[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[lyonhaert]

"We've been doing it for three or four weeks now."

I bet they're not even keeping track of how many potential players they've turned away because the cap was "filled". That'll bite them and lose them money instead of making a little.

[RxPhantom]

I don't think I've discussed it much here, but I love music. Mainly rock, but that's a really big sphere. I just found out that Taylor Hawkins died. For those of you who may not know, he was the drummer for the Foo Fighters. He was only 50. This day needs to be over. I'm done.

[Jemolk]

"Actually, we're sold out, but you can buy a ticket for next week or the week after."

This is the part that just straight-up breaks my brain. How are you sold out when there are multiple empty tables? I'm not convinced that charging table rental for Commander is the best business move, unless they're doing this as a casual event and thus also handing out WotC's prize support to everyone who enters -- which, come to think of it, might be related to the cap if they're doing that -- but really, turning people away who want to play in your store is a bad idea. People who are in there to play will buy cards, and sometimes snacks and drinks if you sell them. People who just leave after finding out that you're not going to let them play, obviously, do none of that. Daft business decisions aren't rare, of course, but this one seems pretty out there.

Couldn't blame you for being pissed, either. Who wouldn't be?

I will say, though, there are fates worse than driving 30-45 minutes each way to play Magic, so long as you have the time -- I do it every Friday because I prefer the environment out there, but it sounds like you're busy enough that it might make things more difficult. With luck, though, that can end up being a stable, if less than entirely optimal, solution.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

My daughter was really happy see me though.

I think this is the silver lining. Your daughter's random emoji strings are such a highlight of your presence here. She seems like a great kid and probably deserves your time more than the halfwits who won't even sell you a seat for a game of EDH.

On the topic of selling tickets for casual play: I think it has its place. If a shop is small enough, gumming up the seats with people who just want a place to loiter is bad business especially if they've got events to fire at set times. $5 or so for a place to sit for a few hours in AC and under a roof ain't a bad rate.

Big stores really have no excuse though. If they've got the room, bringing in as many potential customers as possible is a must to maximize profits. Even if only 1/2 of the players actually buy something, the likelihood and volume of those sales is higher if those players are incentivized and encouraged to bring friends or attend regularly for lack of barriers to entry. If they elect to sell tickets to play anyway, I believe they must dedicate a day/an evening a week for primarily EDH as to maximize ticket sales. $80 isn't nearly enough to turn away potential patronage though. Not even close.

[RxPhantom]

@TheAmericanSpirit: that was very kind of you to say. I'll have to get her to do another emoji string soon. I did get to read her two stories for her bedtime routine, and that's always a highlight of my day.

But this store is frustrating for sure. This store is in a big strip mall, and they even rented out the storefront next door to build a freakin' D&D themed restaurant that is still being built. Despite that, they're still turning people away. I'm not going to buy a...I don't know... a Magic Missile Frankfurter or whatever when the game store just turned me away. I don't know why they're doing this or what problem they're solving, but I don't think it's going to do them any favors.

[EonAon]

My only response is that they are playing it VERY cautiously since we just got out of covid and want to try and limit their liabilities. Bad news would travel fast and be very bad for business if they opened more tables and something happened. This is devil's advocate as I have no idea the actual means and motives of this shop.

[duducrash]

*sigh*

I went to my LGS today to play some Commander. I only make it out every four weeks at most. I go in and start to make my way to one of the two open tables, and one of the staff asks "are you here for Commander?"

"Yep," I say as a barely break stride.
"Well, we're actually selling tickets now."
*quizzical look* "Ok."
"We've been doing it for three or four weeks now."
"It's been about a month since I've been here. What do I do?"
"Actually, we're sold out, but you can buy a ticket for next week or the week after."

I just turned around and left. I looked into it further, and they have been capping it at 16 spots. This is a pretty big LGS too, and there were two open tables when I walked in. I'm not the kind of person who yells at the help, so I said nothing. I had been looking forward to this for weeks. This has been a long week, and to top it all off, I had to fire someone today. I don't know if any of you have ever had to do that, but it's awful. But hey, at least I get to play some Magic tonight! Oh wait, no. No I don't. I don't mind paying a venue fee, especially since Commander play doesn't exactly help the store rake in the cash. I don't understand the 16-player cap. This store has massive amounts of room. The numbers don't add up either. At $5 per head, they're only making $80 in ticket sales/venue fees. I was also planning on spending at least $30 in singles.

I'm really disappointed and angry. I was just starting to feel good about Magic again. I started coming to this store because mine closed, and now the next closest is ~30 miles away. My daughter was really happy see me though.

I know this is a world wide forum and timing might be really hard to define but anyone has ever tried to promote a nexus spelltable gaming session?

[ISBPathfinder]

So, I guess take this with a grain of salt being that this is a post from someone you don't know on the internet..... but I just sold fake cards through cardkingdom.... Just opened some cards and I had a few Lotus Fields (YES A MODERN PRINT $5 CARD) that seemed a little funky. I noticed that one of the three doesn't even have the hollographic in the bottom and they all feel a bit odd like they might be a touch thin perhaps. Whats really screwing with me is that they seem to all pass a lot of inspection outside of one of them clearly having no holographic and one of them looking a little smugged on its print job but bad printing is kind of common in the magic community so what the hell. Now I am suddenly very paranoid as these pass a lot of my casual inspection and not for the fact that one had no holo I don't know that I would have even looked closer.

Help internet, what the hell do I do other than reach out to them. I often buy from the big card shops because I felt it gave me a level of insulation from this kinda %$#% happening. Now I am paranoid as %$#% about the rest of my collection as I often don't look that closely at a lot of the under $50 kinda stuff.

I tried taking a pic and uploading it but @Feyd_Ruin has weird restrictions on images to the point that I can never upload real images here. No clue how to make an image smaller size.

[Guardman]

I tried taking a pic and uploading it but @Feyd_Ruin has weird restrictions on images to the point that I can never upload real images here. No clue how to make an image smaller size.

For images I always use imgbox.com whenever I need to upload an image to the site. It's a free site specifically meant to share images, so you can link the image directly to MTGNexus without having to upload it/attach it to a post. While simple and free to use, do note that you have to click something at the bottom if you want to show the entire image without it being clicked on when copying their preformatted img.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

So, I guess take this with a grain of salt being that this is a post from someone you don't know on the internet..... but I just sold fake cards through cardkingdom.... Just opened some cards and I had a few Lotus Fields (YES A MODERN PRINT $5 CARD) that seemed a little funky. I noticed that one of the three doesn't even have the hollographic in the bottom and they all feel a bit odd like they might be a touch thin perhaps. Whats really screwing with me is that they seem to all pass a lot of inspection outside of one of them clearly having no holographic and one of them looking a little smugged on its print job but bad printing is kind of common in the magic community so what the hell. Now I am suddenly very paranoid as these pass a lot of my casual inspection and not for the fact that one had no holo I don't know that I would have even looked closer.

Help internet, what the hell do I do other than reach out to them. I often buy from the big card shops because I felt it gave me a level of insulation from this kinda %$#% happening. Now I am paranoid as %$#% about the rest of my collection as I often don't look that closely at a lot of the under $50 kinda stuff.

I tried taking a pic and uploading it but @Feyd_Ruin has weird restrictions on images to the point that I can never upload real images here. No clue how to make an image smaller size.

Yeah, the amount of counterfeit cards has exploded in the past ten years. WotC added the holofoil sticker as a way to mitigate the problem, but counterfeiters are a clever bunch and work tirelessly to fool us. I too have noticed some odd things lately: for example, I have an intuition that feels a tad thin for tempest-era cardstock, but it passes the internal blue paper tests and a few others, but it doesn't stop me from wondering.

Frankly though, I feel the same about counterfeit cards as I do counterfeit bills: if it does the job and no one makes a stink, it's basically real enough. The value of any given thing is entirely staked in the belief in that value, rather than from any intrinsic quality of the aforementioned thing. So don't worry, just believe. Ain't nothing but a thing anyway at the end of the day.

Edit: also hasbro has worked with a few different cardstock suppliers over magic's lifespan, so there is sadly no uniform "feel" to judge when comparing cards of different eras.

[Jemolk]

So, I guess take this with a grain of salt being that this is a post from someone you don't know on the internet..... but I just sold fake cards through cardkingdom.... Just opened some cards and I had a few Lotus Fields (YES A MODERN PRINT $5 CARD) that seemed a little funky. I noticed that one of the three doesn't even have the hollographic in the bottom and they all feel a bit odd like they might be a touch thin perhaps. Whats really screwing with me is that they seem to all pass a lot of inspection outside of one of them clearly having no holographic and one of them looking a little smugged on its print job but bad printing is kind of common in the magic community so what the hell. Now I am suddenly very paranoid as these pass a lot of my casual inspection and not for the fact that one had no holo I don't know that I would have even looked closer.

Help internet, what the hell do I do other than reach out to them. I often buy from the big card shops because I felt it gave me a level of insulation from this kinda %$#% happening. Now I am paranoid as %$#% about the rest of my collection as I often don't look that closely at a lot of the under $50 kinda stuff.

I tried taking a pic and uploading it but @Feyd_Ruin has weird restrictions on images to the point that I can never upload real images here. No clue how to make an image smaller size.

With the number of print errors I've run into just opening packs, it wouldn't shock me if they were verifiably real. I've seen badly damaged holograms and visibly-shifted-out-of-place holograms, both straight out of packs, and sometimes both at the same time, so while missing ones would be a new one, it wouldn't be too surprising if a more played copy had had one of the badly damaged and shifted ones become pretty destroyed, or even just accidentally omitted out of the pack. Come to think of it, I have some fuzzy memory of someone else opening a card that was really bizarrely misprinted (fresh from a pack, that is) with regard to the hologram, and it might have been that it was straight-up missing. As for the thinness -- that's something I run into a lot with cards from that approximate era. It's kinda suspect, but they could also be real easily enough -- which ultimately means that in a very real sense, they are real cards, whatever their source, be it official WotC-sanctioned printing presses or not. As @TheAmericanSpirit points out, the value "realness" has is down to our perception of it, since they derive their value from our belief that they have value.

All in all, I can see why it would alarm you, but I think you're probably fine.

[pokken]

So, I guess take this with a grain of salt being that this is a post from someone you don't know on the internet..... but I just sold fake cards through cardkingdom.... Just opened some cards and I had a few Lotus Fields (YES A MODERN PRINT $5 CARD) that seemed a little funky. I noticed that one of the three doesn't even have the hollographic in the bottom

was lotus field printed in a secondary pack that might not have a holofoil? I haven't opened any of the challenger decks or anything. or promo packs?

[Dunharrow]

Did you try contacting CardKingdom? They will probably exchange the cards for you.
I found out after some 6 years that my Scrubland was a fake, brought it back to the store's owner, and he confirmed that he had a total of 3 fake scrublands in his inventory that his employee bought from someone without properly checking. Since the price had gone up so much in 6 years he gave me a box of MH2 as compensation.
Nobody wants to known as the place that sells fakes. It's usually an honest mistake and they will replace it and eat the hit.

If CK says it is a legitimate card they will still probably swap it for you. You are not obliged to accept cards that look like that.

[ISBPathfinder]

I did reach out to cardkingdom via their support. I have yet to hear back from them. I hope they offer something better than me paying for shipping to send them back to them as that is not really what I am going to want as the cost in $$$ and my time isn't nothing and we are just talking about $15 worth of cards here. I am more miffed just at the point that their reputation is a bit on the line here for me at least. I shop with them very regularly and I will be very mad if they don't make this right for me. We will see what they come up with though.

[Legend]

How 'bout them Oscars? Props to Chris Rock for biting his tongue cuz you know he had a low blow on the tip of his tongue.

[toctheyounger]

How 'bout them Oscars? Props to Chris Rock for biting his tongue cuz you know he had a low blow on the tip of his tongue.

Honestly, it's been 24 hours thereabouts and I'm already sick of hearing about it. Such a non-issue. Neither guy acted well, but I get why it happened. As a presenter you're obliged to make some jibes at the attendees, I think Rock just chose the wrong target. As a husband it's crappy to have someone make fun of your wife's auto-immune disease in front of room of her peers.

Either way you slice it, I think it's way out of proportion in the media. We really need to stop caring so much what actors do and say outside of the screen. They are just actors, they barely even live in the real world, they're not people to relate to, and the sooner we all realise that the happier we will all be.

That said, I bet Ricky Gervais is glad he's stopped hosting awards ceremonies. I bet Smith wouldn't have stopped at a slap.

[Legend]

. . it's crappy to have someone make fun of your wife's auto-immune disease in front of room of her peers.

All true, but to be fair, she chose to have a shaved head for half of her life so how was anyone to know it wasn't by choice that day, too. *shrug*. And I wouldn't be surprised if Will is on an antidepressant or some other psychotropic / mood altering pharma because he was all over the place emotionally. I observed the same behavior in a (adult) friend who was on meds for ADHD. Anyways, yeah. Good points.

[toctheyounger]

. . it's crappy to have someone make fun of your wife's auto-immune disease in front of room of her peers.

All true, but to be fair, she chose to have a shaved head for half of her life so how was anyone to know it wasn't by choice that day, too. *shrug*. And I wouldn't be surprised if Will is on an antidepressant or some other psychotropic / mood altering pharma because he was all over the place emotionally. I observed the same behavior in a (adult) friend who was on meds for ADHD. Anyways, yeah. Good points.

I'm told she's been pretty outspoken about her diagnosis. But yeah, Will is a bit all over the place. I wouldn't be surprised if he did have some mental health problems, not shaming though - I've been on anti-D's myself for the last decade. At the very least though, he's at least not as bad as Kanye, not by a long way. That guy clearly has issues, and clearly isn't being treated. It's no longer funny what he's doing to the people in his close circle, it's abusive behavior.

Anyway, yeah. We all got stuff going on, and the whole thing here is just airing of issues in public that ought not to be. Given everything else going on around the world right now there's no reason it should be page one news.

[BeneTleilax]

Talks in Istanbul seem to be proceeding marginally better than prior series, probably because Russia's realized they cannot take Kyiv in any way that matters.

[Legend]

I did reach out to cardkingdom via their support. I have yet to hear back from them. I hope they offer something better than me paying for shipping to send them back to them as that is not really what I am going to want as the cost in $$$ and my time isn't nothing and we are just talking about $15 worth of cards here. I am more miffed just at the point that their reputation is a bit on the line here for me at least. I shop with them very regularly and I will be very mad if they don't make this right for me. We will see what they come up with though.

There's hope. I had a bad experience turned good with Card Kingdom. I've ordered from them many times. Once, I ordered a $200 near mint judge foil but received one in the mail that looked like a tank rolled over it. I mean it looked like a $200 piece of garbage. Long story short, I sent it back as instructed for a replacement. They reportedly never received it, but they sent me a new one anyways, no questions asked. And the replacement was NM/M.

[ISBPathfinder]

I did reach out to cardkingdom via their support. I have yet to hear back from them. I hope they offer something better than me paying for shipping to send them back to them as that is not really what I am going to want as the cost in $$$ and my time isn't nothing and we are just talking about $15 worth of cards here. I am more miffed just at the point that their reputation is a bit on the line here for me at least. I shop with them very regularly and I will be very mad if they don't make this right for me. We will see what they come up with though.

There's hope. I had a bad experience turned good with Card Kingdom. I've ordered from them many times. Once, I ordered a $200 near mint judge foil but received one in the mail that looked like a tank rolled over it. I mean it looked like a $200 piece of garbage. Long story short, I sent it back as instructed for a replacement. They reportedly never received it, but they sent me a new one anyways, no questions asked. And the replacement was NM/M.

So...... they offered for me to ship it back to them and they would verify the cards and send me replacements if they were fake and gave me a scan code for free shipping. I complained that it was $15 of cards and they wanted me to wait 2-3 weeks to have them verified and returned to me when it already took them a week to send them to me in the first place given low worker numbers and high shipping times and they agreed to give me a reimbursement of the funds given my transaction history with them (literally tens of thousands of dollars of business with them). They do want me to send them back though still so... I guess I need to do that but at least I don't have to wait for them to recieve and process them to order more.

Still not sure how pleased I am with the outcome but I guess not totally pissed. Spending a month of my time waiting for my cards when someone else %$#% up isn't my idea of making things right lol. I am glad that they see how I wasn't super pleased when they offered that. Half of my annoyance is just how much time and effort this is for me the consumer when we are only talking about roughly $15 of cards. Its honestly not really worth my time but I reached out to them mostly because I was shocked that fake cards would go through a major store without being caught by those taking in inventory or those sending it out.

[Legend]

I was shocked that fake cards would go through a major store without being caught by those taking in inventory or those sending it out.

Back in the day, back when the world was young, store employees knew a hobby "trade" or two - cards, toys, comics, etc. Nowadays, stores hire whoever they can get. Maybe they know their stuff, maybe not.

[Hermes_]

[Ulka]

Well april fools has been an odd day for me historically but getting a promotion and raise on it kinda has made the day better. now if they are joking, imma throw some hands.

[tstorm823]

imma

On the record, "imma" is the best contraction in the English language.