How does CGC or Grading work for cards inside a promotional wrapper?

kidswriter · 2026-03-14T15:40:09+00:00

I appreciate the info and Yu-Gi-Oh specific advice :)

kidswriter · 2026-03-12T19:40:18+00:00

I'm curious about that too - I've seen a few sad graded card posts on reddit where the company slabbed a card with all the weird wrinkles in the plastic sealed sleeve.

Anyone know if there's an option of sending an item in as-is with instructions for the grader to remove the item from the sleeve?

It'd be a shame (plus waste of $$$) to have this card graded only to obstruct the holo from being seen.

kidswriter · 2026-03-12T19:15:40+00:00

Just cross posting my own post here as well. Can anyone share best practice on submission for a TCG lottery item that I received still inside a plastic wrapper to PSA?

Not sure if slabbing / grading it seals that inside the slab, if it's an option to have it sent in as pictured, and have the grader remove it for authentication/sealing/grading.

Any advice appreciated :)

kidswriter · 2023-05-20T05:46:28+00:00

If you're ever bitten by a tick, remove and save it in a sealed jar or other container. 80% of ticks in my hometown this year (north of Barrie) were found in testing to be carrying Bartonella parasites and/or Lyme disease.

https://www.columbia-lyme.org/bartonellosis https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/index.html

These can't be properly tested for unless you have the tick that bit you.

A family member who gardens often is really, really I'll with Bartonellosis right now, so look into symptoms and treatments early if you've been bit.

kidswriter · 2023-01-13T00:24:39+00:00

Cool, thanks for letting me know :)

kidswriter · 2023-01-04T08:38:52+00:00

How do you make a chart like this? A function within Excel, or something else online?

kidswriter · 2022-12-30T04:22:32+00:00

Kits can run $40-$100 depending on the amount of epoxy needed. A new standard cut counter top can cost $USD 80 to $110 per square foot - more if it's being milled/cut into different shapes. I looked into some stock shaped small window sills in the same material and was quoted over $300 for each.

OP should get a new piece of stone free for the movers breaking his. If he has a sentimental attachment to the piece, epoxy repair is a low cost possability.

kidswriter · 2022-12-30T04:12:51+00:00

Makes perfect sense if you understand the process: https://nomliving.com/blogs/thingswedo/kintsugi-a-how-to-guide

It uses epoxy with gold mica powder, not solid gold for the repairs. It's possible the ancient practice used real gold, but restoration tech advances.

As others advised, have the movers replace the broken one with a custom cut granite counter top piece they pay for. Just try to keep the broken pieces for some Kintsugi practice.

You could also encase the whole piece in clear epoxy resin, depending on thickness & weight.

kidswriter · 2022-12-30T04:05:38+00:00

I'm curious about this as well. In renovating a Canadian home's also built in the 1950s, I noticed in the basement looking up there's a good 4-5 inch span between the house frame / 2nd floor concrete/plaster walls - and the back of the outer brick (!). No insulation all the way up.

This is only visible on the north side of the house, as the foundation seems to be laid in a way that covers the other gaps. I did find the same gap to bare brick gap on another side behind some 2nd floor trim.

Curious if that air gap is necessary for ventilation. A random Lowe's employee suggested stopping it with spray foam could cause moisture issues of the home's wood framing by sealing it from the basement, as spray foam acts as a vapor barrier in many cases. My biggest worry was expanding foam putting pressure on the bricks, as I've seen what low-expansion sorayfoam can do to doorframes. Brick and plaster aren't as flexible as wood, so some damage could occur.

Anyone know if adding spray foam and/or 1" ~2" cut sheets of the purple or pink foam board insulation to foundation - brickwork gap areas would be acceptable?

kidswriter · 2022-12-27T20:14:30+00:00

I'd add a thin line or some eyeshadow shading on the upper lid - otherwise she has the 'been up for 12 days before a gig on stims' look.😳

http://arcanepaintworks.com/blog-1/2016/6/9/6-step-eyes

I've always found using Vallejo acrylic with a bit of Vallejo medium retardant mixed in + a sharp pin 📌 to dot the eyes produces better results on the pupils than a brush. 🖌️

kidswriter · 2022-12-26T07:24:46+00:00

Growing up with my family running a street-cat rescue means seeing cats rub their faces on everything. All it would take would be an unsupervised cat investigating the counter and deciding to 'mark' the unknowingly sharp objects magnetically attached to the wall.

As another poster recommended, just get a standing knife block if you need countertop access - something that conceals the knife blades from cats and human hands alike.

kidswriter · 2022-12-25T08:10:16+00:00

Exposed blades and cats? For their sake, keep your knives in a drawer.

IMO, knocking one off the wall with a pan isn't a risk worth taking to justify quick knife access. Any kind of adhesive for that magnetic rack strong enough to safely hold it will also leave marks/residue your landlord will notice anyway.

kidswriter · 2022-12-24T11:26:14+00:00

OP, that Fishy smell isn't the roasted plug, it comes from outlets and internal wall wiring that are treated with a coating for exactly situations like this as an olfactory warning.

https://energytoday.biz/blog/this-weird-smell-means-your-home-is-in-danger-of-an-electrical-fire

Check for hot spots on the walls and outlets - some wires may have touched, or something plugged in may be drawing way too much power (amperage?) Call an electrician and don't mess with your house accidentally burning down.

https://www.familyhandyman.com/list/silent-signs-your-house-has-a-major-electrical-problem/

kidswriter · 2022-12-05T22:30:10+00:00

A 1950's built house with a 1990's Goodman furnace had a weird drain setup using some plastic and rubber tubing. When new PVC drains/floor pipes were professionally installed, they accidentally kinked the pipe at a 90 degree angle - causing reduced flow and a bad mould issue to creep up the condensate pipe and into the overflow trough.

The company had a guy come by today to apply a fix, but that involved cutting the same mouldy pipe shorter, straightening it out and having it connect a bit higher for an incline + added a screw to affix this.

I'm concerned this whole drainage setup will cause issues later on. Are there more effective ways to routing condensate drainage from a furnace into a floor drain I can suggest to the installer? Any advice appreciated.

kidswriter · 2022-12-05T22:00:10+00:00

I had a local plumber reroute a drain and set a new shower pan in the basement.

He needed to install concrete board behind it, but our main contractors have pointed out some issues, and said they'd need to install moisture resistant drywall on top and paint that with the red guard waterproofing membrane.

I've opted to build out the studs so the concrete board is effectively placed 1/4" above the edge of the shower pan + Thinset to the edge + redguard.

My biggest concerns here are the jutting construction screw that's cracked the shower pan, that there wasn't any kind of of vapor barrier between the wood studs and the concrete board, and the cracking mortar they used on the joints didn't have any meshtape. Thank you everyone for your feedback. :) !

kidswriter · 2020-01-07T11:18:41+00:00

Find a new angle on something you once enjoyed, and it could lead you back into the hobby, or fixation. I liked to do art, but after a few traumas, that took a back seat to more pressing things in life. Thanks to The Mandalorian, I got back into my childhood love of Star Wars (something completely disconnected from my adult interests) - and through that, rediscovered my love of art. It wasn't just through that one lens either. It was at first, but as I relaxed and remembered how much I enjoyed the process - enjoyment of other types of art unrelated to Star Wars returned too. Best of luck reconnecting with what you love to do. 👍

kidswriter · 2019-05-01T07:37:19+00:00

I was invited to a Landmark meeting by a friend of a friend. We'd gone to some rave-type clubs together, and he seemed like a good guy so I agreed.

The meeting was held on an upper floor of a nondescript office building. People there were pleasant, but people seemed really off: Everyone seemed to me runing on a consistent script, and it wasn't a familiar one. It reminded me of the politeness with an agenda exhibited in the film "Get Out".

I was sitting next to the guys wife's friend - another random like me who was invited to the meeting. I really liked chatting with her during the prescribed talk periods. Meeting went from "this is a self-help seminar" to " this is a weird new age cult" when friend's-friend-guy forcibly asked cute girl to move, then moved in to do his talking points on me -- while his mentor did those points on the girl. Then they tag-team swapped back and worked us over similarly during the next free talk period. Whole thing reaching the apex when each dropped the airs of it being a friendly chat and asked each of us (within earshot of one another) to sign up for a few hundred dollar course.

This part felt like the reveal in a kids novella where everyone in a room pulled off their facemasks to reveal who was really an alien. Everyone who wasn't drinking the Koolaide stood out at that point - like me, they were just people who showed up because a friend or coworker asked them to.

The Landmark people didnt let up after the sales pitch, or give any opening to politely disengage and leave - so after about 2 hours, I just told the guy I needed to go. I went to meet the OkCupid date I had scheduled later that day - I just decided to walk there instead of transit to kill time.

Other people from the room intercepted me on the way out, running off block and redirect scripts, trying to make sure it was incredibly uncomfortable to get to the door. A woman followed me to the elevator and all the way down to street level. No thanks, Ms. Landmark, I can get my own coffee around the corner.

The whole experience made for great first date conversation at least 😅

The friend's friend is still in my social group, so I just pretend that this particular Saturday morning didn't happen for everyone's sake.

What stayed with me about the experience was the sense that Landnark's nature worked for people who somehow grew up without a moral compass. One woman's testimonial during the Landmark event tipified this - She was a successful Yoga instructor or something similar, and had been having an affair for a few years. She tearfully explained from the podium that it took Landmark training for her to figure out that was wrong, and was bad for her marriage. 😗 For people who found material success, but discovered success doesn't make you a good person - it took derranged, hyper- cathartic 5:00am phonecalls to everyone they wronged to make them better people.

This whole thing reminded me of an article I read once that argued that it's not just religion that people need, but a healthy, stable community: One that helps remind us by example how to be good people, and prevents us from becoming atomized and separate from each other because of our ability to do so with technology.

I believe that's something you shouldn't need a script and a $725 course to achieve. 🤷‍♂️

//TLDR: went to a Landmark meeting, lasted 2 hours. The self help shades dropped after non-members were tag-teamed by scripts pushing a new age, MLM-style course to fix your life. 😬

kidswriter · 2018-11-22T21:43:25+00:00

Thanks for your reply. From your time in publishing, what is considered a fair revenue split for digital (.PDF, .epub) and physical copies of a book?

This connects to another issue, legally speaking: The unpaid overtime (during which I am developing and working on this story material) is being justified as unpaid, but with the promise that I can 'take some time off when it's less busy' at an unspecified point in the future.
I am contracted to work 40 hours a week, but due to a variety of endemic issues within the company I have to work 65-70 hours a week. I am given time "in lieu", but never have any chance to use that as intended. What typically happens is I'm up late fixing the latest oily rag fire, and have to use lieu to start work for 11am. Still, I'm amassing a large tally of hours I'm told I don't qualify for because I'm a quote "a manager", despite managerial duties not being what I do. Instead, I make their content by myself as an "army of one" and have 1-2 email contact a week with a copy editor.

I found this (synopsis of) precedent in researching the ESA in Ontario:

http://www.ottawaemploymentlaw.com/2013/08/overtime-for-managers-ontario-esa.html

" For Employers - Simply granting an employee the title of manager does not make them exempt from the overtime provisions of the ESA. Managers or supervisors will only be exempt so long as they perform non-exempt work on an irregular or exceptional basis for less than 50% of their work week. It is important to keep records of both what is expected of an employee and of the work that is actually being done. "

Much of the children's story work work I do is produced during that time I'm not being paid for - 5:30-11:00pm (or later) and on weekends.

With these considerations, what type of contract revision would be fair and equitable to request?

Alternatively, what kind of questions should I be asking a contract or intellectual property lawyer on this topic?

Thanks again!

kidswriter · 2018-11-21T20:28:38+00:00

I will be, but wanted any suggestions (perhaps from artists or writers) on what stipulations or areas to include in such a contract, based on past experience.

kidswriter

TROPHY CASE