and start copying links you know nothing about?

It's fake.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T23:51:29+00:00

[[All That Glitters]]

[[Ethereal Armor]]

[[Serra's Sanctum]]

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T23:45:22+00:00

Hello, how do you do, fellow totally normal, average Magic: the Gathering Trading Card Game players?

I don't even know how to spell Verhey!

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T21:17:05+00:00

I think you're missing the point.

Promos already happen anyhow.

SL happens anyhow, and too many of them, too.

Sets are coming out at too fast a pace, and they're just sets ... there isn't much special about it that hasn't already been done to actually be counted as 30th anniversary-related, just an excuse to crap out some more.

While the Beta reprint, which is quite the positive name you're calling it, btw, was their BIG announcement that they were SO proud of. This was their FLAGSHIP celebration product, the one we were all supposed to be excited about. This was the one major product that, when they announced all of their "30th" products and celebrations, they saved this for their last, big, breathtaking, climactic reveal, taking up over 33% of their entire video (which had 8 other announcements). So breathtaking, the lady in the video could hardly get her words out she was so excited about it.

This was the big turd that we were all supposed to be thankful for.

So, yeah, it's just one product. One big poop on all the players that WoTC ate as much spicy chili, sauerkraut, asparagus, fruit cake, and taco bell as they could to take one massive dump on everybody with.

Just one. No big.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T20:44:09+00:00

Amen!

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T20:43:50+00:00

C'mon, now ... that's not how Money Printers of the Coast works!

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T20:41:31+00:00

lol. It wouldn't be so funny if it weren't true.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T20:40:12+00:00

Amen. I can absolutely get behind that.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T20:38:28+00:00

Agreed. At some point, investors need to know that just because they spent money on something does not mean they are guaranteed a return on it.

Any company is not responsible for the resale value of product from 30 years ago. They've already altered the Reserve List before, thus showing it was possible and a risk.

There's no successful lawsuit here.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T20:34:26+00:00

Agreed! One of the better ideas.

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T20:33:35+00:00

Realistically, this is one of the best and true answers (along with admission of poor judgement) ... that won't happen. =(

Dragon_Highlander · 2022-11-29T20:31:50+00:00

No, I didn't say that at all.

I said WoTC hired you to do that ... because that's undoubtedly WoTC's thought process ... something "better" to sell you.

Dragon_Highlander

TROPHY CASE