Anybody who thinks post-original EX era cards are good should stop hitting the crack pipe…the rest of us know you can’t stop, but still, c’mon man
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I wish sellers wouldn’t ship cards by putting the card in a sleeve and then putting it upside down in a top loader. My experience is that the card usually falls out and the bottom of the top loader damages the edge of the card.
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Seems preferable to the card falling out of the toploader or touching tape?
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lol what? EX era has so much going for it; ex’s, amazing artwork that isn’t just a Pokémon standing in front of a generic background (jungle vaporeon, base set blastoise, base set chansey, and way more), and most importantly, gold stars. Plus the pack art is way more detailed than any wotc pack art
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Rant incoming: I wish the Pokemon selling community in general had better shipping practices. Not saying anyone here, obviously, but too often there’s scotch tape on top of the top loader. Don’t. Use. Scotch. Tape. Get some painter’s tape please if you need to use tape. Use a piece of paper over the opening of the top loader and then tape the paper on to the top loader. Or, better yet, get some team bags. If you’re not a frequent seller, okay I understand not buying team bags, but if you ship a lot, go get them please. They’re so cheap for what they offer in terms of protection and convenience to your buyer (and you the seller).
I know a lot of people ship with PWEs because they’re cheap and keep costs lower. Not knocking people for the hustle, I get it, but small 4x8 bubble mailers don’t cost much more than pwes, at least in Canada, in terms of total shipping costs. Use cardboard or some sort of support, it’s not a guarantee that the cards don’t get damaged but it should be less likely at least. Too often I order a single from someone and it comes in a PWE, no other protection, top loader with scotch tape all over the top.
This also applies to shipping graded cards. Please use boxes people or at the least use some cardboard in your bubble mailers. The former is perfect and almost guarantees a safe delivery, the latter isn’t ideal but better than nothing.
Shipping practices are so, so important, it’s worth the extra cost/effort to make sure things arrive safely. I’m always much more likely to buy from a good shipping seller than a bad one, regardless if the good shipping seller has higher costs. I like knowing my cards will arrive safely and not have to deal with the frustration of a damaged card or slab. Okay, rant over and sorry for the rant, thanks for reading.
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I believe they are talking about cards after the EX era.
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I hear you, but my personal philosophy is: all that matters is that the card arrived safely. It’s the seller’s responsibility to get the buyer the card in the condition advertised. In my view, it doesn’t matter how this is accomplished. I’ve shipped out many, many thousands of cards over the past decade+ and I’ve never had a card arrived damaged (or at least no one’s ever complained about it lol) – despite the fact that I often don’t use conventional packing methods. I personally don’t understand why some buyers are picky about how sellers pack cards. You’re buying the card, not the packing – as long as you get the card you purchased in the condition you purchased it in, that’s all that matters, IMO.
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Yeah, I agree, all that matters is that the card arrives safely. I’m not personally caught up in how it’s shipped, just that it is shipped safely and securely. And I also agree it doesn’t matter how it’s achieved. I’ve had sellers send me slabs in large bubble mailers but they wrapped the slab in layers upon layers of bubble wrap. I’ve had sellers send me slabs in a small bubble mailer unsealed inside a small box. I’ve had singles arrive in a pwe, no tape on top, and they were fine and I’ve had singles in bubbles with lots of cardboard wrapped around it. How it’s wrapped/protected doesn’t matter, all that matters is that it is protected.
For me, the shipping practices that I outlined are all about streamlining/standardizing a method to ship safely and securely. It’s not the only way, it might not even be the best way. But it’s a good way that anyone can do, that 99% of the time nothing goes wrong. But you’re right, as long as the item purchased arrives the way it was sold then nothing else matters.
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On the topic of shipping things securely, I probably also have an unpopular opinion. Personally, I ship everything in a box with bubble wrap and a shipping label with tracking. If the item isn’t worth that method of being shipped, then it is an item I simply will not sell and I’d rather just hold it in my collection. In other words, I don’t sell anything for under $20. If a raw card was worth that amount, I would ship it that way. I highly value the mitigation of buyer complaints. I don’t want to deal with scammers any more than I have to. With tracking, it’s virtually guaranteed that they won’t win a “item didn’t arrive” case, at least not at my expense.
I totally understand that others have different views. Many are totally content with shipping $4 cards in an envelope with a stamp. I just don’t like dealing with things on that level, because I can’t be confident that the item will arrive in the condition described. So I avoid that entire side of the hobby, at least as a seller.
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With shipping I hate it when its over protective with cardboard and tape every where and tape on top of top loader. I agree with Arkhive and best to use a bit of paper over the top and tape it to the side, One person sent me a card with the top loader fully wrapped in paper which I thought was neat the card not falling out of that and no tape at all. But I also feel it if the shipping bag is to big then the card is way more likely to fall out which I have received as the top loader can fly about and spin 360 alot compared to a smaller compact size.
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@arkhive, Agreed on the shipping comments, I have been a part of many hobbies and Pokemon is by far the worst in terms of the general care of shipping cards safely PSA and otherwise.
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my PSA 10 japanese rocket grimer came shipped in a bag. no rigid protection at all. literally just in a bag with a bunch of tape around it and a shipping label.
miraculously the case is perfect. IDK how it survived but USPS and Canada Post must have babied this thing.
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This might actually be a popular opinion, but it’s one that I don’t think is discussed often: I’m not a fan of the proliferation of promo cards in collection tins/boxes. When I was collecting as a kid (gens 1 and 2), promo cards were not common. I do remember third party blisters coming along during gen 2 that included promo cards from other events (flying pikachu, etc.), but you couldn’t find hidden fates tins that guaranteed a charizard card. Once upon a time, you had to rip packs or buy expensive singles to get cool Pokémon - now, all you have to do is buy a tin or a collection box (or one of those $5 blisters). On one hand, it’s great that TPCI made it easy to get these cards. On the other, it’s somewhat diluted the value of owning cards of Pokémon I like.
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Booster boxes > ETBs
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Tins > ETB and collection boxes.
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I hate most of the popular Pokemon youtubers. The over the top reactions just take away from the cards themselves. They have these streams where they are talking more about getting to a specific “like/sub” count. I get that people are trying to make a job out of Pokemon but the entire thing just feels dirty.
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I just noticed yesterday the sheer amount of promos we get these days. I’m personally not complaining more promos can give us more cards to be enjoyed, but things really have boomed over the years. The ex era has 40 Black Star Promos and though some from tins many had interesting releases. Sun and Moon era has almost 250! Cool releases are still present it just goes to show an evolution of sorts of promos being put out more or into more product like boxes/tins which is pretty interesting to me.
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Hey guys, it’s me, PokeStonks here back with yet another Champion’s Path ETB opening. Before we get into the video I’d like to remind you all that I stream daily on twitch at Twitch and I’m excited to announce that we have 3 new products in our online store! I printed 3 new generic low quality designs onto $0.30 shirts and now I’m selling them to you for only $28 each! If you want to help out and support the channel, purchasing merch is the best way to do so, as well as liking the video, subscribing, and commenting! The comment topic of the day is “What is your favorite Pokemon?” so go ahead and head into the comment section and tell me what it is! I definitely read every single comment like I say I do. Lastly I’d like to thank our sponsor for the video, Nord VPN. If you’re like me and you browse >>website<< and find a lot of shows that are unavailable in your region, you can use Nord VPN to bypass those restrictions by making your internet connection look like it’s appearing from a different country thus granting you access to the videos! I definitely use this service every single day to stream 4K video that’s only available in 4 countries, and the smooth and easy to use interface make changing your location a breeze so sign up today using my promo code “PokeDiscount4768531” to get 3% off of your 60 month subscription. Now that that’s all out of the way, let’s jump into the video!
and then you’re 6 and a half minutes into the video and nothing has even happened yet
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I know it’s easier and funnier to shit on TPC for releasing 5 new Charizords per month, but actually it’s our fault as consumers. As long as TPC makes 10 times the profit on a Zard set, why would they release less of them? If you want less Zards, stop buying them.
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i love unlistedleaf but cannot stand leonhart.idk why but UL just does it for me even though he is arguably cringier.
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