E4 Secret Santa 2019 [PICTURE THREAD]

General
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This is the official thread for all pictures of Secret Santa gifts received!
All official announcements will continue to be posted in the main thread, so keep an eye on that.

GROUND RULES:

  1. This thread is for positivity only.
  2. Don’t post real names/addresses. Anything else from the gift is fair game.
  3. Unboxing videos, photos, descriptions, etc. are all appropriate ways to share. If you are unsure about your post, ask first!
  4. Seriously, don’t complain. It ruins things and hurts feelings and makes you look bad and stuff.
  5. If a user did not specifically include their name on the gift, try to respect their anonymity. Don’t harass anyone about whether or not they are your Secret Santa. They can come out on their own if they so desire.

Disparaging your gift in any way will not be tolerated. If you complain in this thread about your gift or say crap like “I wish I got that gift instead of mine,” I am auto-banning you for 30 days. This is a time to build others up and do something selfless.

Have fun :heart_eyes:

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Got my secret Santa from @swolepoke :grin:

Very generous and a lot of fantastic Rayquaza items! Amazing gifts from a great member. Thanks again man, I really appreciate everything. (Plus an amazing drawing)

on the box! lol

**SEALED!!! <3_<3

Last but not least, the cards!! wow!
**

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Wow! Everything about this secret santa gift is amazing. Love that Meiji mewtwo promo and swolepuff.

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That’s a Buff Puff.

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FYI everyone, @pottsinator lives less than 20 minutes away from me…

This is how he got his package so fast. :wink:

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Delivered in person?

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@pottsinator opens his door expecting the post man, but is greeted by Santa @swolepoke instead:

Greetz,
Quuador

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I wish I had waited til after I did Shrinky Dinks with my kids tonight to send out my package. This is way cooler than my picture was.

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My Secret Santa Came! Love the Abra Painting Abra is my starter Pokémon! Bonus I got a bunch of presents to open on Christmas :100: :ok_hand: @pokenastic Thank You :blush:

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Wow, this painting is really amazing. I’m just comparing it to what I drew, hahaha. I envy some peoples skills :grin:

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Excuse the long post, but this gift is worth it! I got my secret Santa gift today from @lugiaslair249 and it really blew me away with the detail, generosity, and specificity.

Each gift (there were multiple!!!) was individually wrapped and looked like it came straight out of Santa’s workshop. It felt just like Christmas morning when I opened up the package, which came in an awesome Pokemon Center reusable bag!

The drawing is amazing, honestly I feel like I should frame it! The detail is so good, I think the design on Salamence’s head is especially well done! I recognized it immediately as being a recreation of a Salamence card from the EX Series, which is an amazing combination of one of my favorite Pokemon and my favorite card era!

Next are three packs from probably my favorite modern set, Roaring Skies! The selection of Pokemon in this set, the artwork, and the card styles just make it so amazing. Between the EXs, Holos, Ancient Trait cards and more, there really isn’t a bad pack out there. I opened the packs and got two sweet reverse rares, including one of my favorite holos in this set, the Ancient Trait Swellow with killer Arita artwork. I also got a set of the gym badges from Hoenn, my favorite generation!! I am going to have to find a place to display these, but I know they will look so awesome alongside all of the EX Series/Gen 3 Pokemon cards I own!

As if that wasn’t enough, my amazing secret Santa included two insanely epic PSA graded cards! Anyone recognize that Salamence?? I love the EX Series holos (overall, best artwork quality in my opinion) and EX Dragon is such a killer set. I don’t know the history behind the Winner version of this card but that holo stamp makes it look even better! Full arts are the best innovation in the modern TCG, and the Black & White full arts started it all. The beauty and simplicity of the Reshiram card is where it all started, I think once we got to the FA megas (some of them) started to get a little crowded, and I love the look of this card.

And last, but certainly not least is this super cool lighted crystal Pokeball with Rayquaza inside!! I turned down the lights so you all can see the detail on the Rayquaza inside the Pokeball. This is such a sweet design and idea, and I’m going to love having it on my Pokemon desk when I do openings and all sorts of other things!

This gift and the whole Secret Santa season is really what makes me love and appreciate this forum so much. Each year my gifts have been so amazing, so special, and really highlight what an amazing community we have here. Thank you so much @lugiaslair249 for the incredibly amazing gifts, the time you took to consider and research my collection, and the way you made everything feel so special!

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@fourthstartcg,

@fourthstartcg, I’m so thrilled that like the gifts! And thank you so much for the kind words! This whole experience has been totally amazing.

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this is just amazing! this is how it should look

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Not sure who had me but whoever you are thank you, I loved it!

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You’re very welcome, I’m glad you liked everything :grin:

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So last night I got my gift from @imakuni and boy oh boy did it have a trip!

This is how he sent it:

Notice the careful stacking, the thorough tape job to ensure the package was sealed, and the vivid colors of this awesome drawing.

Now.

This is what I received after it went through Customs:

The package was damp and the sides were exposed. I opened everything right away to see how bad the damage was. @imakuni did such a great job with trying to make sure this package was sealed tight so it’s unfortunate that someone from customs did an unpleasant job at resealing it. Some of the cards and packaging got wet so I had it dry while I was at work earlier today.

The good news: Pretty much everything was salvaged!

But HOLY CRAP! @imakuni, I cannot thank you ENOUGH for such a wonderful gift. You went above and beyond for me with this. I loved the snacks so much that my sister and I ate them all before I could take better pictures. Here’s the highlights (and I do love the Caterdos drawing):

I really wanted to keep this sealed but there was water inside the packaging still after letting it dry so I had to check:

Sableye confirms, the cards are safe!

Next we tried out this oddity. I love the movie and am going to give some packs to my sister since it’s one of her favorites.

Sableye’s not sure what to make of “Jim”.

The Spanish HGSS Box was warped and the plastic seal torn so I decided to open a couple of packs. I’ll keep the rest as is but had to try one of each artwork:

Not bad! 2 of 3 Starters!

And then finally, some PSA cards including my most nostalgic card!

I really loved this gift as it was very thoughtful. One of my favorite parts was the snacks because it shared a piece of his home with me which I felt was touching. He really inspired me to do more next year with my secret santa.

Something I’ve learned from this gift that I think serve as positive advice for next year:

If you’re not sure what to give to your secret santa and/or you feel you can’t provide much, add some things that are from your home country/town, some oddities that you’re into that you want to share, and just some random fun. When I opened this package, I was of course happy to get Gyarados cards, but honestly, everything else was so much more enjoyable to explore because of the “newness” for me.

Thanks again and cheers!

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Hey everyone,

The nature of this thread is that it generates long posts with lots of photos. We love and encourage that, but in order to cut down on the photo walls we ask that instead of quoting posts you tag the person that you wish to respond to. Utilize the @ function and then type their username (not display name, these are usually the same). You can also use the look up a member feature or the simple tagging bar on the desktop site. This will notify them but will not reproduce the post, hopefully making it so the only photo posts are people posting their gifts.

Thanks!

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Just opened my SS gift! Got a shirt that I will definitely wear in a video. Thanks @chok!

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@smpratte be sure to try the interesting flavors Kit Kat has to offer. Figured something like Malaysia-exclusive flavors would get your blood running. Merry Christmas!