E4 Secret Santa 2024 [PICTURE THREAD]

[Dyl]

@bbobrob

@Dyl Your partner’s pieces are also extremely cute! When reading @qwachansey’s post at first, I was thinking, “When is Dyl going to post his works in the fan art/crafts thread?!” But then I read your post soon after The two draft Chansey works are also great. I especially like the second one with just the semi-silhouette of Chansey—it looks so clean. Both of those pieces look pretty big too, so they must have taken some time!

She says thanks! Each of them took about one week, but were worked on inconsistently over several weeks. She never has a shortage of yarn or yarn projects.

[Sleepingfatboi]

@bbobrob

The card you drew looks so clean! Looks just like a prototype similar to the prototype Chansey.

And this is why I want to slab it…… I wonder if I can convince cgc it a beta version from 96

[Will]

Ok, Alec gave me the OK. Work of art? Stuff of nightmares? Both? Anyway you slice it, I will treasure this.

[filthynwah]

Man I’m sure Alec hard on that and all. But…

[mrbubbles]

This is glorious! My personal theory is that the Metapod on harden has seen some things!

Cheers!

[oxidelake]

Seeing the behind the scenes the Psyduck is so cool! I didn’t mention it in my post but I love the little bit of holo purple peeking through from the ghosts.

Ok, that little error is something that did not even register. On one of my favorite Komiya cards and in Korean, love it!

[Kanto_Cowboy]

Can we make this a banner?

[Will]

I’m doing my best not to make a hard on joke with the typo…

[Sleepingfatboi]

That looks like a metabud

[eievui]

Well its the new year, and its my time to be in the spotlight for Secret Santa.

My Secret Santa this year was @fazool !

Starting out they drew me this wonderful picture of Eevee and Klefki that made me smile.

I want to take a minute to say I really appreciate the time and effort that went into drawing a special piece to my gift. Look at the dedication and time they took that went into it. You can tell they really tried and care, and it felt sentimental.

Next up we have a Portuguese magazine with a lost origin fun pack. Even though I dont speak the language I did use google lens to guide eevee through the right path, and ended up becoming a pokemon master by the end of it. (I actually didnt cheat for the answers and it felt good XD)

There were a few artsy gifts too! There was an eevee insert, some sticker images from pokemon snap, and an eeveelution themed paper theater that Ive yet to open, but will try out soon. They all seem very fun, and I love it.

Now onto the cards!

This kind soul got me a card Ive been holding out on, and a vintage surprise with extras.

I like Mawile, so the GX made me happy to have included along with a CGC 8.5 black star promo, a PSA 10 Masterball reverse from 151!, and a 1997 Cardass card I was thinking of buying!

Lastly I received an Eevee binder thats very adorable, and came with probably my favorite card that Ill cherish forever.

Thank you E4, and again @fazool for making my Christmas and New Years one to remember! I definetely want to be a part of this next year.

[ddk]

Got home to a nice secret santa gift from @zubat! Was really nice to receive a bunch of Japanese 151 cards that I needed to complete my binder set! Thank you so much for the thoughtful gift!

In particular, I’m really happy to have all three starter lines complete as well as the lovely Alakazam ex!

I also seem to have been enteusted with a mysterious object. Is that Agumon from Digimon or perhaps a distant relative of his? Hmmm, now I wonder where he will end up next year???

[eievui]

That neopet gift is a sacred relic I never knew existed lol

[citriina]

I am completely blown away by my secret Santa this year, so buckle up for a long post, kids.

I just got back home from the holidays and had a package waiting for me from none other than @tcgmaine!

Everything was wrapped so nicely, including a very kind card (and adorable Piplup drawing), as well as a signed Empoleon V that’s going straight to the binder. I love the little Santa hat!

First off, these sleeves! I am so, so excited to add these to the collection, and I’m completely in awe of how many you were able to find with Piplup cameos! I absolutely love art sleeves, and all will be very welcome additions. I hadn’t seen the nonbiri life one at all either, so that was a doubly wonderful surprise.

This is also my first Maushold sleeve! I have a (currently) complete English Tandemaus/Maushold species collection I’m keeping up with as a side focus, being my second favorite pokemon line, and this will fit right in perfectly. This is from one of my favorite Pokemon center art lines!

In the next package, there wasn’t one, but TWO Japanese Blastoise & Piplup GXs! I didn’t have either the full art or the rainbow, and I was surprised with both of them! The Japanese texturing is so pretty, especially compared to English.

Also in the same package, yet another Blastoise & Piplup GX, this one being the Indonesian GYM promo! @tcgmaine, I have no idea how or where you found this one, but I was (am?) in complete shock. This is the last GYM Blastoise & Piplup GX I still needed to hunt down- seriously, thank you so much. I always wait a little too long on scooping promos, so this is a delightful surprise.

The final package had these adorable water type stickers that will be going in my scrapbook, as well as 3 packs of Brilliant Stars, the best Sword and Shield set! What do you mean “You’re only saying that because the Piplup line is in there”?? My wife and I had fun ripping the packs and even got a few GLC playables out of them!

All in all, thank you, Zach, from the bottom of my heart. Your gift was so thoughtful, and I can really tell how much you researched and tailored it to me and my collection goals. That means so, so much and I can’t overstate that. I’ll cherish each and every part for the rest of my years.

[tcgmaine]

So glad you enjoyed everything! I had a lot of fun shopping and getting to know you as a collector! I was sweating bullets every time I saw you update your amazing collection thread, so I’m glad I was able to knock a few things out you didn’t have! Haha

[citriina]

You blew it out of the park for sure! I try to avoid purchasing anything around the end of the year just in case, but I had a few orders in transit for months that just happened to come in around Christmastime- sorry about the scare!

Seriously, I cannot thank you enough for the lovely gifts. I feel completely spoiled by your kindness.

[amcgl58]

Thanks @coil for the Secret Santa gifts. Im a big fan of the Raichu plush and Zapdos cards. I absolutely love the old Electronic Gaming Monthlys , reading them on the couch next to the christmas tree was a blast of nostalgia.

[triple]

Thank you @genosha

Super Amazing & Thoughtful Gift and absolutely made my day today!

I really loved the Gen 4 Starters and some modern meta Pokémon cards as well as Victini <3

I know my New Year’s resolution is to lose 1 pound a week, but this week will get a pass as I’m about to destroy that chocolate . I really love Europe chocolate and those cookies look extremely delicious.

I really love Giratina, I will put that in my DPP shrine and maybe post pics of it when it is all done.

I will also be using those Rayquaza sleeves on my next Pokémon deck for next rotation <3

It was super fun opening all these different gifts and I felt like a little kid again on Christmas. Lot of nice variety and your Piplup drawing is so good, I will put that on my wall at my work office C: words honestly can’t describe the emotion I felt opening these gifts and I will savor that Chocolate . Happy New Years!

[genosha]

I am happy to see it arrived. The tracking information stopped updating on the December 18 and nothing happened on it till December 30.

The more Secret Santa’s I do, the more I struggle to do something I didn’t do in the year before. This year some things aligned and I was able to visit a trade show the first weekend after the draft was done and really spend a few hours browsing stands and binders for cards. I even made a boo-boo thinking Treecko was the Grass-type starter in Generation 4 .

The Manaphy Burger King Deck Box been picked up by myself all the way back in 2008 and been sitting in my storage all these years. And encountering someone that says Gen 4 is his favourite Generation felt like it was a perfect addition to it.

Am really happy to read it made such a great impression on you. And that everything has arrived safely. Although, I guess the chocolate letter maybe had a hard time in transport, but lets look at that and think that shipping just made bite-size chunks

Happy New Years!

[ptccards]

Returned from vacation to an awesome gift and note from @mrtz
Here is the awesome gift pictured right after I opened it:

Thank you for the kind words and awesome drawing!

I am thrilled to be able to add a new Umbreon/Espeon themed playmat to my collection and the moonbreon cup is so awesome. With my history of breaking and cracking cups, I will stick putting this in my display!

Last but not least thank you for the vStar booster box. It is a booster box I don’t have in my sealed collection and I am very grateful to be able to add this to my collection

Your gift was very thoughtful and has started my year on a positive note!
Wishing you and your family a Happy Holidays and New Years!

[vic]

Thank you @eievui !!

Finally back home from holidays to open my gift, and it was such a great one!! I really appreciated how thoughtful all the card selections were- and it will surely get me a head start on my next artist binder projects, kizuki and kimura There’s also the sweet celebi plush from Nagoya, which I didn’t get a chance to visit this time due to a last minute change of plans. I had planned to buy it myself in person, so this is such a nice gift

And finally the surging sparks pack (which is going absolutely bonkers right now in terms of price XD) and the amazing tag with custom engraved unknown letters!

Huge thanks again to eivui for such a thoughtful and curated gift that will live in my collection forever