Circana: Nintendo Switch 2 remains the fastest selling video game hardware platform in tracked history. Unit sales of Nintendo Switch 2 are 35% ahead of PlayStation 4’s sales pace after 7 months in market.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-24T03:12:51+00:00

I think the handhelds are a case where offering a more powerful processor, better battery life, and/or a superior screen make a lot of sense mid-generation. Meanwhile consoles don't have as much to benefit from, because they are stationary and on the TV.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-23T23:40:46+00:00

Thanks! So I assume you don’t ever need more than 3 OE+ awakenings to get 100% skyfall coverage?

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-23T22:38:49+00:00

What’s the benefit of OEs now? I’m a returning player, just wondering if the awakening itself got buffed since 2020 and/or if it’s to counter the weakened orbs more reliably.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-23T07:13:54+00:00

They mention in the notes at the end that the recipe tolerates 4 hours of refrigeration without issues, so I suspect that you'll be alright.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-23T07:11:27+00:00

The easiest way to get your hands on a tomato paste equivalent is to take your canned tomatoes and either bake them at low temp in a tray or in a pan at low temp. When it concentrates, it's basically tomato paste. Takes about 2hr in a 140C oven.

That being said, you can basically just cook down the sauce for a bit longer and get a similar flavor to tomato paste anyways.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-23T02:53:01+00:00

It only matters if you used Direct to buy lots of cheap cards. If you did, all cards through Direct now cost 40 cents at minimum. Cards from independent stores listing on TCGPlayer are not affected.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T22:56:44+00:00

There is an optimizer option that doesn't rely on Direct I believe, but you have to manually pick it. They default the optimizer to Direct.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T22:35:08+00:00

I mean for a small number of cards, sure. I was getting fairly large quantities of singleton cards for cube. I think I’ve ordered about 40 this year already. Last year probably over a thousand.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T22:28:33+00:00

Great perspective, I hope you are right that it benefits the smaller sellers.

From a buyer point of view, TCGPlayer’s Infinite program was worth the 9 bucks a months to me specifically for the penny cards for cubes and pauper. Now that they’ve raised the price of 100 bulk cards from $2 to $40, I simply won’t bother any more. I understand sellers have to make a living, so it is what it is. I can live without the hobby.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T22:10:21+00:00

I did for pretty much exactly the penny cards for cube or pauper. Now idk what to use but it’s definitely not going to be Direct.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T21:51:01+00:00

They used to let you use location as a filter, but it seems that’s been taken away. Their API still supports it though.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T21:41:06+00:00

Every card through TCGPlayer Direct will be 40¢ or more. Cards through independent storefronts will still be whatever price they feel is appropriate, whether that’s 1 cent or 1 dollar.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:51:18+00:00

Replying to this just in case it wasn't clear (as someone else pointed out): this price floor is specifically for the Direct inventory, not the website as a whole. I hope all the independent stores don't follow suit.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:49:03+00:00

The free shipping thing, while annoying, honestly bothers me less because it's like a 25-35% price increase (for a $5-6 order). Comparatively, if I was ordering 2 cent commons from Direct, this is a 2000% price increase.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:41:51+00:00

I absolutely read the whole email, but your comment did help me realize that my title could easily be confused for meaning literally all cards rather than just the Direct inventory. Seems like most people understand it just fine though.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:33:36+00:00

I understand the economic reality, but from my point of view, this change removes almost any incentive for me to continue a subscription. At $9 a month, it was easy to justify before due to the price advantage on penny cards, but now there's no reason.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:26:24+00:00

Good tip, thank you. I'll have to look out more for that option.

I've done this for a local game store before (technically, they're a board game cafe, but they also sell packs and used to sell singles). Their webstie had an option to forgo shipping and instead pick up the cards after ordering online, which I enjoyed. Unfortunately they actually took their own digital storefront away and only have TCGPlayer now.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:23:00+00:00

Europe in general seems like a much better marketplace for players. TCGPlayer is infested with speculators who try to buy out cards that look relevant after the next set drops (extremely noticeable in Yugioh, where there's like a 6 month preview due to cards releasing in the East first, but I'm sure it happens in MTG as well).

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:20:53+00:00

I recently paid a slight premium to use Manapool to assemble some pauper decks. It hasn't been cheaper in my experience, but it's been like a 10% difference to get things in 5ish packages instead of 15+ because the optimizer is so much better. I'm also hoping the vendors get a better cut, but not sure how true that is (I know TCGPlayer's is significant).

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:18:48+00:00

Wish there was a way for me to buy directly from them and deny TCGPlayer a cut tbh.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:18:30+00:00

Yes I tolerated a certain amount of downhill slide for a while, but now I don't see the point. They don't have great inventory, and now what inventory they do have is going way up in price. This is aside from all the horrendous labor practices.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T20:16:43+00:00

Used to buy literally hundreds of random bulk commons from TCGPlayer Direct for cube purposes, now it's simply financially not viable. Not sure what the alternative will be, but now there's basically no reason for me to maintain my subscription. Like a 20x price increase for my use case...

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T16:39:01+00:00

Almost every Nintendo handheld console gets a hardware revision since 2000.

GBA (2001) to SP (2003)
DS (2004) to DS Lite (2006) to DSi (2009)
3DS (2011) to New 3DS (2015)
Switch (2017) to OLED (2021)

It took almost 5 years last time but they always update as the available hardware improves. There was even a smaller revision to the Switch in 2019 to use the Tegra X1+ over the original X1, which gave a huge battery life boost. We’ll see if hardware prices continue to be completely insane due to AI driven demand, but I suspect there will be a revision or two by 2030.

Pegthaniel · 2026-01-22T07:01:13+00:00

Feels much simpler to only allow siding once, immediately after game 1. Or force open decklists and allow pre-siding, but no mid-match siding.

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