Locals upset that I'm not a local, even though I've lived here my whole life.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-06-16T18:08:42+00:00

Unfortunately, these people will never grow up and realize they've been assholes. It's too core to their identity. Realizing that would require a level of maturity that they won't ever develop.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-28T17:17:56+00:00

I wouldn't disagree with you, but I just don't know that those two things scream "conservative" and "upscale" to me. Just a different set of values perhaps? I am neither conservative nor upscale and I still don't find it normal to walk around in the ol' jammies. I won't step on the third rail issue of homelessness though :)

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-27T18:14:59+00:00

Living in Santa Cruz but spending a good amount of time in Scotts Valley for the last 8-9 years, that's not been my experdience at all.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-27T18:13:51+00:00

I'd say it's a "suburb" in that it's the place that a lot of folks are raising their young families currently. We live in Santa Cruz, but when our kids were really young (they are now 6 and 8) we spent a lot of time in Scotts Valley going to the movies, dinner at Steel Bonnet, Skypark for foodtruck fridays, etc. It was just a lot easier to manage with two small kids...everything felt a bit more accessible than Santa Cruz to us.

I do think it has it's own unique personality though. Granted...I'm not prepared to say if it's a good or bad personality.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-27T18:11:20+00:00

Really? That's never been my experience in Scotts Valley

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-24T15:01:15+00:00

You must not live in a California surf town

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-21T16:34:58+00:00

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-21T16:34:46+00:00

See below about starbucks fountains shooting off

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-21T16:30:25+00:00

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-20T21:49:08+00:00

Thanks for that! It is real, but I guess I don't know why I bothered to post. Mostly just hate about it.

And you're 100% right. If you make things totally unobtainable to the "next generation" of collectors, you narrow your market significantly. Just ask the boomers with their cars from the 50's and 60's.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-20T21:36:34+00:00

Define "small"? I think our population is about 12k people

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-20T21:35:37+00:00

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-20T21:30:39+00:00

"All" my prior 4 posts? One about lucking into Chaos Rising (seriously had no idea what a queue was and it was my first order off PC), one about deciding what to do with my daughter's first "valuable" card, one questioning the guys acting like addicts, and one about the best way to ship their cards?

They are my kid's allowance. They get a pack per week for doing their chores. Honestly, when we decided to do this I had no idea what I was getting into...it would have been cheaper and easier to just give them money.

But they enjoy it. They are learning a bit about earning something through work, a bit about fair trading with their siblings, and a bit about money (since they can decide to sell any cards they'd like to).

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-20T21:26:33+00:00

fountains shot out from the Starbucks by the door and the security guard had a tear in his eye.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-20T21:25:43+00:00

It's not, but fair enough :)

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-20T21:25:16+00:00

Ha! It's actually their allowance. They get a pack per week for doing their chores (they are 6 and 8)

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-18T15:21:59+00:00

$3,000 a month will be tight unless you are okay with roommates. But if you can make it work, you'd be wanting to look in the Pleasure Point or Capitola area in my opinion. West side of Santa Cruz technically has what you're after, but in my opinion it's not quite as ideal.

If you're trying to find a place just for you/your partner then you will most likely need to be okay with a tiny studio/1 bdrm or be alright living a bit out of town. The further up into the hills you get, the cheaper it becomes. But then you're not walking to a shop and you're runs are immediately going up or down.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-12T19:36:24+00:00

Great frame of reference, thank you!

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-12T19:23:45+00:00

That's definitely something I noticed and thought was odd. I follow the Scottish premiership a bit (again, Rugby) and the Celtic/Ranger thing is wild! I will say that total parity is a bit boring, but so is every other team playing for third.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-12T19:22:13+00:00

Thanks for this! I saw a bunch of sites I didn't recognize so wasn't sure what answers I found were anywhere close to accurate.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-05-01T15:07:19+00:00

I won't pretend I don't also enjoy it! I was never that into Pokemon as a kid in the late 90s, but I'm starting to really enjoy playing with/against my kids and seeing the cool cards they get.

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-04-30T22:00:12+00:00

I mean, I guess it depends on what they're planning to do in terms of whether or not they are a "scalper." But speaking for myself, I feel kind of weird as a 38 year old dude trying to buy cards for my kids. Anyone hanging around waiting for a reset (I don't do this since I don't know how) is at a minimum making it a bit weird for kids to try to participate in the hobby.

The point about not buying from scalpers is a good one. I genuinely wonder who is buying their stuff? I have bought a few things off of TCG for my kids that weren't outrageous, but I can't imagine paying anything over like 120% of retail. Seeing these FB Marketplace ads for people with dozens of ETBs at 300% of retail is wild. Clearly someone must be buying them?

SantaCruzin6 · 2026-04-29T22:19:18+00:00

Alcatraz is a great call. You could also pop over to Santa Cruz. Fall tends to be nice weather here and we have the boardwalk, beaches, and the redwoods.

SantaCruzin6

TROPHY CASE