With playtest cards showing evidence of forgery and fraud.
Knowing a good number of my friends (and even more of yours) have taken a bad financial hit.
Seeing CGC as inept to authentication and watching that trust evaporate overnight.
I just wanted to remind the masses at large: It is still an AMAZING time to be a collector. While we’ll always deal with keyboard warriors blaming others and YouTubers spewing half-truths and pointing fingers, I still am in disbelief at the sheer number of level headed individuals who are working hard to maintain discipline and preserve the truth. The number of people not only NOT jumping to conclusions, but attempting to HELP others within the hobby (often at no benefit to themselves).
I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone despite the negative, the positive out weighs it by 100 fold. There are some excellent people here and I could not be more thrilled to be apart of this community. Thank you everyone for making this place what it is, even if chaos likes to creep in from time to time.
Yep!!! honestly I love Pokemon more when I am ignorant of what is going around and just locking in on my personal collection goals (which may or may not change every 5 business days)
There is a ton to hate in this hobby. I still have yet to find Prismatic on the shelves :(. But coming to this community everyday and just enjoying people is a huge benefit.
@silversnorlax204 , I was trying to find the right way to word this myself, but you knocked it out the park!
We are in a great hobby, collecting TCG, where we can actually see and enjoy what we’ve put our love and energy into, and appreciate our collections, as well as the people around us in the hobby. I think the biggest challenge is preventing the “infinite extravagance and keeping up appearances of the internet” from raining on our parade.
The future may always hold bad things, but even in the worst of times, if we remain even the slightest bit optimistic, we can always find something to make us smile.
This is by far my favourite place when it comes to Pokemon card collecting, great people all around and the amount of knowledge in the hobby here is unsurpassed.
%90 of the cool stuff I know about pokemon cards came from here. I lurked and learned a lot for at least a year, but probably longer than that. Just went through tons of articles.
@triple definately of all people, you’ve had some pretty terrible luck. A long time goal achieved, then it was stolen. I know I’m unlikely to ever see your cynthia’s feelings special goal card, but I kept my eyes peeled at my local card show either way.
Obviously PFM broke the awful scandal, and showed what it really means to have the love of collecting and knowledge at the heart of what we all do.
OP having the “rare” writer title shows your own contributions have been substantial(I know I’ve read some of your articles @silversnorlax204 ). The top %1 of the pokemon card space is here. Maybe the top %0.1 even.
I have discussed with my friend my own burnout. Like Triple I think I’m at least taking a massive step back. I’m not touching anything new if/until pokemon company can get their act together. Bunch of regigigases the lost of them. Their ability is definately slowstart AND truant combined. But by slowing myself down, and changing focus to other interests I have, I hope to balance myself. There is so much good, and all that can be done is to continue to be a positive influence, and encourage others to not give into the degrading characters that have invaded for short term gain. Hurts to see how many new people are throwing their hands up in frustration and quitting before they even start. But we have some good people here. Very patient, very understanding. Especially true because from first hand experience, my own foolish behavior was given patience.
Another thought (my last for this thread).
With everything going on ATM, it may seem like there’s a lot of negativity and immaturity, BUT that’s all part of things maturing and growing.
In time, with maturity, we come to see the good things in many bad things. It doesn’t mean we look at the world through rose colored glasses, ignoring the bad stuff. It simply means that we seek and are able to see the greys in things that appear to be black and white.
This is also one of my favorite places on the internet, and I’m glad we’re all here to help it stay that way.
