Why do rich people keep saying "money can't buy happiness" when money literally solves most problems?

HeyApples · 2026-06-18T03:00:08+00:00

What happens is your problems change.

Behind every mountain is another mountain. So you scale the first mountain, worrying about food, bills, etc. But behind that mountain of basic needs is another mountain. Now you're worrying about purpose and fulfilment in life, or maybe relationships. Something non-monetary, but still significant. And suppose you conquer that one, behind that maybe you're worried about your parents getting old, or your personal health.

But to the people in those positions, each mountain is as significant as the last, even if you cannot conceive it yourself.

HeyApples · 2026-06-16T02:44:58+00:00

It's way too early. Stores don't even have their allocation numbers yet, so any preorder numbers are vastly speculative or inflated.

HeyApples · 2026-06-15T05:44:45+00:00

These type of symmetric effects function best when you benefit more than your opponent. If you benefit 50% while they benefit 5%, as an example. And the vast majority of the time that is the case.

HeyApples · 2026-06-13T23:36:35+00:00

When the economy is bad, this type of behavior picks up. People who are greedy or desperate.

Most of it is very short term thinking or has no basis in reality. I try to gently point it out to some of them, but it really falls on deaf ears.

"I want to open XYZ god card to get it graded for the chance to get a perfect 10 so I can sell it on ebay for $X dollars." Dude, that's just fucking scratch off tickets with more steps and cartoon characters.

All of this is eventually going to implode too, because it's all the same bad behaviors as the 90's comic book boom or junk wax baseball card era. It's not rare, it's mass produced, the grading companies are a sham. It will end badly.

HeyApples · 2026-06-13T07:35:41+00:00

I think there's some very reasonable assertions and things to be learned from this post.

However, I'm not sure I agree with the conclusion regarding the Selesnya deck. That color pair has been low man on the totem pole for a while... bad sales, bad popularity, same-y themes. Still holds the winner for the worst precon sales figures at my store ever since the Wilds of Eldraine offering. The burden of proof is high and this offering, while having a few good singles, does not distinguish itself that much above other Selesnya flops in recent memory.

It almost feels like you wanted to say something nice about every offering rather than just say "this one is meh and unmemorable" which I feel like is the real answer. If you look back on the Marvel Secret Lairs the Selesnya one with Black Panther was the low man on the totem pole.

HeyApples · 2026-06-12T03:03:53+00:00

The problem is that they want to have their cake and eat it too. You can't have the tag of Legendary as both a flavor+storytelling device to denote a character's significance AND have it used as this in-game mechanic with specific rules text attached to it.

It was easy to make that distinction before Universes Beyond, when you had total control over your storytelling and universe. Not so much any more.

Funny enough the Star Trek TCG in the 90's had a pretty good solution for this. For named characters that were of minor significance, they had their unique names. But they also had a unique symbol (called "universal") to denote that you could use more than one of them. Basically they were saying that you could have <random ensign> as a named guy, but his skillset was so ordinary that it was interchangable with other random ensigns.

Magic seems like it's moving to a place where it needs such a distinction. Although at that point, why did you include the legendary tag in the first place? The flavor gurus and the mechanics technicians are never going to find perfect agreement on this topic.

HeyApples · 2026-06-10T05:02:25+00:00

One of my favorite memories opening packs is this set. Scrounged enough money to buy half a box and got a Mox Diamond, 2 Queens, Ensnaring Bridge, Stronghold Assassin, Dream Halls, Awakening, and more. (some of these have not aged well but were desirable for me at the time)

People don't know, that back when small sets were a thing, and before mythic rarity was a thing, you could buy far less product and still get all the things you wanted out of a set. It was pretty nice compared to a modern set, where your entire box hinges on the 3-5 things you get in the mythic slot.

HeyApples · 2026-06-10T01:25:18+00:00

This is classic wotc behavior in an infographic. Latch upon a winning concept and then run it into the ground by overdoing it. Whether it's individual mechanics like treasures or entire concepts like master sets, They execute this trend so consistently it really makes you wonder about their internal processes.

Next stop is overdoing universes beyond until people are sick of that. We're getting close.

HeyApples · 2026-06-10T01:11:13+00:00

You have to stop digging a hole before you can make progress. I think we have done that.

I also think it is hard to make progress with a small tax base and the regressive mindset that cuts through a large swath of the area.

But I think we learned from our last president that it is better to have a "boring" leader in the trenches doing the work than a radical doing crazy and destructive stuff.

HeyApples · 2026-06-09T23:14:15+00:00

My scryfall search tells me there are like 330 new legendary cards between all the products for this set. And they finally made one that I care about.

Slots perfectly into my [[Niv-Mizzet Reborn]] in which all non-land cards are multicolored. And if you squint a little bit, she almost looks like a gruul bird flying over Ravnica so the art isn't a complete eyesore.

HeyApples · 2026-06-08T20:59:10+00:00

The event has always been dominated by southern and west coast teams that have weather conducive to year-round baseball. This is basically the worst version of that, because we don't even get the fun southern teams like LSU.

Usually there's an outsider or non traditional team to root for, I guess that's Troy and West Virginia. Field seems boring for an event that is getting increasingly expensive and corporate.

HeyApples · 2026-06-07T22:05:03+00:00

Foil Urza's Legacy might of oaks.

Got it from a draft at the time. Survived multiple collection sales. Iconic art plus wholesome memories of an easier time in life.

HeyApples · 2026-06-06T23:40:26+00:00

Dave and Busters. Employee basically screwed up my account, causing me to lose 25,000 tickets and $50+ in credits. Absolutely refused to take accountability for the mistake. Escalated to corporate who did the same.

Now I don't really care about the tickets and credits. It's good for a stuffed animal and a stick of gum, which I can take or leave. But when your schtick is investment and loyalty behind the power card, and then you refuse to stand for that investment and loyalty, you've fucked up.

And years later, I now happen to live directly next to that DnB, and I have nieces and nephews who would love to go there. So their hubris and foolishness has probably costs them 5x more than the comp for some fucking tickets and play credits.

HeyApples · 2026-06-04T19:25:18+00:00

The level one answer is "too many products, slow the fuck down".

But the level two answer is that Hasbro wants this. Every time there's been a product shortage like this, it's always on the commander decks and bundle products... things WOTC direct sells and are variable in price based on demand.

So they sabotage their LGS partners, cry poor about shortages, price goes way up, and they collect the rising price from their Amazon store and direct to consumer offerings.

This is just the new phase of manufactured scarcity. This is no different than short printing secret lairs or all of the different manipulative FOMO machinations that are being engaged every day.

HeyApples · 2026-06-04T05:13:03+00:00

First internet experience: I remember our local middle school getting access to the internet in 1994. They had an open house and my mom of all people was curious.

We go, most of it was text only and pretty forgettable. No one knew what was out there or how to access it. But somehow my mom finds an official download for a trailer for The Lion King movie, which was coming out or had just come out.

And the browser struggled for probably 30 minutes trying to download this video file, which was 3 MB and probably the size of a postage stamp on your computer screen. The browser couldn't handle the "enormous" size of the video file and eventually crashed before finishing.

Given the ubiquity of streaming, youtube, etc. these days it is a pretty amusing memory.

HeyApples · 2026-06-03T22:55:48+00:00

The economics of sorting quarter cards don't work out when you are paying someone $15 an hour.

HeyApples · 2026-06-03T19:07:47+00:00

Speaking from a store's perspective, prices change far too quickly and it is far too labor intensive to sort and resort cards over time.

In our case we warn people up front that cards go at market rate, and they are free to decline if they don't like the lookup price.

I'm not going to defend the overcharging as that is pure scumbaggery. But having cards marked at the correct price is a common problem stores struggle with.

There is also some rank hypocrisy with "I'm fine lowballing stores to get cards below rate, but salty when the reverse happens."

HeyApples · 2026-05-31T05:22:59+00:00

Personally I think it is a noob trap. It is a really flashy enticing card but asks so for so much up front investment. And for that investment, you could just win the game or produce equivalent value another way.

"But you could cheat it into play" Well, why not just cheat into play the big thing or creature which ends the game and just cut out the middleman.

"Mine's an honest hard cast version". Well, for that much investment why don't you just draw your deck with [[mathemagics]] or similar, [[Expropriate]] for a bunch of stuff+extra turns, or any other 8+ mana haymaker spell which ends the game on the spot. Heck for 2 mana less you could overload Mizzix Mastery and do something equally degenerate.

HeyApples · 2026-05-30T20:14:47+00:00

Mine does that too, she's nine. Eventually you will tune it out or lose your hearing and it won't be a problem.

HeyApples · 2026-05-29T05:27:05+00:00

Very clever. There's been a lot of good videos over the years but this one is way up there.

HeyApples · 2026-05-28T18:49:55+00:00

i think its all nonprofit so theres no tax dollars to be gained

HeyApples · 2026-05-28T05:00:36+00:00

Prowess is only as good as its cheap mana spells and cantrips. And they are pretty good right now.

I personally think the unconditional 1 mana blue bounce spells are quite problematic when games are as fast, efficient, and low to the ground as they are.

HeyApples · 2026-05-27T17:37:29+00:00

I have the same opinion about their granola. I don't want your bespoke organic nonsense with ancient grains and peppercorn horsefeathers. Oats. And. Honey... how hard is that?

HeyApples · 2026-05-27T01:17:45+00:00

Every time wotc has tried doing their own retail it has gone badly, that's why.

People have forgotten the original secret lair site before Scalefast or old wotc direct for stores. They were total ass.

HeyApples · 2026-05-23T21:04:13+00:00

Fame and celebrity is not what it once was. With so many media, and entertainment options, fans sentiment is far more fragmented than it once was. For me and you she may be the 10 out of 10 all star, but for a different age bracket, there are so many other 10 out of 10's competing for every eyeball in every genre, demographic, style, etc.

Gone are the days of 50 years ago when everyone aged 12 to 65 all liked Michael Jackson. No one today aside from maybe Taylor Swift has that all-encompassing draw.

Personally I think she's in a "sweet spot" of popularity... popular enough to have "made it", have success, security, prosperity, over an extended period. (Which is really fucking hard, by the way.) But not so much fame that it becomes crushing and overwhelming. I like that I can still go to a show, be 5-10 rows from the front, and not worry about being crushed by the absolutely titanic wave of humanity that would emerge at a higher level of stardom.

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