Now the posts roll in. I wanted to give everyone a custom reaction but its overwhelming! I might pace it. But I scanned over the photos and really find some of you to be very clever gifters. And some of you are knocking it out of the park with art. I think next time I’ll do what slowqueen did, and do something on an energy card.
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I received my gift yesterday and was able to open it today. I want to say that @gengarbrigade went above and beyond on this gift and I just want to say thank you for the thought you put into it!
First off, the drawing and a few packs! Your drawing is better than I can do! I did manage to get a couple pulls in the packs, which I’ve shown! I was then greeted by the sealed Gengar deck from Lost Origin.
Next in the package were some singles! @gengarbrigade picked these perfectly, hitting all of my favorite pokemon and some cards I needed for my master sets!
The next piece is truly amazing. This card was pulled out of their personal collection, and it’s amazing. Definitely one I did not own and am so grateful to receive.
Lastly, but definitely not least, was a postcard by Kagemaru Himeno. I have not seen this and was truly amazed by the artwork. I’ll definitely be framing this!
@gengarbrigade I appreciate the thought you put into this, so thank you! I hope you have a great holidays!
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Okay, I’m sorry for the late post! My package arrived yesterday and I was able to open it up, but I got a bit stumped on writing my thank you post. You’ll understand why in a bit. 
Also I am so sorry my desk is messy.
We have a strange package from another state with a mysterious alias on the return address… Hmm. Let’s see what’s inside!
Some chocolates I can’t get around here (my fiancé and I ate them all in one night,) and a wonderful letter! There’s some personal information in the letter I’m not sure if I can share or not, but I’m going to be extra cautious and not post it. But something in that letter prompted me to flip over the back, which lead to this glorious scene…
You see, my friends, this is not just any castle. This is the Grand Castle. It’s infamous in West Michigan for being the brainchild of some weird rich guy who wanted to replicate the old castles in Germany. It’s a large apartment complex with an indoor parking lot and I’ve heard it has actually decent amenities? It was definitely somewhere we thought about when searching for a place to live this past summer. But alas, I do not live in the castle… I am a plebian commoner who lives 10 minutes away… Anyways, it’s rumored to be on an unstable/swampy foundation and the envision-er does not have the best reputation around here.
Wait, who’s that at the top? It’s @zubat spreading Christmas cheer! My first E4 Secret Santa happened to be them! Our winged friend is actually quite familiar with the Grand Castle… possibly as a paid actor to make the place more spooky? Who knows, but the artist’s rendition of the Grand Castle is much closer to the actual building then you may think!! (Not my photo. I just think it captures the essence of the Grand Castle very well.)
Zubat mentioned that they had met some Yanma behind the Grand Castle’s ‘moat’ (more like murky swamp,) so maybe the upside is a Trophy Garden!
Oh, and the actual cards! I found a little wrapped collection of sleeves under my wonderful drawing, and here is what I got!
はじまりの樹のミュウ (Tree of Beginning’s Mew) - A beautiful cosmos foil released to commemorate the 10th movie! This was one I’ve never seen before and I love the silver borders on DPPt-era cards!
Ledian holo from Skyridge - A beautiful card that I have been chasing after for awhile, the holo on this copy is super clean!!! It made me smile ear-to-ear to see this card, because Ledian is so often forgot about!
Yanma (Shiny) reverse holo from Supreme Victors - Ahh I love this card!!! I’ve had some of the DPPt reverse holo secret rares pass through my hands at one point or another, and having Yanma is amazing!!! My favorite Pokémon overall and the one I’d have as my companion, haha!
Seriously, this was awesome. I did a lot of lurking when I first joined the site and the Secret Santa program looked so fun from the outside! I’m so happy I participated-- Zubat, you are seriously awesome. Thank you so much! Also much thanks to everyone who kept this event running for so long!
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Enjoy my friend!!
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I was able to open the package that arrived this afternoon. I had a hunch it was my Secret Santa and I was correct. Inside the package were some fun Christmas glasses, ETB sleeves, an awesome letter/drawing, and two wrapped packages.
I’ll start with the awesome letter and drawings. I love them both. My daughter actually helped me color my secret santa drawing as well so I know you had a fun time getting their help as well. They did a great job!
I opened the first package and was taken back by the spread of cards relating to my favorite Pokémon and my favorite thing to collect Japanese promos. I haven’t started collecting XY-P Promos yet, but this makes a great start. I have been looking for a clean Clefairy for my Vending Series collection for awhile and now I have one! I can’t wait to throw all of these cards in my binder.
I then moved to the second package which contained a PSA 9 slab Venusaur from the 25th Anniversary set and some really fun stickers!
Thank you so much @jaxlax21! You went above and beyond my expectations. This was my first E4 Secret Santa and I had a great time. Also, thank you @fourthstartcg for putting this all together.
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Glad you enjoyed it all! Sorry it took so long getting out to you. Japanese promos are some of my favorites, so it was really fun pulling together them all. 209/XY-P is one of my favorite Greninja promos, so I knew I had to include that. It has such a fun holo pattern. The fact you got the card from Family Mart has always been funny.
Happy Holidays, I’m happy I could make your first Secret Santa a good one. Its my favorite event here on E4!
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I did some digging and saw Greninja is your favorite so I appreciate that one even more now. Thanks again!
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@mrbubbles I am so happy it arrived all well. I saw the delivery notice and past days I have been franticly refreshing e4 to see if you posted 
The “art project” been in my planning since summer. That’s when I got the idea. At first I was going to go with smaller strips (many pages of manga been lost due to this) but they ended up being to hard to glue and losing most of the imaginary. Making it impossible to work out what was going on. The fact that your favourite Pokémon is Dragonite was just a coincidence with which manga volumes I had available. I bought a bunch worn out manga online just to have enough material to work with. When the Santa letter came in, all the stars aligned. When I am able (if I actually made good photos) I’ll post in the efour arts thread some photos of my progress.
It’s good to hear you and your kid had a good time opening everything up. Magikarp has been a purchase I did all the way back last February at a comiccon. Talking about prepping for Efour Secret Santa I spotted it and instantly thought it would be a cool addition to any Secret Santa. I really dug through your forum posts to find your collection and you helped me out with having a clear Buy List. Great that I could help out filling the gaps in your binder.
And to get back at @666
If you would not have mentioned the cards in the booster pack they would’ve been there till the end of days. I really looked at the semi rigid and team bag multiple times before pulling it open to see you weren’t kidding. I couldn’t spot a single rip to hint me that it was an opened pack.
You were right! All cards were still missing in my collection. Time for me to update the spreadsheet and prepare for 2026 purchases! I am so behind on the release schedule, that even last night watching Deep Pocket Pokémons Gengar search I discovered a new (wallet breaking) Venusaur print 
. The quest is never over!
The chocolates however… since I didn’t spot them on my initial search of the package my house mate got to them before I could and they have been consumed without me even knowing. Apparently they were delicious but I also feel sorry for not spotting them…
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Big thank you to my secret Santa @cardstockpile for all the thoughtful gifts. It was such a blast opening these up one by one and feeling that Pokémon-Christmas magic.
The first thing that immediately jumped out at me as I opened the box was this merry Psyduck illustration.
Next was this cool Pokemon bento box. I wonder what’s inside?
Turns out A LOT of cards. Good cards. Cards of my favorite Pokemon. Everything an aspiring species collector needs to get started; Japanese, English, cardass, E-Series, Holos, reverse holos. Even a graded action flips Psyduck and a vintage Psyduck keychain from the first movie! It was a buffet of wonderful cards from several of my favorite species.
Next was a keychain pack of 3 containing Chikorita, Bayleef, and Meganium. Can’t wait to find somewhere nice for these.
And lastly, 10 packs of Silver Lance/Jet Black Radiance. It is always really nice to be able to open up packs on Christmas!
Thank you so much, @cardstockpile for the thoughtful gifts! I hope you and your family had a great Christmas holiday.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, E4!
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Received my secret santa from none other than the Lightning Lieutenant himself,
@amcgl58 ! It was a great assortment of old backs from the goats Arita and Sugimori, really love the johto starters from neo genesis and Pryce’s Articuno is top tier artwork 
Your ghastly sketch is awesome, reminds me of how it’s portrayed in the anime. The giratina plush is spot on, now I need to complete the creation trio. The pichu file promo is peak in all its holo glory. Always love me some vending and the corocoro mankey have movitated to work on these sets.
Very thoughtful gift, wishing you and everyone else happy holidays!
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Thanks to @imakuni for the package! It was great receiving these on boxing day to continue the xmas joy!
What a great assortment of items !
First up is the awesome psyduck card
This is a picture of the spread! There was also a magikarp gachapon and deckholder which my kid got a hold of and enjoyed.
these are some fun slabs, i never seen this charmander card before !
my fave item is this togepi gold slab! I will display it alongside my coin collection, and i was ready to sleeve and folder up the pikachus to my collection.
Once again, thank you @imakuni for the generous package and all the goodies! Wishing you a happy holiday season!
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Ahh, the Grand Castle. Or, should I say, that ugly gray concrete building? I too am familiar with it 
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Hey buddy 
I’m so glad it arrived on time, and most of all you’re happy with it (:
I usually like to send all kinds of snacks and sweets from Japan, but I didn’t want the package to be delayed any longer with you.
Thank you for the kind words.
Merry Christmas to you and your family
Roi (Imakuni)
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thanks for your kind consideration! once again, thanks kindly for the secret santa thoughts and gifts!
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My Secret Santa was the amazing @nikhil !
My compliments on the lovely seasonal packaging my gift came in, I knew immediately it was my E4 gift when I opened the mail.
Starting off with a beautiful artistic rendition of the one and only GOATpert, and a lovely holiday note alongside.
@nikhil graciously gifted me an absolutely beautiful PSA 9 Miracle Desert Aggron ex. Opening it absolutely felt like pulling the English sandstorm equivalent all those years ago, and this JP copy will look phenomenal alongside it. Absolutely stunning, that JP quality is truly unmatched!
Thank you so very much! What a wonderful addition to my ex collection. Happy Holidays, Nikhil!
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I received my Secret Santa gift from the illustrious @fazool and it was so amazing!
First off are these killer files. I have been looking for something with the Arita Deoxys art on it forever, and this was such a cool surprise to open up! I love the Gen 3 Rayquaza/Starter file as well. I feel like I will need to find some cool way to display these.
The gift also included TWO graded cards, including a FRLG Clefairy reverse (checks out coming from fazool!), a Snow Hazard box, a Deoxys figure and hand-drawn shikishi, and some awesome magazines including a SM era CoroCoro!
Last but certainly not least, some awesome single cards including a totally real Stadium Challenge Deoxys and a Jynx with the face of a strange man pasted on. I love the Roaring Moon special art which I did not have in my collection yet! The miscut Rayquaza EX is another super unique card I’m very happy to get! Can’t forget about the signed Clefairy and neopets goodies as well!
What an amazing gift! Thank you again @fazool and every participant for making Secret Santa so fun!
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My SS gift came today and I couldn’t be happier! Big thanks to @cryingatnight for the amazing gift!
There was a note directly so this was what I opened up first and I knew I was in for a treat, literally! I’ve watched a bunch of videos over the years about Buc-ee’s and I’ve always wanted to go there so glad I get to try some of this jerky!
Love to see a precious gift right from your torchic collection <3
When I saw this I couldn’t believe it, so many amazing artworks and ex stamped cards I love them so much and can’t wait to put them into my binders thank you!
And lastly who doesn’t love to rip packs, here are the hits!
Thanks again @cryingatnight
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Hot damn, those EX era reverses!
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So happy you enjoyed it! I tried to send a torchic in every language I had a spare of
Enjoy the beef jerky and merry Christmas!
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