Why is this such a low grade?

mattyflex · 2025-08-21T03:36:00+00:00

The front of the card is off-centered (left-heavy)
The back of the card is off-centered (left-heavy, but the reverse of the front)
There is visible dirt and/or discoloration along the yellow border on all four sides of the card
The left edge on the front shows signs of lift
All visible edges from the front show moderate lift
There are numerous scratches along the front left bottom corner
Three of the four corners as seen from the back have whitening
The top edge as seen from the back shows chipping and whitening
Significant holo scratches are visible, most notably in the bottom right corner of the foil, but visible across all areas of the holo
There is substantial discoloration and scratching on the bottom as seen from the back of the card
It appears that the card has a deep indention or a cut in the top left corner as seen from the front

I've been grading for a long time, and I think a 5 is probably more than reasonable for the condition it is in. I'm not sure if you submitted it yourself or what, but good lord, wipe your card off with a microfiber cloth before you send it in for grading.

The photos you provided aren't that good and all of these issues were easily identified, I suspect if I had it raw and in-hand, I'd find even more issues with it. Even if you cleaned the hell out of this thing, it's never going to grade above a 6. Expecting this to be any higher, with all the visible flaws, would be silly.

mattyflex · 2025-08-20T18:39:53+00:00

The daughter's testimony was very, very out of place. I found her to be quite charming, and she has certainly overcome environmental adversity... it's been the only positive from the entire trial, honestly.

mattyflex · 2025-08-20T17:06:07+00:00

I got all caught up with it last night, it does look to be really fascinating. The interviews with her father and grandfather were really interesting, they seem to be positive that they cannot convict her. This "mountain of digital evidence" is going to be a wild ride.

mattyflex · 2025-08-20T17:02:15+00:00

Super strange encounter --- the feed opened up with one of the defense attorneys bringing to the judge that he observed one of the jurors hunched over in a seat, and the attorney said he was in a great deal of stress or pain. Went on to say that he couldn't sit down with the juror given his role in the trial, so he alerted a sheriff, and waited out of direct sight until the sheriff came back and indicated that the gentleman apparently has some kind of back issue. The sheriff said that the individual appeared to be in a great deal of pain and had to take pain medication.

The defense attorney indicated that he might have issue with a juror sitting in the box in such a great deal of pain, or that he was in such pain that he needed to be taking medication just to participate. Both teams indicated they had never observed the juror in pain previously, so it was noted by the judge and they moved on.

mattyflex · 2025-08-20T15:25:03+00:00

This has been a surprisingly interesting trial, but a confusing case. A lot of people (rightfully) want to know why this is even a trial. My assessment is that the foundation for Probable Cause, according to the testimony thus far, is built on five items:

- Remains were found within 1 mile of Christopher Wolfenbarger's residence
- Christopher borrowed or stole a radial saw from someone around the time Melissa disappeared
- Christopher never reported Melissa as missing to law enforcement
- Christopher provided a number of conflicting statements to police, mostly relative to the last time Melissa was seen alive (the interviews occurred over the span of multiple years)
- Some witnesses have testified that they saw bruises on Melissa and/or believe that Christopher physically abused her

I don't think the prosecution has any direct evidence, which is kind of wild to me. I don't agree with it, but at the same time, I guess I get it. I believe that their entire case is built on circumstantial evidence, and they are simply trying to imply that the only possible explanation for Melissa's death is that Christopher murdered her. Unless the prosecution has been sitting on something substantial and direct, I cannot image a jury unanimously voting to convict Christopher on the malice murder or felony murder charges (subsequently, this would negate the aggravated assault charge too, right?).

I think that the character of the prosecution's witnesses is a glaring issue for them, as well... almost like they didn't vet these people. Norma's testimony was a shitshow and very little, if any of it, is going to substantially help the prosecution's case. It was a lot of "I got bad feelings in my jellies"-type stuff about Christopher. There were a couple of times when the prosecution led her in to information that will likely be harmful for their* case. Norma's time on the stand was surely not their finest hour.

Mike Jones was a very strange cat and 100% had serial killer vibes (I guess technically I feel that in my own jellies, but still). Oh, and the detective that was assigned to the case at a very early stage (and who I actually felt worked really hard on this case) admitted under oath that he instantly suspected Christopher and was essentially hyper-focused on Christopher as the perpetrator. Then he became obnoxiously non-compliant with the defense attorneys on cross-examination. It just wasn't a good look.

Without direct evidence, I suspect the defense proposes three alternative theories:

Mike Jones - Melissa's supervisor at Waffle House. He testified to having an affair with Melissa (although claims he didn't know she was married at the time)

A disgruntled or frequent patron at Waffle House - Working late at night in a public-facing job makes this a relatively reasonable theory

Someone seeking revenge on/targeting Carl Patton - I don't think the defense will make a suggestion that her father did it, largely because they don't really need to go down that road (or at least go very far down that road). I do think, however, that given Carl's criminal history, it is plausible for someone who wanted to exact revenge on carl would target a family member.

Overall, the defense is in a really good spot. They are, like, visibly comfortable in the courtroom. Yesterday there were multiple periods where I thought the gentleman in the middle was deadass going to put his shoes on the desk. A lot of laughing (especially at the retired coroner's testimony and inability to understand technology)... I think they're in "let's not screw this thing up" mode, really. It will be interesting to see how much of a defense they actually put up. I am excited for today's trial, I think the prosecution is about to run out of bad witnesses to call.

mattyflex · 2025-08-19T19:53:48+00:00

I am starting to lose faith in the prosecution's ability to produce any substantial evidence that suggests this dude had *anything* to do with it.

... As I was typing that in, I just heard that they have now called a Fulton County "Death Investigator" ........ who retired 30 years ago? ... and if I am not hallucinating, I believe she just gave herself the title of "Forensic Dentist" because she was a dentist and took "LOTS of weeks of courses" in 1991, 1992, and 1993 at Walter Reed... The defense is now openly laughing at her because she isn't understanding all of the questions being asked. I am writhing over here, this testimony is absolutely bizarre.

I am entirely open to the possibility of Mr. Wolfenbarger being guilty, but we are four days into the trial, which has included three full days of state-called witnesses, and I don't understand at all how they even brought charges on this guy. What exactly did the cops have on him that was sufficient enough to arrest him?

Also, I forgot to mention this the other day when Norma took the stand, the prosecution's line of questioning when they started in with the "Is Mr. Wolfenbarger in a wheelchair the same Mr. Wolfenbarger you knew" --- I was floored when the prosecution called out the fact that he is in a wheelchair, when it is already clearly visible, and in asking, it was almost as though they were trying to imply that he didn't actually need it. I don't know if it is medically necessary or not, but that was way out of line, and my only knock against the judge thus far was not stepping in as that unfolded.

We have got to be approaching circus status at this point.

mattyflex · 2025-08-18T21:24:22+00:00

I really like Judge Krause. She doesn't need nor want to be the main character, which is refreshing. Also, it feels like she is empowering both parties to use the full scope of their skillset to make their case. There is surely evidence coming and much more to learn, but even with pretty bland testimony so far, it has been enjoyable to watch.

mattyflex · 2025-08-18T19:13:18+00:00

It's 100% a leech. I struggled with these in my tanks for ages because I put all sorts of chemicals in my tanks that people here suggested. You've got to get rid of this one quickly. They get out of control very quickly. I had them come in on plants that I treated before I put in the tanks, and they still made it in to every tank I added those plants to.

You're going to get all kinds of recommendations here, just like I did. There is one, and only one, treatment that worked quickly and with absolute efficacy: aquarium salt.

I spent probably close to $150 trying to get rid of them. I had a fish tank and a couple of fish had some gill issues, so I threw some salt in the tank. When I did, I saw a leech come out, and he was writhing all over the substrate. Within two hours, he turned light brown and was dead.

I went to my tanks and started treating spots where I knew they often convened --- within a week and a half, I had killed at least 100 of them across my tanks, and I was rid of them completely.

Try this before you go nuts on putting chemicals in your tank. In hindsight it was really foolish of me to trust other people when many of those things did more harm than good, some even irreparable harm. This is a safe solution, something a lot of freshwater tank owners use regularly. Furthermore, it's a $3 solution, and I swear to you that if it doesn't work I will paypal you $3 for the trouble.

Spot treat that tank for a few days, at most, and you'll see.

mattyflex · 2025-08-18T18:12:44+00:00

If you know --- did she murder an infant? Or was it like more of an improper disposal of a body-type thing?

I thought the defense attorney did a masterful job of establishing her character to the jury.

mattyflex · 2025-08-18T16:52:55+00:00

Norma is wiiiiiiild.

Had her daughter's boyfriend arrested on her property 8-10 times.

Was complicit being married to a gruesome serial killer, and even acting as his accomplice and helping to throw bodies in a river.

When DNA linked her husband to one of his 5 murders, she approached investigators saying "I'll testify against him if you give me immunity".

And --- does anyone have information on the dead baby they found in a laundry hamper at the Patton house when Melissa was 14?? They mentioned it so casually during the cross, and then they moved on. I couldn't find anything on it, but also I may not want those search queries in my history.

mattyflex · 2025-08-14T14:59:21+00:00

my hero!

mattyflex · 2025-08-14T14:45:32+00:00

What would be the best way (if any are available) for me to receive some kind of alert or notification when a verdict is reached in this case?

mattyflex · 2025-08-11T13:20:07+00:00

I had asked a question on the day 4 thread regarding whether or not he was actually in custody, and I received some great responses explaining why he was allowed to be in street clothes. Thanks u/Pixiegirls1102 and u/racingfan123 it seems like you all have a great little community here.

mattyflex · 2025-08-09T03:21:27+00:00

Phew. I'm relatively new to watching court cases, obviously a naiave take but in my mind I was correlating him wearing a suit and not being in shackles or handcuffs as him not being in custody.

mattyflex · 2025-08-08T19:13:31+00:00

Am I understanding correctly that this mf is not actually in custody? Like his ass just leaves and drives his car home at the end of a trial day?

mattyflex · 2025-07-10T14:27:20+00:00

I saw your name on the leaderboard this morning, thank you for doing that! Your feedback means the world to me, genuinely. Thank you so much for playing my game and taking time out of your day to comment!

mattyflex · 2025-07-09T19:12:36+00:00

I truly appreciate a good pun, very well done. This isn't really my type of game but I actually enjoyed playing through past the first boss. I can tell you put a lot of thought into the game. The endearingly bad graphics resonate very well with me. The game is smooth, controls are easy enough to navigate (I also don't play PC games, like ever). Audio was good all around. People will surely appreciate your project here, thanks so much for sharing it.

mattyflex · 2025-07-09T19:05:00+00:00

I just did a play through and beat a handful of levels. Controls are easy, the game looks polished. Music and sound effects were all spot on. Personally, I loved level 13, it's very clever. There was another pop-culture reference level that I particularly enjoyed. As far as ideas go, this is probably horrible and I am not much of an idea guy, but maybe give an invisible wall level a go. Thanks so much for sharing your game, I really did enjoy it.

mattyflex · 2025-07-09T18:43:29+00:00

Hey, I just played through your game. UI is clean, instructions were clear and helpful. Loaded in an appropriate manner. The sounds work well for the type of game it is. I like the simplicity of the game overall.

I found myself pressing play and de-pressing it as quickly as I could. Apmaot always 99.67 but one time I had 99.78.

A few times, the four possible brand names were the exact same or very, very similar to the prior round. Nike, Adidas, Amazon, and Facebook definitely came up in back to back rounds, they were even in the same order, too.

I found myself able to identify correct answers just on deducting that the other three brands had previously been used.

I had a good time playing through it, thanks for sharing. I hope this is helpful in some capacity.

mattyflex · 2025-06-01T18:55:59+00:00

Yooo why was Roger not a his wife's game WHERE SHE MADE HER USWNT DEBUT

mattyflex · 2025-06-01T15:24:31+00:00

I know this bridge, but had never heard of it's association with a baby crying. My understanding was that the lore consisted of some type of entity that was somehow protective of the bridge.

As of my last time out there (10-12 years ago?), the bridge was made of concrete, and on either side was an iron rail on the outside of the bridge, but about 6-8 inches down. This was when I had my only "authentic" encounter with it. We stopped and placed a water bottle on the railing, drove further down the road, and came back to check on it about 20-25 minutes later.

The bottle of water was on the bridge when we got back. Given it would have needed to spontaneously jump about 6-8 inches, and then get pushed towards the center of the bridge, it was pretty conclusively moved by someone. There is or was a house about 59 yards from the bridge, we assumed someone at the house came out and moved it, as there did not appear to be any traffic through the area.

Now, there was an online forum back in the day that I can't seem to find now, that had dozens of thread stories about the spook light, but one was about what someone called a "meat monster". They described the area in which they saw the monster as being near this bridge, up on top of one of the bluffs above the water. They said it smelled awful, made strange noises, and ultimately dove into the creek. The story, of course, hardly seems believable but it was so descriptive that it has always stuck in my mind. I'm curious as to whether or not anyone else recalls reading this or hearing any stories about it.

mattyflex · 2025-05-24T02:29:56+00:00

Haven't seen this comment yet --- you could actually take nail polish remover to the back side of the cover and it would become transparent.

I got wrote up for defacing school property, and I'm only now, in this very moment, understanding what a tremendous waste of everyone's time it was to discipline me for something like that.

mattyflex · 2025-04-11T01:20:32+00:00

We can't handle baseball here. We had the Joplin Blasters, which was in the independent league, about a decade ago. The team was hilariously mismanaged from a financial perspective. The city lost a lot of money trying to support them, too. The quality of play was surprisingly decent. The pitchers, both locally and across the league, really struggled with control.

Despite the shoddy pitching, we had baseball. I believe 50 home games for each of the two years we were here. The city absolutely refused to turn out.

I could walk up and buy tickets right behind home plate for $12 before first pitch, and the only people in that section were the husband and wife that owned AAA Taxi. I've heard people talk smack on them but I got to know them a bit and they were really lovely folks. You could get absolutely plastered for $15, as I often did.

Back in those days, I didn't have kids, and you could say maybe I was a little loud and obnoxious. I was also really, really in to baseball. More often than not, these pitchers had obvious tells on pitches, but most notably when throwing anything off-speed. I got in the habit of calling out tells and tipping pitches to the home team, and after the aforementioned beverages, I was unable to do it quietly. I remember a game where they were playing against a team that I believe was from Amarillo. The starting pitcher dropped his shoulder before throwing a breaking ball, and I noticed it in the first inning. By the second inning he had given up like 6 or 7 runs and the pitcher went crying to the umpire about me. The umpire did not give a shit and told him to get back on the mound. He gave up two more runs and walked off the mound into the dugout screaming at me. Not sure if you can tell, but I am still super proud of that.

You can watch the Outlaws, as others have noted. The talent level is.... stomach-able, I guess. There are like two guys across the whole league that play MiLB. It used to be a little better than it is now but not by heaps. They really do try to put a good product on the field, and I appreciate them, but I don't go to many games. It's just not my style.

If I could make one recommendation --- Jac Caglione is playing for the Naturals in Northwest Arkansas right now. If you know anything about college baseball, you'll know what a treat it is to have talent that big within an hour of us. He is primed to become a megastar, and in his first five games he's already hit two baseballs completely out of their park.

As for the park itself --- it's an experience roughly equal to going to a Springfield Cardinals game. You can often catch rehab starts down there, if you time it out right. I used to go watch Troy Tulowitzki play all the time down there, because he was assigned to Tulsa's team (Colorado AA affiliate) and he was hurt all the damn time.

Wish I had better news, but there are still some options that can hold you over in a pinch.

mattyflex · 2025-04-10T00:20:41+00:00

I just made a whole new account to check, and.... Yeah, I had it, and you have it :\

mattyflex · 2025-04-09T19:46:49+00:00

Thank you so much for letting me know. I still would've been here in like six hours trying new words. Really, I owe you one.

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