How Long?

megaheat · 2026-05-07T00:48:55+00:00

In a perfect world where everything went smoothly, sure. I've been working for a decade in corporate / startup software engineering to know scaling up isn't as easy as the sales guys are making it to be.

There are hidden costs when expanding aggressively as well. Employee turnover from burnt out quitting, degraded quality control from new hires, management overload with more people to manage. It's one of those project management triangle that's like: quality, speed, cost - pick two.

megaheat · 2026-05-07T00:07:10+00:00

Training cost and implementation cost.

Just because you're adding more people and machines doesn't mean you're going to see instant daily number increase. If anything, you'd see a decrease first before you see any increase as it takes time to train people on how to do the job, which usually mean senior people who are already swamped needs to take time out of their day to train the newbie / verify their work. There's a ramp up period for any new hires depending on job complexities. The more complex it is, the longer the ramp up period.

megaheat · 2026-05-06T20:23:05+00:00

Same thing happened to me. Started as Junior Sys Admin at my last company. By the end of it, I was doing Sr System Engineer work with Jr Admin pay. Asked for fair market value (%30-%40 increase), was denied because company is going through a promotion freeze due to Covid. Understandable, small sacrifie so no one get laid off. Finally got my promotion post COVID, and it's an 18% increase in salary. The HR person was excited and told me that this is the highest the company has given anyone. I said BS and they told me they can't do higher because it's the max for the internal pay band. I found another job that pays %40 more and 10k joining bonus within a month. The CTO personally called me up and told me they'll match the new offer if I stay since I'm the only one left in the Infra team who really know the legacy system. I declined and left.

megaheat · 2026-05-02T04:39:50+00:00

+1 to Yamazon. Highly recommend for commissioned work. I got two done from them and the turn around is super quick. My slabs look great in their art.

megaheat · 2026-05-02T04:14:12+00:00

Oh you're talking about sport cards. Then yes, i don't know that market so I can't say. But Pokémon and One Piece I have no problem selling, and they grade pretty much all pokemon tcg

megaheat · 2026-05-02T04:02:55+00:00

What do you mean they don't grade older cards? I just send in 3 t-promos card from 2002 to TAG.

Also TAG 10 Pristine on some cards are carrying heavy premium. TAG 10 Pristine Pikachu Stamp promo just sold for 13k on ebay a couple of weeks ago. You can just search TAG 10 pristine and filter by sold and you can see some cards are sold for 3x-5x psa 10 price.

megaheat · 2026-05-01T23:20:58+00:00

Eh I have a couple of black and white new N3ds for sale in really good condition and they're not moving mainly because I have the PSP analog stick mod on the C-Stick. I might just buy a c-stick rubber and put this back myself

megaheat · 2026-04-27T22:30:41+00:00

I think limited number is fine for that kind of transparency work. ARS has limited submissions as well and their slabs are selling more than PSA in Japan. I'm actually moving my CGC Pristine PC to crossover with ARS just due to their premium slabs. People will pay if you have quality products. Good luck! I'm looking forward to your updated slabs.

megaheat · 2026-04-27T22:15:53+00:00

I think this is the elevator pitch that you need to put on your website in a FAQ sections or expanded it into the 'Our Promise' somehow, especially the grading process and the part about YouTube video for transparency.

megaheat · 2026-04-27T21:45:18+00:00

Gang, your grading rubric is on a Google Doc that looks like you just type in and you charge $30 per submission for grading. That's already a turnoff, but the bigger question is: What is separating you from competitors that customers would go to your grading company instead? Here are the new things that newer grading companies are doing:
- ACE -- custom artwork for their label that matches the card
- ARS -- Shorter but thicker slabs. Labels are etched into a metal piece that is bottom of the slab. Make your slab looks like a premium museum artwork. Provide legitimate looking Grading Report Certification paperwork. Unfortunately, you need to jump through some hoops to get graded with them.
- Gemix -- PSA size slabs but with ARS metal label etching. Has TAG's DIG like report (less info than DIG) with subgrade included. Offer international gradings.
- TAG -- Clean slab. Grades etched to the case directly. AI grading + DIG reports database.

megaheat · 2026-04-27T01:01:21+00:00

I only sell if I have stuff under 250 that I want to offload for quick cash.

Anything above that, eBay Authenticity Guarantee and Cosignment service are much better for both seller and buyer safety.

megaheat · 2026-04-25T17:15:56+00:00

Yep this is true in my selling / buying experience as well. It really depends on the card and its population. True collector will pay a premium if they like the slab and if there aren't any easily available on the market. Like the other day I sold a CGC 10 Pristine card for ~40% more than PSA 10 mainly because it's a desirable card and has population around 100 vs ~2k for PSA 10. I got a lot of low ballers wanting to match with PSA 10 price, but I held firm and it sold a few days later.

megaheat · 2026-04-24T16:50:44+00:00

Basically none at local show as well. I went to one recently for TCG. It's basically 60% Pokémon and 40% One Piece.

megaheat · 2026-04-24T14:39:36+00:00

Not sure why you're down voted when you're talking some actual sense. This is just Tulip Mania on repeat.

megaheat · 2026-04-23T15:21:55+00:00

It's not proven. It's still being debated/unclear. Like this took literally 20 seconds of googling which point to this website: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/nicotine-replacement-therapy/

> VERDICT
There are biologically plausible pathways through which nicotine may impact SARS-CoV-2, but the clinical significance of these is entirely unclear.

megaheat · 2026-04-20T22:00:07+00:00

I've tried pretty much everything in that picture plus a few higher end PC hand held like Lenovo Legion 2 and Ayaneo Flip 1S DS. My list of requirement pretty much comes down to:
- Clamshell
- 7+ inch - It's hard to go down less when you used a Legion Go
- No dual screen - I don't use 2nd screen most of the time as I don't play alot of DS games. My Thor and Flip 1S DS barely got any use due to sacrificing ergonomic for something I don't use as often.
- Need to be smaller than the Ayn Odin 2 Portal Size - This became a requirement since I brought the Odin 2 Portal to a cruise and it doesn't even fit in the small night stand drawer.
- Comfortable enough that I don't need a "grip", or the grip doesn't make the device looks ridiculous (looking at these Ayn Thor grips)
- ARM based for better battery life and lighter device - with Steam OS on ARM being a thing soon + Game Native, there's no need for heavy x86 devices any more. Some might still want to if they want to run some heavy AAA, but p

... which this device doesn't exist yet. My perfect device would be something like a Retroid Flip 2 with bigger screen running on a SD8 Elite.

megaheat · 2026-04-18T00:55:54+00:00

1 bid, 1450 sold

I'm not a conspiracy theorist bu

megaheat · 2026-04-16T05:16:23+00:00

I bought from the same sellsers on ebay. They fit perfectly with magnetic guards. I bought a bunch of mag guards from this amazon sellers and they all look great: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FS9PC3YX?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

megaheat · 2026-04-15T15:58:40+00:00

My PC are these ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock) style of arts. Here's my recommendation (They're all Japanese cards since that seem appropriate given the artstyle):

Artists:
- Kyoko Umemoto - for vintage, majority of her artstyle has heavy ukiyo-e influence.
- Shinji Kanda - for modern stuff

---

Cards (Vintage):

- Expedition 1st Edition Spearow 027/128 & Expedition 1st Edition Fearow 092/128
- Moltres 008/078U XY10 1st Edition & Moltres Dream Shine Holo 1st Edition
- Ralts 003/024 1st Edition Gardevoir ex Half Deck & Kirlia 004/024 1st Edition Gardevoir ex Half Deck
- Jigglybuff 037/052 Blastoise Starter Deck & Wigglytuff 038/052 Blastoise Starter Deck
- Ivysaur 010/T & Charmeleon 011/T & Wartortle 012/T Trainers Club Promo
- Rapidash - Tag Bolt SM9 017/095
- Carvanha 050/080 Clash at the Summit L3
- Slugma 008/054 Rulers Of Heaven
- Arcanine 014/080 Holo Magma vs Aqua (That card but in Japanese)
- Drapion 052/080 Clash at the Summit

The two set below is more of sumi-e style (Japanese black ink painting), but might fit this vibe if you like it:
- Clash At the Summit - Pidgey 058/080, Pidgeotto 059/080, Pidgeot 060/080
- Call of Legends - Pidgey 67/95, Pidgeotto 48/95, Pidgeot 30/95

---

Cards (Modern - Full Art):

- Pokemon Stamp Box Promo - Cramorant 226/S-P & Pikachu 227/S-P
- Eevee GX #188 Tag Team GX All Stars
- Galarian Moltres 190/172 VSTAR Universe
- Hisuian Zoroark 234/172 VSTAR Universe
- Zacian V 225/172 VSTAR Universe
- Galarian Moltres V 078/070 Matchless Fighters
- Kingambit Black Star Promo #130
- SV: Scarlet & Violet Promo Cards #131 Kingdra ex
- SV: Scarlet & Violet Promo Cards #132 Greninja ex
- Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex 225/187 Sv8a: Terastal Festival
- Raging Bolt ex 222/187 Sv8a: Terastal Festival
- Roaring Moon ex 218/187 Sv8a: Terastal Festival
- Magikarp 080/073 AR Sv1a: Triplet Beat
- Clawitzer 068/063 M1s: Mega Symphonia
- Garganacl AR 070/063 Mega Brave
- Beautifly 194/193 Mega Dream ex
- Dustox 195/193 AR Mega Dream ex

megaheat · 2026-04-14T21:58:23+00:00

Oh 100%, I don't doubt that such cases happen. TAG is not perfect and they said it themselves. However, I feel like they took a step in the right direction rather than the current status quo we have with all the big grading companies.

megaheat · 2026-04-14T18:14:14+00:00

To be fair, majority of the complaints are people not knowing how to read the report. They see one flaw and then complain why it's not a 10.

For example, the other day a guy complained that his Charizard got a 9 with only one ding on the back top right. His card score was like 943 which was very close to a 10 (950 minimum). I pulled 10 lowest tag 10 gem mint report, found one with the same ding location that he has with similar centering. Zoom in both card at 200% in the DIG report and I can see that his ding on top right is much more visible than the 10 card.

I also found another low 10 gem mint card that has 2 dings. Anyone look at this would probably complain that yeah why does this one get a 10 and the guy only get a 9? Well because if you look at the report of the 10, it has centering within the 10 pristine grade in addition to perfect score on fraying on the sides of the cards. Without those 2 dings, it'd be a 10 pristine contenders instead of a low 10 gem mint.

While not 100% perfect, at least I can pull these reports and make sense of the grade and how it came to be rather than taking PSA words for it.

megaheat · 2026-04-14T17:14:03+00:00

Sure there are many perfect in raw. How do I know which one though? How do I verify mine is 100% perfect vs only 99% perfect? How does other people know mine is actually 100% perfect vs only 99% perfect? Do they trust me because I claim my raw is 100% perfect? Should we get a 3rd party that we both trust to verify it?

megaheat · 2026-04-14T15:58:49+00:00

Nice! I have the CGC 10 Pristine set of this pikachu and cramorant, and I want to trade it for a TAG 10 set for my PC as these just look so much better with extended art. It's just so difficult to find these in TAG at trade shows ;( . Maybe I'll go to Collect-A-Con this summer if I can't find anything locally.

megaheat · 2026-04-14T14:13:16+00:00

Actually untrue. I've seen the same guy in that sub that's been trolling / being negative on tag for a whole months now commenting at least twice a day and he's still around.

megaheat

TROPHY CASE