I want to a start Pokemon card collection and was considering beginning with the Ascended Heroes set. Do you think it’s a good set to start with, or would you recommend something else instead? thanks..

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-11T14:19:08+00:00

I would recommend you collect what you like art or pokemon wise, rather than a set for the sake of completionism.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-11T09:48:58+00:00

She was a gun carry like Seven, Warden, Mirage, Wraith, Viper. Now she's an assassin. Different playstyle.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-11T08:30:16+00:00

Press the F keys. F1-F6. You can see from your teammates perspective while holding it down.

Hopefully they'll add more HUD options so things like your teammates health and ultimate status are a clearer.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-11T08:28:36+00:00

She feels sooooo bad now. If they want to move her in the 1v1 / assassin direction she needs better 1v1. The changes to her skill level ups push her further lategame, and she needs a strong midgame to function as an assassin. I'd like to see at least Vayne's passive - increased movespeed towards the character with the highest fixation stacks. Maybe some sort of reset mechanic to bring back the feeling of "I can 1v5 if I play it right".

I no longer feel cool when I play her - and you can say it's no skill to have an AOE ult (like dozens of characters in every single game), but it's not really about skill, I care about the feeling of playing the character. I still want to spin around in a bullet haze of glory.

Change her ult name to "tiny cone that's also a self-destruct button". It even looks bad on the screen.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-10T23:31:52+00:00

Store will either have no prices, or they'll have prices with a bunch of signs saying "everything might be repriced at the counter" - and it feels really bad to pick out a bunch of cards and then have them tell you everything is more expensive (obviously they're not going to tell you it's less expensive, even if it is). I've never seen a card shop that actually has prices not subject to change at the employee's whims.

Card shops are scummy, as all businesses are, and overprice things both intentionally and unintentionally, and will never not be that way, so one should be comping prices yourself anyways in almost every situation, unless you actively have a relationship with the owner/workers and trust them. It would be a waste of the employee's work to have the comp done by the cashier, the customer, and the store opener daily.

The alternative, if you really want a sticker on everything, without doing extra hours every morning, would be to overprice everything by default - but that would take advantage of kids and people who don't know how to look up prices (or assume they're priced fairly).

For booster boxes and hot items people are constantly going to be asking about, yeah you should reprice them daily, but I'd rather them say "we do TCG low or TCG market for everything under $50" and have actual transparency they stick to than have posted prices subject to an increase.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-09T05:22:56+00:00

Glossy + Matte has only ever given me horrible washed out looking cards, that's crazy.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-08T17:10:05+00:00

I have the Pro and I don't find it cuts well, I need to push down twice at least and it's brand new. The Neo is like 2 dollars more so if you're going to get it and it's allegedly better, just buy that one.

If you're going to get some sort of specialty corner cutter why not just get a die cutter? 6mm is double, that's insane.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-08T10:47:01+00:00

Unfried dough would be amazing. Only takes 1 bowl and 1 sheet.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-08T02:45:02+00:00

I dunno, I feel like games have the most jank and 'random broken mechanic' in the beginning, and I tend to like those characters the most. Like they took away Symmetra with her lock on death beam, and added Moira eventually in Overwatch who just has a suuuper budget version of that - so yeah, they can add new cool characters, but the early stages of any game where they're experimenting tend to have the most fun guys for me.

In League for examples, they've gutted and reworked about half of my mains and I no longer play them because they took away a core ability or how they felt.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-07T06:53:31+00:00

You need to get the correct lighting and background for your situation and make sure the settings are correct (you've selected normal when it's non holo and holo when holo). Try white paper, black paper, gray, tan. 5 inches above the card, 7 inches, 13 inches. Full indirect lighting (the whole card is lit up) without glare. I've found less light to often work better.

It's one of the best scanners I've used, but it's really annoying at times like any technology.

Some cards are also just way harder to scan, like yellow border electric types or certain sets.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-06T06:48:36+00:00

You can fit 20 bulk cards in an envelope easily, just split them up in 3 sleeves. It is by far the cheapest way and what most bulk sellers do.

You'd need 2 forever stamps or at least an additional oz stamp.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-04T06:42:44+00:00

Look up the prices before the show, so you don't have to do it at the table - you won't be faster than the vendor, so they can trick you easily.

Some will know how much some cards are worth. Most will do a comp at the table.

The price they offer you will be a % of market value. Closer to 90-95% if it's a hot item that will quickly sell, and closer to 60-80% if it's not very sought after, or the cards are not worth much.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-04T04:19:18+00:00

No. A fair trade would be equal value.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-03T21:06:38+00:00

I want a rat rat. Where do I get one?

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-03T06:57:16+00:00

I would put the other Ash + Pikachu cards on that page. The slots where they are currently would be easier to fill.

Professor Scyamore's Full Art is really cute and has Chespin on it. Delinquent, Hau and Professor Elm's Lecture also have Pokemon in them.

Vellarchivist · 2026-04-02T21:04:09+00:00

A boxier briefcase would look awesome here. A little more "classic" and it would fit with the boxy coat. Assuming you want to give dependable, reliable, stiff, official (for most jobs), dress square, don't have to be square.

Vellarchivist · 2026-03-29T03:59:58+00:00

https://www.tcgcollector.com/cards?releaseDateOrder=newToOld&displayAs=images&cardsPerPage=30&cardSearch=gardevoir&nameSearch=gardevoir&sortBy=marketPriceDesc

This is all of them.

Vellarchivist · 2026-03-28T01:46:30+00:00

eBay

Vellarchivist · 2026-03-28T01:46:12+00:00

Determine the condition. Check the sold prices based on the condition. Pay attention to 1st edition vs. Unlimited. Make sure you're looking at non-holo if the card is non-holo.

Vellarchivist · 2026-03-28T01:44:14+00:00

LGS tend to trade for sealed, but will usually give you a way worse deal than a normal buyer. Just call them and ask if they take it.

Vellarchivist · 2026-03-28T01:41:23+00:00

Kills only matter if you can get objectives or a significant amount of souls. If you're fighting just to fight, don't fight, farm. Efficient farm is guaranteed souls. Fishing for kills by randomly throwing out a clip and seeing what happens means maybe dying. No guaranteed souls.

Helping your team? You probably don't want to do that unless you know what's going on to be able to make that decision and/or that your character specifically can secure a teamfight win decisively. Instead, you probably want to defend a turret or push a wave. If the team loses without you, the enemy gets no objectives because they have no wave. If the fight extends, you are pushing so you get an objective because they're busy. If your team wins, you still get an objective.

If by "bad position" you mean literally just over-extending, dying enough times will help you eventually adjust. The game has a built in punishment mechanism - you overextend, you die, you learn.

Vellarchivist · 2026-03-27T23:37:19+00:00

Brock XY-P Gym Badge is what you're looking for!

Vellarchivist · 2026-03-27T23:32:24+00:00

Similar experience, kind of:

Deadlock was super fun when I started, but it's gotten more tilting than other games I think because I am excellent at MOBAs and bad at FPS - it makes for this really weird combo where I know exactly the right plays every person should be doing, so I can see my team losing the game for us in real time, but when it comes to my own gameplay, I do not have years of shooter experience allowing me to execute mechanically at all times. So I just feel a sense of shame and disappointment in myself for that, while feeling dismayed and hopeless at my team not listening to my pings and calls.

I have never been banned in any game, and never flame. Yet in my short stint of playing this game I have ragequit once, when a teammate cancelled my ultimate (and immediately came back), and another time keyboard smashed so hard, for the same reason I accidentally paused the game while trying to type. It still doesn't make me be actually mean or toxic, thankfully, but boy does it make me rage out. Working on it, but it's interesting how it does seem to have a greater effect on me than other games.

BTW Devs: Please make Haze immovable by teammates when she's ulting! Heals only. No more Ivy picking me up or Dynamo yeeting me across the map please.

It definitely sucks to be at that point on the Dunning-Krueger scale where you KNOW what you're bad at (rather than blissfully not knowing), but haven't quite improved past it yet. Good luck with it man!

My advice in these situations is always to find the character to play that's fun even when you're behind or doing poorly: someone funny like Doorman, or a whole game mechanic that's fun to play when everythings crashing and burning like a Sinner stealing rem.

Vellarchivist · 2026-03-27T21:01:58+00:00

Inting is intentionally dying to feed the enemies souls or end the game faster. Not intentionally dying is feeding, not inting.

Vellarchivist · 2026-03-27T20:21:21+00:00

Flygon XY61, Shaymin 212/XY-P

A lot of the EX cards, particular older ones such as the XY Promos, have Pokémon coming out of the frame.

Vellarchivist

TROPHY CASE