E4 Collector Stories 2020 (POST HERE)

General
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Roots

link above

I grew up a very modest kid. My mother didn’t have a lot of money, but worked very hard working multiple jobs to pay the bills. She also brought us camping every summer to a beautiful campground called Whispering Pines. I have so many fond memories making friends, roasting marshmallows, fishing, and simply enjoying time with my family.
At the end of summer I went back to school, and everyone was talking about Pokemon. Luckily my birthday is October 17th. All my friends had a gameboy with their link cords at school with either Pokemon Red or Blue. I wanted one so bad! I spent hours watching my friend play his playthrough and wished I could make the choices of which moves to keep. I also really wanted to make my own Pokemon team of six so bad. I imagined what it would be like playing with bulbasaur, charmander, and squirtle from the start. So I asked my family to please pull together and get me Pokemon Red and a Gameboy.
My birthday came, and my family actually did it! They bought me Pokemon Red and my very first gameboy. It was black and white like everyone else’s for you young kids reading this haha. We also had a black and white TV. Fun times, but color TV and Gameboy would come years later. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to start my file. In the pile were five other small presents, and I thought it would be small items I wouldn’t care much about. I opened them to find out it was five first edition base set packs! I was so excited! My brother and sisters and even my mother really wanted to know what cards I would get. So I proceeded to open them. At the end of the first pack was a beautiful Zapdos that I already knew was a Legendary Pokemon. The second pack had a holo Raichu which was already one of my favorite pokemon. The excitement built as I continued opening, but the third pack didn’t have a holo which was a major disappointment. In the next pack was my favorite pokemon Charizard! I jumped with joy and excitement! The last pack didn’t contain a holo again which disappointed me. I didn’t know back then the pull rates were 1 in 3 packs had a holo. 3 of 5 was actually amazing lucky odds! And that’s where my collection originally began!

For my playthrough I used: Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Caterpie, Abra, and Magikarp. I eventually evolved all my pokemon and beat the game. Then I beat it over and over like everyone else haha. I ended up opening a few other first edition packs and I remember having the majority of the set in first edition. I did have some unlimited cards as well. I continued to collect Jungle and Fossil cards when those came out. I had those sets almost complete in first edition as well.
Years passed, and Pokemon was no longer popular. I remember going to see the first pokemon movie with all my friends, but now if you still liked pokemon you’re not kool. I stopped buying the packs, and watching the shows but I continued to play the video games. I hid my love of pokemon from my friends, but my love was fading fast for my once loved hobby. At one point after Pokemon Gold, Silver, Crystal era I stopped playing the games as well. We moved around a lot, and during one of the moves I lost my cards. No clue how it happened but I lost my collection of base set thru fossil of almost complete mint first edition cards. I didn’t even remember losing them until years later when I asked my family what happened to my collection.

Skip forward about twenty years. Now I’m 30 years old. I’m sitting back trying to find something to watch on Netflix when I stumble across Detective Pikachu. I immediately loved the graphics. The charizard looks like he is on steroids super beefed out! I also loved the graphics of the movie. At one point I really wanted to do graphic design for a living. Next I watched some youtube videos of the new pokemon cards. I love Smpratte’s videos because he doesn’t fake excitement, and is very knowledgeable about the hobby. I enjoy learning as much as I can about what I enjoy. Then I watched tons of pack openings by unlisted leaf and Leonhart which made me want to open packs, This is when my curiosity kicked in and I made a series of mistakes.
Opened thousands of dollars worth of modern packs 2. Bought two collections off facebook marketplace one never showed and the other collection came but the seller took out tons of good cards he had pictured. Original deal was 150 holo’s or better for $150 I ended up receiving maybe 20 or so. 3. Start collecting modern cards before collecting wotc sets 4. Got obsessed with finishing collecting goals 5. Used Top Loaders i bought maybe a thousand or close to it top loaders I have sitting in a bag for no reason most even marked with a marker to indicate what card was originally inside said top loader.

Now that my mistakes are out of the way this is what I accomplished once I started on the right path. I Collected every rainbow rare and gold card from sun and moon as well as a complete master set of hidden fates. Base set unlimited Holo’s, 1st edition Jungle holo’s, 1st edition fossil holo’s, 1st edition Team Rocket Holo’s, 1st edition Gym Heroes and Challenge, 1st edition Neo Genesis Holo’s, 1st edition Neo Discovery Holo’s, 1st edition Neo Rev Holo’s, 1st edition Neo Destiny Holo’s, 1st edition Shinings, all Crystal Cards, All expedition Holos, and now I’m mid way on all ex cards from ex era.

Future goals inclue finishing ex era ex cards and possibly holo’s and gold stars. All level ex cards and primes from heart gold era. All full arts from Black and White thru X and Y. All Rainbow and Gold cards from Sword and Shield. And last but not least psa 7 1st edition base set holos. I also might complete all sets again in psa 7 or better. I never plan to sell my binder collection but if I do complete the psa sets I might sell those years later. Anyways I’m glad to be here and we learn from our mistakes, but I’m glad I rejoined the hobby :slight_smile:

Link above to my collection

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@mcorey777 great hearing your story and continuing to hear all the great things youve accomplished in this short time being back into collecting!!! Thanks for sharing that!!

@azulryu @thatpikachuguy @powolski Tagging you guys to for a heads up that the date was missed lol but id still love to see your stories! and @joer your on tabs for tomorrow!

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Thanks @dizzle24 and no problem it’s been quite the journey and brings me a lot of enjoyment :slight_smile: A lot of people missed their days and didn’t sign up. I like hearing other people’s experiences and mistakes along the way. @smpratte you should sign up or do a YouTube video. I’m sure a ton of people would love to hear how you originally got started. I seen some things mentioned but a good story would be great :slight_smile: @jcincy101 a lot of us watch your videos as well and would love to hear a good story or video from you as well :slight_smile:

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@queendrifloon @lamplamp @pkmnflyingmaster

Speaking on that @mcorey777, above i tagged the peeps who are up next here. Feel free for anyone to add and throw yours in if you missed and also remember this story can be anything related to you, the hobby, or just something that youd like to share in your journey of this all. Im always up to hear others input and would enjoy seeing this get more attention!

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I’ll throw my story up tomorrow afternoon, thanks for the reminder

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@lamplamp np!! look forward to reading it!! :blush:

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Totally forgot to check the date I had to post my story. If we do a new date, I’ll definitely reply.

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@gengarbrigade just do today or tomorrow or whenever you get time. This is just for fun and to hear some good stories. No one will be upset it’s late haha. We just want to hear from you and everyone that replies :slight_smile:

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Typing my story now. Will post shortly.

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Another talking point I’d like to hear a little from people are. What mistakes you made. And what you would have done with the money. I would have completed all gold stars or got a PSa 7 1st edition base set zard with all the mistakes I originally made haha. 2-3k worth of mistakes

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My story: (if you read this, thank you. This story is very sentimental to me)

I grew up in Carrollton, TX a suburb about 20 min or so away from Dallas. Just like every kid in America, Pokemon had just come out here in the states, and I literally remember like it was just yesterday.

I was riding the school bus back home, and this kid was showing me his cards. It literally just came out. I was drawn to it immediately. After looking at the few cards he had, he gifted me a Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur from Base Set. I barely knew him.

I remember watching the series everyday at 4:30pm right after school with my three younger sisters. We would all sprint down the block to the house and watch every episode.

I wanted to play the game so bad, so my mother took me to Target and she bought me Pokemon Red and a silver Gameboy Pocket. I remember playing it in front of the house and i was instantly the cool kid. Till this day, that is the most sentimental gift my mom has ever gotten me. Because I still hold that memory and remember it so vividly.

Here is where the story gets a little sad, but I am still searching for this guy. You’ll understand what I mean shortly;

My dad had a convenient store in a shopping plaza in Dallas, and so we practically grew up there. We weren’t rich by any means, but my family gave us the best childhood. In the plaza there was a store called Roy’s Newsstand. They told newspapers, magazines and the special Adult Section only 18+ could go to. While Roy owned the newsstand, his time was done and he sold the store to a guy named Pete. I didn’t really strike a relationship with Roy, but Pete, was a different story.

This is still 1999 and naturally, he started to carry Pokemon Base Set packs for $4.99. I remember my sisters and I would go in there and buy packs. Blastoise, Venusaur, Chansey, Hitmanchan, you name it, I pulled it from packs and I still have the original binder till this day.

While I don’t remember the many conversations we had, this one memory I still hold dear.

It was a random Saturday afternoon, and we hadn’t been down there for a bit. Pete came by and was talking to my Dad and Mom and he brought all four of us Japanese Base Set Packs. Every kid and adult wants to pull a Charizard; and I did. I remember the rush and joy holding it. I’ve had it in my binder for over 20 years and I recently graded it. I didn’t care what grade I got, I just wanted it graded. I got a PSA 7.

My dad near the end of owning the store for over 20 year started selling Base Set packs along with Jungle, Fossil and Rocket. We were getting older and Pokemon wasn’t as “cool” anymore.

My dad sold the store in 2003, and I was a Sophomore in High School. Pokemon was no longer the forefront of my mind. Just like every guy, girls started to appear and the cards ended up in the garage.

Flash Forward to 2019, I got back into it because of Pokemon Go and what I assumed was a dead franchise, was very much alive and well. I started collecting after seeing videos from Pratte, Radar and TCA. (Scott, John and Rusty)

The weirdest thing is I now work across the street (I work at a corporate office of a bank) from the plaza and it’s changed a lot, but still has some of the same stores.

Well while all those memories still mean more than anything in the world to me, I didn’t want to go across the street to the plaza. I made myself during the holidays last year and found the store. It no longer has anyone there and I peeked inside and it still has all of the magainze holdings. The store closed sometime in the early 2000 timeframe.

Till this day i’ve been trying to find the guy that shaped my childhood and gave my sisters packs, talked Pokemon, girls and just life.

I am now collecting anything I really like.

PSA 9 Skyridge Gengar
PSA 9 Skyridge Flareon
PSA 10 Japanese Dragonite Gameboyy Promo
PSA 10 Squirtle Base Set 1st Edition
PSA 10 Japanese Dark Charizard
PSA 9 Base Set Unlimited Raichu
PSA 9 Base Set Unlimited Mewtwo
PSA 10 Japanese Charizard CD Promo
PSA 9 Japanese Base Set Charizard
PSA 7 Japanese Base Set Charizard
PSA 9 Base Set Charizard Unlimited
PSA 9 Jolteon Gold Star
PSA 9 1998 Mew-Glossy CD Promo
PSA 9 Flareon 1st Edition Jungle
PSA 10 Jasmine Jolteon VS Series 1st Edition
Pikachu Gold Star signed by Fukuda (currently at PSA, thanks to Charlie)
Jolteon Pop Series 3 signed by Fukuda (currently at PSA, thanks to Charlie)
PSA 10 Japanese Topsun Jolteon Greenback
2x PSA 9 Pikachu 1st Edition Yellow Cheek
PSA 10 Jolteon Japanese Holon Research Tower 1st Edition
PSA 10 Dark Jolteon 1st Edition

and just picked up today thanks to Charlies help:

PSA 9 Champions Festival World Champions 2016

and a whole heap of raw mint cards from Base Set to Rocket.

I don’t regret anything. I’m just blessed to be back, own what I have, and be able to speak to a you lot I hope to meet at a future worlds one day.

Bless

-Said

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@gengarbrigade I loved your story. Glad you started collecting again and it’s funny how we all went thru the same things in high school. Also very glad you kept your collection. I really wish I didn’t lose mine but I have way more now than I did as a kid besides not having a 1st edition base zard anymore. Yet at least I’m sure I’ll eventually change that :slight_smile:

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Appreciate it! Lol I feel like it’s hit and miss who still has there’s. At least we’re adults and we can just outright buy what we want. If you want the 1st Edition Charizard, go and get it. It’s waiting for you :raised_hands:t4:

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@gengarbrigade , I can totally relate to the memories of a specific location/person ushering us into the hobby. You’ve just inspired me to script another video! Excellent work with your story by the way!

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Thanks man! @PokemonClassics Please do! I watched your video prior to writing and I was seriously amazed. I’m a filmmaker in the local art scene so trust me when I say your video was done with so much love. I can’t wait to watch as other one.

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What’s up my dudes, here’s my story:

Like many of us, I was born in the early 90’s and by the time I was in elementary school, Pokemon had exploded in popularity. The thing that stands out to me the most was how you could instantly make a connection with any other kid just by talking about Pokemon. Whether it was the Gameboy game, trading cards, or TV show, it was super easy to make friends simply because of Pokemon.

Fast forward to 2013, I was graduating from college and had just finished a summer internship, leaving me with a decent amount of discretionary income. I had kept up with Pokemon by playing the games and reading the Pokemon Adventures Manga but hadn’t purchased any cards since I was a kid. I went onto eBay and purchased a complete Unlimited Base Set in NM condition for about $120. From there I grabbed Unlimited Jungle + Fossil, a Mint 1st Ed Rocket Set for like $85, Unlimited Gym Heroes, Unlimited Gym Challenge. I debated stopping at Gym Challenge but got pulled into the Neo Sets by the beautiful artwork of Neo Discovery Espeon and Poliwrath. Picked up Unlimited Sets of Neo Genesis, Neo Discovery, Neo Revelation, and Neo Destiny.

Once I joined E4, I started my journey into graded cards. I’m glad that I purchased what I have when I did, if I had to purchase my collection all over again at today’s prices I wouldn’t be able to afford even half of it. Big shout out to all the awesome people on here, I really feel like I learned a lot once I became a member.

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@gengarbrigade, i really enjoyed the write up and thanks for the share! I can relate to a lot of it and its so telling hearing everyones sentimentality to a lot of parts of that hobby, wether it be a specific card or an individual that helped to breed a great joy within ones self. Its such a beautiful thing and i hope one day you do get to give back that gift to that person one day. But if you dont, just keep giving to others in that sort of sense jsut like he did for you and youl will have returned the favor in the best way possible :blush:

and @lamplamp, enjoyed yours as well! I feel a lot of us found ourselves coming back to the hobby later in life for many reasons, and im glad that youre here to be able to share and be a part of the community! Always great hearing from others and great making new friends along the way!

glad to see this thread a tad bit more active too guys. Helps spread that positivity a little bit

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Having a good time reading stories here

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Hi sir… sooo about the deadline in that paper… think I could get an extension? Lol

I actually made a video for this. I just finished filming it. For some reason it just spontaneously stopped recording a couple of times so I have to splice the parts together and upload it. It’s also 3am so I will probably do it tomorrow [today]. I dont feel right taking some of the spotlight from silversnorlax so maybe I can be rescheduled at the end?

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I wanted to do a very short autobiography of my YouTube career. I make some fairly bold claims during my interpretation of my own history, but to my knowledge everything here is accurate and if you have information pertaining to a different truth, I would love to take a look at it for the sake of consistency. That said, I hope you guys enjoy!
An autobiography of Silversnorlax204: The rise, fall, and rebirth.

Hey guys, it’s Silversnorlax!

I’ve started just about every video on my YouTube channel with that very line. It may not be as iconic as: “Hey guys this is Esss Emmm Pratte” (I know you sounded it out in your head) but it’s been my video intro for almost a decade now.

For those of you who know me personally, my name is Jason and I’ve been a Pokemon collector for about nine years now. When the original thread popped up concerning stories about collecting or Pokemon related stories I figured I would take a slightly different route than most folks and chat a little bit about myself in a more historical context. I figured it would be a great idea to get my thoughts down on paper if I ever needed to remember a specific time line for events that may have had an impact on the hobby. So with that, lets begin:

2010: A spark of interest.

Most Pokemon collectors have the same story, they start out as kids in the late 90’s. They have a binder full of cards, and then move on to the next thing for a while before ultimately returning. I’m no different and have basically the same story as most do in regards to this. It’s in 2010 when I’m 21 years old and about to be done with school that my TCG interest picks up.

For whatever reason that “itch” resurfaced and I got very interested in pokemon cards. I can’t tell you a specific reason as far as to why the cards specifically, but I found myself watching YT videos about the topic. For the most part at that time pack openings were for binder collectors and those who frequently played the TCG. There were a few sparse collectors in there who had collections and goals that I liked, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon. I started my own YouTube channel.

January 10th, 2011: Silversnorlax204 is born.

I launched my channel in January exactly one day after my 22nd birthday. I uploaded my first video as well. It was, exactly as you would expect for that era: full of cringe, little direction, and filmed with a potato. But if anything it was fun. So I continued to make content. For a little slice of history you can view my first video here: Pokemon HG/SS Series Collection Pack! - YouTube

* Note here: YT records my upload date as Jan 16th, this is not correct.
January 1st, 2012: Introduction to PSA and the start of a grading “service” or “middle man”

About a year after I launched my first video and started my channel I started to dig more and more into the world of collectible Pokemon cards. For the most part, YT didn’t have any videos regarding PSA graded Pokemon cards. You could find graded cards on ebay, and a couple of online fourms but very little in the world of YT. Graded cards were not “new” but they were in a sense, new to YT and for that matter, social media as a whole.

For me, I was fascinated with the idea of a “perfect” Pokemon card in a hard case and was something I wanted to pursue. So I started to look into PSA grading for Pokemon, and came back with absolutely nothing. This was not a thing that was outlined well in the world of YT and not something I could easily find information on. So I took a gamble, got a PSA membership and silently hoped I could get a few of my YT followers to send with me to help alleviate costs. The first documentation I have saved of this online is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjUjD_hpRnc What I didn’t realize at the time, was that I was starting the first grading service through the use of social media.

March 5th 2012: The first “PSA arrival” video for Pokemon cards is uploaded.

Again, without realizing it I was using social media to promote PSA graded Pokemon cards. Unlike today where social media is used to showcase and generally generate revenue, my goals were different. I enjoyed showing off what cards I had in my collection. For me, the early goal of uploading videos with PSA graded Pokemon cards was to show off what I had, then later to send for other folks to help with costs. I knew it had potential to be a money maker, but was not my end game. I was having fun, so I uploaded several more “arrivals” before I started to upload “returns”.

You can see the earliest documented “arrival” videos here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA2pLIEqu_c
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HCB3IvhM44
www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6a5ycMSyj8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KlcE1SDaxI

May 7th 2012: The first documentation of “PSA Returns”

A “PSA Returns” is a form of documentation through the use of video, which is uploaded for social media purposes/promotion. The first recorded case of a Pokemon PSA returns video is located here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ3gUbSfsMI To this day, we still use the term “PSA Returns” and is frequent across several platforms weather it be Instagram, Facebook or good old YouTube. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I created the industry standard / skeletal frame work for showcasing returning cards from PSA. As the years have gone on the presentation for that has changed (more reaction videos than anything) but I literally created a baseline for future content creation and ultimately started to bring to light the PSA graded side of Pokemon collecting. Something that had not really been done up until that point.

March 21st 2013: Pokemon PSA sending starts to become popular.

While I can’t quite comment on a specific date as to when PSA send offs really started to whirlwind through the community and became quite popular, I do find this date to be pretty substantial. It was my seventh community send off, and I was seeing tremendous growth in terms of people who wanted to submit. Arguably, I was becoming popular in the small world of YT Pokemon collecting. I had a good base, people liked the content I was making, the cards were pretty awesome and I had even had people start to reach out to me wanting to partner with me for grading. During this time period an individual by the name of Barney Ludkins reached out to me and wanted to piggy back off my UK viewership (as I had a lot for some reason). He wanted me to redirect folks to him that I was not willing to ship to. I agreed, and we started to work together.

Most of you reading this know Ludkins Collectibles, and that by itself is one of the most amazing success stories in the hobby. A story of creation that I can’t tell as I never put the blood, sweat and tears into LC that Barney has. For the mammoth engine that is LC I will say this much: I was the spark in the ignition for them. And I’m happy I got to play that role.

June 6th 2013-August 24th 2015: The great rise of Silversnorlax.

When silversnorlax was in his prime, he did a little bit of everything. PSA returns and arrival videos, openings, product reviews, you name it, I was doing it. It was during this stage of my YT career that I started realizing I was becoming popular within the community. The biggest tip off was when larger channels started to chat with me. I was even lucky enough to do a private grading round for the SMGquest who was easily three times my channel size at the time. PSA Returns 8.5: TheSmgQuest Round (Overview) - YouTube

The interest from larger channels that were not doing PSA related content starting to creep into the sphere that was PSA. It resulted in a huge push forward for the Pokemon grading card community. Graded Pokemon was so much more visible than it had been up until that point. Graded product was not just on ebay and form postings anymore they were highly visible on YouTube, and as a result people started their own channel with PSA pokemon content.

At this point, I was the main grading service on YouTube. There were a couple of folks attempting to copy what I was doing, but without the credibility so I was pretty dominate during this time frame. If you needed cards graded, I was the guy to contact. It was pretty awesome, and getting bigger each month I did a send off. I was snowballing like crazy and I really enjoyed what I was doing.

August 25th 2015-May 9th 2017: The great decline of Silversnorlax.

I’ve not been shy about this time in my life, and I won’t go into a tremendous amount of detail but I’ll put it out here regardless. During this time, my work life was starting to pick up. I had gotten a few promotions at the grocery store I had been working at, and finally got bumped to overnight grocery management. While good for my career, it caused a ridiculous amount of personal strain on my health and mental well being.

I had tried to keep up with Pokemon grading, it was still something I loved to do. The problem was I was now too popular and had entirely too much asked of me in the world of Pokemon. My work/life balance was pretty poor. I would work anywhere from 10-16 hours a night, sometimes six and seven days a week. Come home, eat, shower, sleep, go to work, repeat. You’ll notice Pokemon was not anywhere in that cycle. Because it wasn’t.

I started to fall behind on return videos, I could not communicate to my base the way I had previously and I started to fall apart. I started to suffer from severe anxiety and depression and any spare time I did have usually went into me being curled up on the couch unable to find the energy to do all the things I knew I needed to do. It was entirely too much, and I physically and mentally started to shut down.

May 9th 2017: Rebirth

On May 9th 2017, I posted a video entitled “Life is getting better”. Previously on my channel I had talked about the many issues I had been facing, hence my lack of uploads. And I knew I had to walk away from what I was doing in terms of grading for other people. At this point Ludkins was huge and just getting bigger, so I was happy to see a middle man service still out there for folks to send to.

I walked away from the empire I had built, but knew I could do something else in the community if I wanted to.

Mid 2017 to Present: A new look for an old collector.

One day, I stopped to look through some of my old videos and asked myself: What was the common denominator in all of this? Was it for money? Was it for YT fame? Was it for the hell of it? The last question seemed most applicable, but then I realized something I had subconsciously been doing the entire time: I was helping people. A cheap grading service for the community, the reviews I had done on products, the time I took to answer comments etc all had a common goal and that was to help other people. I finally realized what I was happy doing, and that was helping folks.

I started to do research on trading card preservation and publish articles with what I found on a small forum called E4 (I think you guys might of heard of it). My first article went live on July 3rd 2018 and I haven’t looked back since. I continue to do what I do to help people and it’s something that brings me joy. To this day I still continue to enjoy the hobby and collect a little bit here and there. I’ve been fortunate enough to share my experiences with others, including being a guest on a podcast or two.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyoIfe5frIs

Life goes on for me, but I’m curious to see where the hobby takes me next.

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