Efour Weekly — July 12–19, 2026
Reporter Meowth on da scene
By the numbers
- New topics: 39 | New posts: 1,088
- Active users (by likes): @koala (108), @fourthstartcg (103), @Quuador (103)
- Most active category: #general (multiple high-engagement threads)
- Standout thread: PSA slab quality issues drew parallel fire across three separate topics
- Milestone: @slowqueen’s Slowpoke master set list crossed 1,376 cards across all languages
The wrong plastic
I’m here on da scene, and PSA handed the forum a gift dis week — the gift of a problem nobody asked for. What started as a single submission in the wrong slab turned into a multi-thread pattern that kept resurfacing. @fourthstartcg, who originally flagged the wrong-slab issue, came back midweek with a resolution: after contacting PSA via Help & Support and citing “Slab Quality Issue,” the scans were corrected within 24 hours. A rare win. But the story didn’t end there.
A separate thread on PSA’s new mylar sleeve backing pulled in collectors alarmed by a reflective film appearing on card backs inside slabs, making clean scans nearly impossible. The forum’s working theory — that PSA had simply run out of TCG slabs at certain facilities — quieted some nerves, but the cracking complaints piled up in the binder thread too: @ddk documented the new medical-grade plastic resisting the standard plier-corner method entirely, requiring both top corners snipped and a flathead screwdriver to finish the job. “Wasn’t pretty,” @ddk noted, “but I got it to break eventually.”
What “heavy” actually means
A honeymoon-funding eBay seller became the forum’s teaching moment of the week. @BarrackObrama, new to the hobby and listing childhood sealed product, described a 1999 blister pack as “heavy” without a reference weight — and caught an INAD claim for their trouble. eBay ruled in the seller’s favor, but the thread’s real value was the diagnosis that followed. @fourthstartcg put it plainly:
“Both you and the buyer are at fault here but I’d say you’re more at fault than the buyer… you made a claim in the listing that you couldn’t back up.”
The corrective advice was specific and consistent: list the confirmed weight, price accordingly, make no claims about contents. The thread then took a second turn when @sonicsmashdown and @tidaldreams flagged that the blister appeared to be shadowless — meaning the seller had likely underpriced a significantly more valuable item while simultaneously overstating what was inside it. A messy week all around, but the forum resource on identifying shadowless blisters got a timely reshare.
The corners that weren’t factory
The trimmed/altered cards warning thread had been dormant for months before @charizard7221 arrived this week with a firm position: Japanese print quality is universally superior, and any unusual corner cuts must be aftermarket alterations. The forum pushed back, not with outrage but with methodology. @Paulkemon kept asking the right question — why rule out factory error before establishing what factory error even looks like on Japanese cards? — and @sonicsmashdown offered a geometric argument: genuine misalignment from a cutting machine produces straight lines or consistent angles, not asymmetric curves attempting to replicate the original machine radius.
By the end of the week, @charizard7221 had conceded the reasoning, called the cuts “highly artificial, almost like it was done by hand,” and submitted additional suspect cards for the community’s review. No verdict yet, but the thread’s shift from assertion to collaborative analysis was the week’s most interesting slow burn.
Thirty cards, thirty Pikachus, zero texture
The 30th Celebration Pikachu subset reveal arrived midweek courtesy of @koala, and the reception was warm but not unqualified. The holo effect is confirmed identical across all languages, no texture on the Pikachu subset cards, and the 30 Pikachus appear to function as the pack’s reverse holo slot in JP/Asia product. The art itself drew admiration — including the Kazuki Minami Pikachu, drawn by the 2024 PTCG Illustration Contest grand prize winner, her first card following the promo. The texture omission stung for some:
“Same, no art specific texture on the pikas is such a bad miss” — @Silphnaut
Pull rate speculation from a small sample suggested illustration rares at roughly 1-in-5, classics at 1-in-10, but @koala flagged the sample size as far too small to mean much. The broader market thread on whether modern prices are reversing added context: @fourthstartcg noted that sets not headlined by Charizard, Gengar, or Pikachu have always underperformed, and 30th’s chase cards being fully revealed ahead of release may already be doing its work on anticipation.
The third-place match nobody expected to love
England’s World Cup semifinal exit left @woolsluk and others gutted early in the week — wrong tactics, wrong substitutions, wrong mentality when winning. But the third-place match between England and France rewrote the thread’s mood entirely. What unfolded was a high-scoring, open match that the forum — Brits included — couldn’t help but enjoy.
“Amazing the quality of football that’s played when all the players on the pitch are relaxed. Nothing of consequence at stake so everyone’s that bit looser.” — @Josh
By full time, @mrbubbles called it a “blast,” @shoops declared it “legendary,” and @pokemonunboxing gave it a 10/10 for the simple reason that both teams actually tried to score. @charizardespana, representing Spain’s interests throughout the tournament, closed the segment with the tournament’s most diplomatic sign-off — praising the sportsmanship while making clear where loyalties for the final lie.
Dat’s all from dis week’s streets — Meowth out, and if youse found a shadowless blister in da attic, maybe don’t list it as “heavy” till ya do ya homework.
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Efour Digest — June 25–26, 2026