That Beverly Hills zip code tho…
A little digging can confirm that they’re the same people.
Unfortunate that you had to deal with that, but yeah I definitely agree this forum > any other trading/buying platform
Given an instagram user, I can see who they follow so it sort of acts as a sort of curated list.
I think my strategy will be to add a ton of people initially and just start to unfollow anyone unsavory or not to my taste.
I only made my IG account a couple months ago on the suggestion of a friend…he knew I had a large collection of Gold Stars among other cards, a 1st Ed Base Set Charizard PSA 9, etc…and knew I had been looking for a Gold Star Torchic PSA 9/10 for the better part of a year and a half. He has around ~800 followers and would catch wind of multiple Torchic sales, but I was never really motivated enough to join IG until I finally caved in because he knew I may had been missing out on an outlet to get a card I really wanted (ironically enough, I didn’t get a Torchic from IG, I won TCA’s auction just this afternoon instead…lol).
My experience, as i’ve stated in a previous post, has been largely positive…I began posting my GS collection as well as other cards, and followers just naturally came. Through there, I just added people that posted their awesome collection or who very clearly were active in the grading scene, particularly Shiny Pokemon cards, WOTC, etc…
I also post Pokemon Go related things, but mainly…IG is there for me as a casual and relatively easy way to browse other people’s collections, share my own, and also to chat with other collectors that i’ve now gotten to know over the last couple of months. As long as you’re cognizant of how each community functions that you’re a member of and you’re in tune with the market, IG is just another useful outlet when you want/need it to be…it doesn’t have to be anything more or anything less. If you start comparing your collection to the way other people post theirs, it’s probably time to take a break…no one should really feel personally affected by how other people are posting. Either unfollow those people or outright block them and move on with your life. 
Step 1 Lose all self-respect.
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Amen brother 
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I’ll add that from a sales perspective, it’s a unique market where people are willing to pay significantly more than ebay sold listings for cards that really aren’t that rare. That’s all I have to say about that…
Instagroim is about spitting syndi flamz and cutting people with the knife emote 
If you do not engage in these activitinz then im notchore frind.
It is because we cherish this kind of life style, that we must protect it.
I will say before discovering this forum back when it was UPCCC I was completly on my own in collecting for years. The search for rare cardlingz changed with the knowledge… I doubt I would have found instagram and the great people on there without coming here.
THis place its like pot. you start smoking the forum and open up to smoking other platforms.
I do not like not following people, it does feel not good to do so lol… Thing is if you use the hashtagz that only concern pokemon cards, then you usually only attract pokemon card people. Which is good. Also designing your own hashtagz for your own special kind of thing, and followerbz is something cool to do. AS noone else uses it 
#syndicatebeckettmasterrace
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You can also just do Instagram the way you feel like doing it. I just post stuff that I think about or that catches my interest on any given day. Sometimes I post twice in a week. Sometimes I post twice in a month. I think big blocks of hashtags are annoying and I don’t take any stock in how many people follow my account, so I skip that step.
Like anything else, approaching Instagram requires you ask yourself what your goal is. Is it validation? Is it to buy and sell? Do you “totally not have an ego” but you want 5000 followers and to follow nobody? Or is it for your own enjoyment?
The one thing about Instagram is that your behavior is incredibly transparent. So how you carry yourself will, whether you mean it to or not, give a lot of people certain impressions about who you are. In that sense, it can be either a liability or an asset.
Those are my thoughts on the matter.
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@regigigagod has a Regigigas FA card for every post he has made on IG.
On a serious note, the best strategy for IG is actually what Joe (Regigigagod) mentioned. Follow the people that post cardboard and talk about cardboard, and you should be fine.
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Suppose everyone will like/ dislike it for various reasons.
Personally I enjoy posting a handful of photos a week of new cards I pickup or classics I have. I enjoy chatting with a number of people I’ve run into on there about the hobby I enjoy. Yeah, you have to weed through a lot of “UFS” “how much?” “are you selling…” but that’s understandable given how many people are actively selling cards on there.
I do enjoy gaining followers and posting stuff other people enjoy. Not overly surprising but the common/ basic cards usually get more action than rare/ valuable cards.
I tend to keep the folks I follow clean and limited. I don’t mind if people post a claim sale here or there. The ones that post the same image over and over or constant stream of sales I will unfollow.
In the end, it is what you make of it.
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instagram.com/japan_international_trade/
follow me on insta 
I only started recently about 2 years ago,
i think we all just need to do a 1st edition base zard give away like someone was doing recently… and yeah… get 100s of subs.
I know there aren’t too many little kids here, but there are a ton more on Instagram, and their comments are sometimes too good for me to resist. It’s like they make it too easy… I’m usually pretty nice about everything I say too. But yeah, DON’T be this guy:
This is also from over a year ago. I usually save stuff like this because it’s pretty much a classic to look back on.
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Follow me: @missing_number
Full throttle one time pics of every item in my collection. Also my mom says I’m handsome so you can keep your likes 
So if anyone wasn’t paying attention to this, turns out he gave up on the giveaway and just gave the card to himself or something lol.
Very entertaining to watch
I don’t see you ever giving away anything hahaha!
I only use Instagram to show my collection from time to time and to see other people’s collections. I really don’t buy or sell there (I only buy there from people I know) and so far I really haven’t seen any Instagram trash. Most people I follow are from this forum anyways so the likelihood of me seeing crap is rather low 
So if you don’t want to get involved in garbage I don’t think it’s difficult to stay away from it.
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I’m the same. I’m not very active on IG, but post some nice items from time to time, and look at other people’s collections. I’m also mainly following people from here, or others with big collections that made nice comments on posts of mine.
I have bought a few times from IG, but not a lot.
At the start I followed a lot of people, but lately I’ve been unfollowing quite a few. Especially those that post 10+ posts simultaneously, which completely fills your feed. Pretty annoying, especially since they’re usually a bunch of sale-posts… Don’t need that kind of crap.
But overall the people I follow, and most of the people that follow me, are just great collectors like myself, and it’s sometimes fun watching their collection progress and gems.
As long as you’re staying modest and small in terms of followings/followers, I don’t have a problem with IG. Just another kind of forum, sort of… Nothing like here though - but then again, nothing beats the E4 Forum as a community (although the TwistyPuzzles Forum, where I’m also very active, comes close. 
).
Greetz,
Quuador
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