Finally opened up my package ( I misplaced it with Christmas presents) and want to say you’re awesome @Zee ! Thank you so much for the kickass gifts! Love them all, and pulled a OgerponEX, and these are the first modern English cards I’d opened in two years.
Merry Christmas! 
If you were my SS, I don’t have the bandwidth to open this rn but know that it got here and I am very excited to open it
It’s time, everyone. I need to talk about the absolute Secret Santa LEGEND, @triple. You absolutely cooked as the youths say. Let’s break this down.
First of all, this note made me laugh. Respect for knowing your strengths and (in corporate speak) AFDs. Thanks for signing a card, and a RC eevee at that. This is my first SS, so I didn’t know about signing cards, but it’s a nice touch.
Now for the goodies. First off, my dude hooked me up with a 2020 Championship Series eevee, one of the only unique holo patterns I was missing, and even more surprisingly, a SPANISH Burger King eevee. I thought those were notoriously hard to come by and I really appreciate you including them both.
Next, I said “why is this wrapped so big what’s in here?” It’s an entire BOX of VStar Universe. You absolute madman. I mentioned just as an aside, a throwaway comment, that I haven’t opened packs in over a decade (my last set was XY base) and I was excited about Prismatic Evolutions. Well this legend included an entire box. I had no choice, I had to rip. Here’s what I pulled. I’ve never seen a god pack before, but this was so fun to open.
So now I’m thinking, dang Triple really crushed it. Made my collector heart happy. Then I see this cryptic note at the bottom. “OPEN LAST”. How can this gift get better? But ok, I’ve opened everything else so now is “last”. It’s an ARS-10 full art Marnie. You didn’t know this, but Marnie is my favorite character from SwSh. Idk what TPC and GF have as their template, but in every game it’s always the edgy-haired female character with the hardest hitting battle theme (see also: May, Cynthia, Iris, Zinnia, Ogerpon, Penny, Lusamine, etc.) This is such a unique card for my collection.
Triple you really killed it this year. I was thinking when I wrote my note, getting literally anything I’m vaguely interested in is great, I’m here for the fun. But you put a ton of thought and effort into this. Thank you again.
Wow nice job triple! That Spanish Eevee BK is indeed really rare
I want to thank @niece for not only a very fun organized way of opening this package, but for the cards I don’t have and some I do that are going straight to the binder!
In addition, this drawing with Gengar, Jolteon and Primeape are going straight into the game room. This has been a great way to celebrate my birthday!
Thank you so much @niece !!
Thanks for sharing. That artwork by @niece is just top tier! It’s extremely well done and looks so very nice.
Cheers!
Agreed. @niece that art is amazing! Stellar job on it!
Happy Birthday @gengarbrigade ! That was such great timing! I am glad that you enjoyed your gift. The Fukuda Meiji Vaporeon is on its way! I truly enjoyed shopping for you and hoping to finds some things you could add to binders. The art was my favorite thing to do, so I am very glad you like it, after all someone with your user name, you should have a picture of Gengar 's Brigade!
@mrbubbles and @lyleberr . Thank you.
hoenn alt art/illustration rare binder!
What an awesome idea/plan! Lowkey kinda want to do this as well. I imagine if you go for ANY alt-art/SIR then the pricepoint per card stays quite low as well(except for maybe a select few). Would be interesting to see exactly which pokemon in Hoenn don’t have alt-arts yet. Can’t be too many but maybe some of the lower evolutions etc?
@niece @gengarbrigade That art piece is extremely well done and seems like an awesome surprise to find in your Secret Santa gift!
Glad you loved it <3, yes I have negative penmanship but I am a professional typer!
Also wow that is crazy you got a god pack ;p
@laladida Thank you so much for the wonderful secret santa!
I am beyond thrilled to add these Vs cards to my collection. I love that you put in a bunch of random cards too. The Plasma cards bring me back to when I started collecting again. I loved the way the plasma cards looked so much different compared to others. My son and I had a blast going through all the cards!
Thanks again for everything and I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Man what an amazing thread. Time to brag on @zards_r_us !
First off, a wonderful sketch of the Team Instinct logo. I may be a Mystic lifer, but when the Team Medallion came out in Pokemon Go I can’t say I didn’t consider switching to Spark’s team…
But what else was in the box? Well, that did not disappoint!
I couldn’t have asked for a better mix of cards. In spite of my membership in Team Mystic, Zapdos is still the best legendary and it’s great to add these 3 to my collection. I don’t have much from the Black & White sets- that holo pattern on the Legendary Treasures Zapdos is awesome!
And funny enough, this is my 3rd Team Rocket Dark Alakazam, but also the third distinct one. I first bought a holo 1st Edition a few years ago, then a regular holo not too long ago, and now I have the non-holo 1st Edition. I’m going backwards 
I’ll have to track down the regular non-holo now.
Eevee on the Ball is such a fun promo and my untrained eye couldn’t tell you why it’s a 7- looks pretty good to me! And zards took the only specific thing I mentioned and helped me complete Kanto in my WotC era Kanto/Johto binder. The modern Japanese cards are bangers too!
Finally- a whole box of Shiny Treasure ex! I haven’t opened much Japanese so I was excited to see what this box had to offer.
Mew, some Kanto shinies + Baxcalibur, and that reverse pattern is beautiful! First time I’m seeing it.
Thanks so much @zards_r_us , this was amazing!
Folks, I think I won secret santa. I lucked out getting @citriina as my secret santa because holy cow!!! Citri this is so incredibly thoughtful and this artwork is out of this world! Thank you so much!
I mentioned Poliwhirl was my favorite and that I would love some Poliwhirl cameo cards and Citri knocked it out of the park.
Damn!! The level of artwork is just insane. Awesome work @citriina . Really amazing job. I really like the details, even like the shimmer in the Heracross wings is so wonderfully made. Just great job.
Cheers!
Wow, truly impressive. Great work @citriina ! Love the coloring and minor details as mrbubbles pointed out!
Gosh I love this thread
I’m so glad you like everything and the package got to you safely! I had so much fun researching Poliwhirl for your gift. I stumbled across the vintage stickers in person looking for something else, and I knew I had to pick them up too as a bonus.
The art was so fun to do too! I’m so happy you like it, that really means a ton. I don’t think I’d ever drawn Poliwhirl before, so it was a great new experience.
I hope you have a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
