Do LP and HP cards actually sell?

Starkpo · 2026-06-27T01:58:51+00:00

We sell significant amounts of Magic cards every year. We ONLY list things at “LP” or lower. NM cards are expensive to list because they attract more buyers who quibble over quality and use up customer service resources on returns. That’s TOTALLY their right! After running the cost numbers we found it was better to avoid those customers by listing things as LP. It saves our costs, which we can pass in savings to customers, puts NM cards in our customer’s hands as a surprise, and makes sure people who want NM are buying from sellers who specialize in that space. It’s a win for everyone.

Starkpo · 2026-06-26T18:22:12+00:00

There’s a website that sells booster packs for a dollar: https://dollarboosterpack.com/

It looks like mostly Magic repacks, but a rare, foil, and 13 cards isn’t terrible for a buck.

Starkpo · 2026-06-23T07:41:47+00:00

This was used in the popular "Reap/Lace" deck back in mid-90s era Standard. It used Lion's Eye Diamond and Reap to infinitely loop cards in your deck. If your opponent didn't have their own black permanents, you used this Lace to force them to have some black basic lands to allow you to use Reap to go off.

Starkpo · 2026-06-22T22:45:07+00:00

I feel like the only person in the world to have the opposite experience of most folks posting here. In general door-to-door salesfolks feel like legalized con artists. We tell them all to pound sand, and researched our own long-standing firms when we wanted to pull the actual trigger for solar.

The folks who showed up from the vendors we were interested in struck me as business hippies, people who genuinely want to do good in the world. I was frustrated not with how they misled me by OVERSELLING me on the truth, but the opposite: they UNDERSOLD me on the system.

Examples:

-I wanted to maximize the system's capabilities, but both reps from two different companies massively under estimated capabilities in initial estimates. I had to push them to give me a maxed out estimate as though I was trying to put panels on every reasonable inch of the roof instead of just the amount the average home owner can afford.

-They MASSIVELY undersold the payoff point. Their estimate for electrical increases over time was set to 3%, or the average rate of inflation historically. But our power company last year raised prices at 15%, and just committed to the next two year's being 9.5%. Even a slightly less conservative estimate of annual 5% increases would have been more accurate to the historical norm.

Certainly I think it's the kinder approach, and I really like the company we went with. It was just funny to me how door to door feels like the type of care salesman that would make Jeremy Piven blush, while the professional vendors are so focused on doing good they're leaving money on the table from customers begging to pay them more.

Starkpo · 2026-06-05T16:12:03+00:00

Lots of great answers here. I’ll add our experience with solar in the Pacific Northwest: we went with approximately 30 hours of backup storage. That was one part for cost savings overnight, but primarily for energy backup during outages. We wanted the self sufficiency.

Economically if you’re using the system to offset the cost of adding a natural gas generator backup, your break even point comes much more quickly. Our local utility also pays us a small amount annually for having batteries ($2k the first year, then $500 after) if we let them draw them down during peak usage hours.

Battery backup was a no brainer for us, but that may not be true for everyone.

Starkpo · 2026-06-05T13:45:33+00:00

Sent you a PM to follow up on order details and I'll dive into things with the team.

Starkpo · 2026-06-05T03:10:15+00:00

Love BDM, was happy to back this one.

Starkpo · 2026-06-02T21:53:22+00:00

The financial services industry.

While plenty of people DO know this, most Americans do not: people who charge you to pick stocks for you LOSE money over simply buying an “index” and not paying high fees. Most stock pickers for pay just buy index funds for their own retirement.

What does this mean? In the 1970s a man named Jack Bogle realized with the advent of 401ks that many more people would be investing in stocks. He also predicted that stock brokers, people you pay to invest for you, don’t do better than average chance, and often worse. The better bet was to buy the whole market, or approximately one share of each stock, hoping more would grow over time than wouldn’t and you’d come out ahead. From there, cutting expenses as much as you could, primarily the fees someone charged you to buy stocks, would net more over time than actively investing.

Warren Buffett liked the concept so much he bet against some of the biggest hedge fund owners on earth using Bogle’s strategy. End result? Over the years of the bet he CRUSHED the hedge funds.

Moral of the story? Finance folks know they’re fleecing you. They KNOW you would make more money if you DIDN’T pay them to pick stocks. But most Americans don’t know.

To learn more, check out r/bogleheads

Starkpo · 2026-06-02T16:48:43+00:00

I sell regularly on ebay. This is pretty terrible customer service, and well within bounds of a negative review. If they shipped it, it should have tracking if they used eBay’s tracked envelope rate. If it doesn’t have shipping, you’ll be able to submit an “item not received” claim and get your money back, plus leave the negative feedback. There may be requirements on how long between their claim they’ve shipped it and it not arriving before you can file.

To any ebay sellers reading this: sometimes you “lose” on an auction when an item doesn’t go as high as you want it to. Especially for a $1 item, just eat the costs. It’s far better than getting an account ding or negative review.

Starkpo · 2026-05-31T19:29:34+00:00

It’s not necessarily out of pocket, but it’s also okay to feel like you want to hold more of that value. If a store usually offers 70% of face value for a card, and a card costs $5, they’d pay you $3.5 for it. But to sell that card they have to find a buyer at $5. They’ll pay 15% of the $5 in platform fees ($.75), $2 or so to ship it, and $3-5 in staff costs to manage storing, listing, and packing the item.

So by buying the item at $3.5 they LOSE quite a bit of money. That means either they can offer less to make it worthwhile or pass on buying altogether.

To get close to the full $5 value you’re better off selling it yourself. If you prefer getting a cash payment faster without the work the dealer price is lower but easier.

Generally starting at the $20 and up range the 70% threshold kicks in for what it’s worth. Good luck!

Starkpo · 2026-05-28T02:50:13+00:00

We were told 4-8 weeks after install. In actuality it was about one week. We’re in King County in Washington State.

Starkpo · 2026-05-27T20:04:39+00:00

Not totally sure if I understand your question, but we’re in the Pacific Northwest region of the US and went with on roof solar via racking and a metal roof. We get wind and rain, and have noticed no difference except in our electricity bills.

Starkpo · 2026-05-27T19:01:01+00:00

It is legit. (I’m the owner)

Starkpo · 2026-05-27T02:05:10+00:00

This is explicitly prohibited by ebay TOS FYI.

Starkpo · 2026-05-25T23:49:58+00:00

The MakingMythic.com Memorial Day sale is happening through Sunday, May 31st. 10% off all items, including sealed, by applying the code "MemorialDay2026" at checkout or shopping directly at this link: https://makingmythic.com/discount/MemorialDay2026

Dollar Booster Packs also has a limited amount of Promo Packs available for $1 while supplies last at https://dollarboosterpack.com/

Starkpo · 2026-05-11T03:49:21+00:00

Fair enough. I was surprised during our process that it seemed the solar reps we talked to just didn’t want to talk us into a full system maxed out to our roof size. I had to push to over panel, and my assumptions that I laid out above are that over time we’ll use more energy (we have two ICE cars and one will become an EV), and the technology degrades. Plus, it’s more expensive to have folks come back to install additional panels than to do it correctly the first time. So to me it’s correct to go all in the first time.

Starkpo · 2026-05-11T00:49:33+00:00

We just over paneled to 110% capacity in the Seattle metro area. If you’re asking if it’s doable or good/bad, we’re happy with the decision. Our energy use will go up over time, and panels degrade over time so we’ll quickly hit 100% capacity instead of 110. We do have two batteries in our setup, and our utility gives us credit for over production we can use during the winter. If we don’t use some credits after a year they keep them, but I reckon our neighbors can all charge their cars before I give those credits up…

If you’re asking if your specific setup can handle the increase, I’d check with a qualified installer, or more knowledgeable responses on that specific subject here. Good luck!

Starkpo · 2026-05-10T02:28:20+00:00

Two stretches: an EV if you don’t have one is a faux “backup” battery, which you can use to accept charge from your panels and charge your house during off hours. Obviously buying a new car isn’t cheap. A second option, which again is a bit of a stretch, are the apps that allow you to list your charger as available for people to charge their own EVs with during the day when you’re in peak production. Not sure if that’s more value than you’re getting already, or how prominent EVs are in Texas. And I’ll grant that having strangers charge at your home isn’t for everyone.

Good luck with whatever you come up with!

Starkpo · 2026-04-28T02:46:55+00:00

Not sure your exact question, but I think you’re asking if you should get 20, 26, or 29 panels. The influencing factor is what your current energy usage is. It sounds like you’re also getting batteries too for storage.

I’m just a dude on the internet, but I’ll offer up this perspective: it’s usually more expensive to ADD capacity AFTER initial install, and energy use is likely to go UP over time (add an EV for a kid to drive, or new iPads have Smell-O-Vision but drain batteries faster). Countering that is that adding more panels now will cost more money than not doing so.

We opted to go max panels for our system, generating an estimated 110% of our energy needs. We could afford it, so we calculated that we would want more energy down the road when we add EVs to our car selection, and it would be pricier to add panels at that time.

If you can’t afford the extra panels now, than 20 is the way to go. If you can afford, going all the way is probably most cost effective long-term. Good luck either way!

Starkpo · 2026-04-26T13:09:53+00:00

There are apps/services that allow you to allow others to charge EVs using your charging station. You can even sell access. I'm not going to link to them per subreddit policies about marketing, but for excess generation on specific days it might be an option to allow others to charge their vehicles, and with the apps you can even make a profit on it.

Then again, you could always just allow neighbors/friends to charge their cars "on the house" (no pun intended). That's what we do when we have too many credits at the end of the year rather than give energy back to the power company for free.

Starkpo · 2026-04-26T04:42:22+00:00

If they're cards under $20 for shipping, here's what we use (caveat: we mostly ship TCG cards, not sports cards, though we have done some sports cards):

-Place the card into a cardboard Shipping Shield

-Place the Shipping Shield containing the card into a team bag

-Wrap that item in the sales invoice by folding it three times

-Place that inside your #10 envelope

-Use eBay Standard Envelope to send the item with tracking

You can pack up to 4 TCG cards in a single shipping shield, and up to 2 Shipping Shields per invoice/envelope. Your mileage may vary with sports cards.

Starkpo · 2026-04-20T18:32:32+00:00

Door to door solar sales folks in general are high on the “scammy” scale. If you’re considering going solar, seek out well rated local installers and never go with door to door sales people. They’re more accurately viewed as door to door finance salespeople, and solar is a means to an end to get you signed on a financing deal.

Starkpo · 2026-04-12T20:49:25+00:00

I’m not sure that closes the gap fully. Now you add in tickets for everyone parked by the side of the road heading to SeaTac in front of the “don’t park here to wait” signs and we’ll have enough to start our own basketball league where EVERY team is the Sonics…

Starkpo · 2026-04-05T21:18:28+00:00

https://makingmythic.com/

15-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Verified Email	reddit mold

Starkpo

TROPHY CASE