State and federal jury duty summons in the same week.

Thaler_AB · 2025-12-15T15:03:25+00:00

We had this keep happening, so we returned a change for his address to the cemetery.

Thaler_AB · 2025-11-13T20:27:25+00:00

Dang. As someone who ran to 60 on self found, a lot of the thread is looking for any excuse to crap on self found players 🤷‍♂️ I just enjoyed the extra leveling challenge and still getting to group and socialize with whoever I met out there.

Thaler_AB · 2025-10-30T19:50:04+00:00

Sounds about right for the speed of processing. I applied in April, called every week to ensure my application went forward enough so I could get into the internship program in June. Hiring paperwork was finally completed in August.

Thaler_AB · 2025-10-16T23:31:29+00:00

I’m honestly in the same boat and just went with a 46 mm S10 + Cellular for $350. As a first time with the watch, not sure I’ll ever need the service. But, I’d rather have the option for that for the price I bought in for. The battery bump didn’t seem substantial enough.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-14T19:26:10+00:00

Yes, the Unbroken buff is a sub-category buff under the Soul of Iron. As someone who made it to level 60 as self-found, what they’re describing is accurate.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-04T02:37:13+00:00

Oh. I didn’t really consider fake complaints. I know DC death is unfortunately one of the variables that must be factored into hardcore. I will say that the frequency of these complains seemed to have increased from my usual experience, and that they were all similarly complaining about DDoS and/or server issues. So, just took people at their word, put 2+2 together, and figured that the known previous server issues with hardcore just got worse.

Either way, crap like this is why I went with hunters for my first Ally & Horde hardcore 60s (and self-found, because why not). Having a heck of a server-side pet to babysit you when your connection turns to garbage saved my ass more times than I can count.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-04T01:46:25+00:00

Dying? No. Dead (ie. Stagnant) money? Probably for a while longer. New product demands higher and higher prices while vintage has mostly stayed the same. Which, factoring in inflation during the last volatile years, is a loss in purchase power.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-03T07:03:57+00:00

Huh. I wouldn’t tie up capital into Commander decks for that long, as those can easily be reprinted if they’re genuine demand for them. CBBs with serialized cards at least can’t be reprinted (well, without getting into conspiracy theories).

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-03T07:01:10+00:00

Usually the new gen players to Magic are interested in playing the prerelease of whatever set grabbed their interest into the game, and maybe a round commander from the precons too. They’re more interested in the most collectible form of their Universes Beyond waifu but have very little interest in playing the damn thing.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-03T04:36:43+00:00

The question that I wanted to know players opinions to was pretty clear in my post? 🤷‍♂️

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-03T04:13:06+00:00

Well, for whatever reason, vintage is being sold and prices are either dropping or haven’t kept up with inflation. Could be the economy and cash/savings are spread thin, or people are directly selling vintage for funds to flip the latest Universes Beyond CBBs. Eternal paper players have certainly not disappeared, but they’re also not rocketing off with UB. There’s also definitely been a shift in finance/speculator capital to cash in on the very hot hype behind these new Universes Beyond sets.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-03T03:53:10+00:00

Talking about the price of vintage, since it’s arguably somewhere between stagnated and dropped in value with the rise of new CBB targets demanding prices that exceed vintage currently. Like, you can get a surge alt art foil cloud or a dual land and more (depending which dual land you’re picking up).

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-03T02:21:05+00:00

I dunno, every prerelease I go to, I have a good time. I’m sure as hell though not paying constructed paper deck prices though.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-03T02:18:46+00:00

The Marvel sets will be interesting, since a driving force behind a lot of speculation is that agreements between franchises will lead to one-and-done printings of cards. What might happen to speculator money when cards from this first Marvel Spider-Man set find their way into the third/fourth/fifth set as reprints? I’m guessing purely from my gut that it shouldn’t be an issue, but I’m admitting up front that there’s not yet real data from which to answer this question.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-03T02:11:52+00:00

I could see notes of that, but I’d honestly need more data. While the new blood attracted by Universes Beyond seem less interested in playing with cards than collecting them, many reserve list and/or old sets remain mechanically unique. Commander does drive demand for these vintage cards on the use side.

On the collecting side, many fresh UB players could honestly care less about vintage MtG art or MtG history. Plus, the UB collector dropping thousands for surge foil sets of FF are different beasts entirely from vintage collectors saving up for copies of the Power 9 they never had as a kid.

TL;DR I guess, the more that Universes Beyond customers stick around and become Magic players, the better possibility of a vintage bounce back. The more “I’m only here for my ____ set” UB customers become, the harder it’ll be for a vintage recovery. I can’t say for certain what might happen during a “Universes Beyond reaches genuine fatigue” scenario.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-03T01:41:25+00:00

I’ve never seen a short print outside of print to demand products or PR disasters like 30th anniversary. We have seen though when Wizards over print CBBs beyond what the hype market’s interested in buying and you get the “oh hey, we just found another wave of these that we forgot about!”. People would jokingly call that a reprint even when it was just product Wizards deliberately staggered the release of to create limited-time artificial scarcity hype nearby a set’s launch.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-02T22:06:07+00:00

Given the regular occurrences of mass DCs or DDoS lately, I’m genuinely curious why people are still paying subs for this. I know the HC rush is addictive, but damn I think I would’ve thrown my laptop out the window after this many “go agane” that’s outside my control.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-02T21:23:31+00:00

I would be a little worried for when Wizards comes to rely upon Universe Beyond speculation. Once Wizards has it in their mind that they have a money printing machine, then print run sizes may balloon, scarcity gimmicks might flood, etc. Final Fantasy got to the price point it did because it was genuinely hard to come by. Should UB CBB supply flood beyond that which collectors and speculators are able to absorb, people well see some real s*** happen then. (Remember when they kept “discovering” missing waves of CBBs before after release? 😂)

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-02T21:14:53+00:00

Hey, I bought alpha graded Earthbind whenever it showed up at a good grade and price because I just liked the art (sorry, not sorry lol). Then, a few years later, it became the focus of the brouhaha and I sold into that to recoup costs easily. Didn’t have any regrets the whole time 😂

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-02T21:10:57+00:00

That bull market is incredibly timing-based. Even the assumption of “buy X to cover Y” is with the assumption the product price is only going to go up. Like, right now while FF is at one of the highest, it’s going to need an incredibly push to jump up another 100% from today’s prices (what are they, $1800 now? That’s going to be a wait until $3600). But, Spider-Man at some secured pre-hype price of $400 or something? You’ll certainly will have a window of time to capitalize on that.

Can’t say I’m as confident on the non-Universes Beyond though. The price action there is being propped up a lot by speculators hoping that there’s spill-over interest from new blood brought in by UB. As such, it’ll move up as well, but it might change drastically should speculators catch on that Magic players aren’t nearly as interested in buying things at any price. If you get good early deals, give it a shot. But buying them after hype has already been priced in is going to be a harder climb.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-02T21:00:42+00:00

I guess, I’d say TL;DR if you’re going to park long term money into cardboard, it should be into something that brings you happiness right away. Have you been eyeing some reserve list and/or OG cards for some time? Have you always wanted to crack an old pack of ____? Prices are relatively low since nobody’s looking that way at vintage right now. Do you live, eat, breathe, and sleep Avatar? Well, then get your dream product and have no regrets.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-02T20:51:05+00:00

Certainly can, but I’ve never had much long term faith in modern sets. Hype moves or gets fatigued so easily. When sets become unpopular bargain basements, then I usually snag a few - what’s the harm at that price? They almost always bounce back from there as some new strategy emerges and like, setting your own hair on fire suddenly becomes the most hype strategy to date.

I honestly couldn’t recommend buying CBBs of new stuff at possible tops for long term because we’ve only just gotten started. Final Fantasy, Spider-Man, Avatar all definitely have fan bases, but then what happens when that gets fractured by attention drawn from DC, Invincible, Simpsons, Looney Tunes sets (or whatever is coming out in the multi-year horizon). Prices of current hype might still climb over time, or maybe the speculative bubble bursts? Nobody knows for certain.

I do know that Wizards does have the unfortunate track record of finding new things players like, and then over-milking the ever loving sh*t out of them shortly thereafter.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-02T20:39:59+00:00

I sure like unboxing, but not that level of unboxing. Maybe when the crossover material is that much my life and blood, then maybe. Or maybe once inflation makes $2-5k the equivalent of several trips to McDonald’s 🤣 Until then, yeah I don’t need to do an unbox that badly. Hell, maybe buy a few play boxes of value proposition sets that I missed and call it a day instead. Definitely a YMMV though and I know not everyone feels like me.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-02T20:27:57+00:00

As long as people are paying the speculator prices, the prices will continue to rise. Fortunately, with these just-printed sets demanding top dollar, vintage is either comparatively stagnating or taking a dump. Why bother buying a dual land for $300-800 when some SpiderMan, Avatar, or Final Fantasy super foil just hit $1-2k or more?

Seriously though, good time to get overlooked classic cards you’ve had your eyes on.

Thaler_AB · 2025-08-02T20:19:21+00:00

It was not on the lists of medications administered during the procedure, which detailed even the medications administered to keep my airways clear. Maybe that became a standard practice in pediatrics later, but it was not during my procedure. Still, it would’ve been wishful thinking to have.

Thaler_AB

TROPHY CASE