Rick

@BaskoTaJolokia @Ruthlesshauser @BrandonDavisBD It’s a game… that 95% of the people buying Pokemon do not play. Nobody is buying sealed product for the potential excitement of pulling a Poke Pad, a very useful card in competitive play.

@RLRottman @Ruthlesshauser @BrandonDavisBD Wow, cynical much? It's a GAME and a collecting hobby. The cards are both collectibles and game board pieces. Most people aren't getting the dopamine hit because the card is expensive. They're getting the dopamine hit because the art is cool and the card is useful in the game.

if you scalp Pokémon cards you’re a bum

@Tazerface16 The United States started a war with a nation described as a massive sponsor of terrorism. Unfortunately, our department of Homeland Security was built and funded to round up immigrants who wash dishes in our restaurants, not terrorists who want to do us harm. Oops.

It's crazy watching this war with Iran expand into a religional conflict, then potentially a nuclear war. And at every critical juncture, watching the Israelis and the Trump administration make the exact wrong choice. It would be absolutely fascinating if it was so terrifying.

@tunstall18 @CardPurchaser With such great customer service skills, I don’t understand how any buyer could ever leave you negative feedback.

@CardPurchaser anybody have any luck getting a bad review removed? Guy left me my only bad review on eBay because the card got dinged up during shipping which wasn’t my fault obviously but he’s a piece of shit and left me a bad review anyway

@Acyn @NotHoodlum They did say that. Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran who was assassinated last month, issued a fatwa against developing nuclear weapons. It was made public in 2003.

Ron Johnson: All they had to do was say they're not going to pursue nuclear weapons, open themselves up to inspections—we would have left them alone.

@BaskoTaJolokia @Ruthlesshauser @BrandonDavisBD It’s taking advantage of people’s gambling addiction, many of which probably don’t realize they even have a gambling addiction. They just like to “open packs”… and the spike in dopamine they get when they pull something expensive.

@BrandonDavisBD If you scalp ANYTHING, you're a bum. Just absolute bottomfeeders taking advantage of peoples' love. I think scalping is legit cruel. You're wilfully ripping people off swiping a fair shot at making a memory. Robbing other humans of experiences so you can profit off of it. Trash.

@DillGatz @Osinttechnical Huh? It’s shaped like a giant glider.

@RLRottman @Osinttechnical 🤮 it’s a miracle it can even fly. Least aerodynamic jet ever produced

USAF B-52H heavy bomber returning to England from an Iran cruise missile strike mission this morning.

@Alidina @grok He can, it just takes longer. Look at what his war with Iran has done to energy prices. Unlike Pokémon cards, people actually need energy. Not only at the consumer level, but at every step in the supply chain.

@RLRottman @grok Yeah but Trump can’t post something on truth social and make the value of my collection go to shit either

I wasn’t into Pokemon when this dropped, and that’s perfectly fine, but the Paldean Fates ETB was sitting at $35.80 in early 2024. It has a current market price of $347.74. That’s a gain of 871.34%. That’s just one ETB. If you see an ETB, just buy it.

@robins_bre81098 @fre7044 @Osinttechnical Both mostly target communication systems. Unlike radar systems, communication systems are still susceptible to RF jamming.

@RLRottman @fre7044 @Osinttechnical Check out the EC 130H and the EA 37B

@Alidina I buy singles, mostly Japanese. I look at each set that comes out and pick the cards I like, usually the art rares. I then search for those cards and buy them. It's not only much cheaper to go this route instead of buying packs, but it's also more efficient.

@RLRottman Appreciate the input, out of curiosity if not collecting sealed and opening packs are you just a bystander? Genuine question.

You're still better off putting your money into the S&P 500. Not only do dividends roll into your account, but Pokémon also has a major liquidity problem not found in an index fund. Just because Collectr says your $50 ETB is worth $347, that doesn't mean someone will be willing to pay you that much for it. If you sell it to a vendor, they might pay you up to 80% of its value. You can try to sell it to a collector. If you go the eBay route, they will take around 20% in fees.

@Grok can you tell me what US stocks performed similarly to this Paldean Fates elite trainer box? No penny stocks, maybe more S&P 500/Nasdaq/Russell based

@robins_bre81098 @fre7044 @Osinttechnical None of the current Air Force ECM pods is like that. Brute force radar jamming hasn't been the focus for decades. It's one of the reasons they retired the EF-111.

@RLRottman @fre7044 @Osinttechnical Some of those pods contain propeller driven generators to produce high watts jammers.

@_CardGuy_ Additionally, the threat doesn't stop when you leave the show floor. If you walked around the show carrying a fancy Pelican case full of cards, or even worse, sold those cards for wads of cash, someone might follow you out and trail you home to see where you live.

Card shows - Pro Tip Card prices are up (and so is crime) Guard your wallets. Not just from dealers, but from thieves as well. Opportunists are lurking everywhere. Ladies, keep your purses close to the body and zipped. Men, Keep your wallets in the front pocket at shows where possible. Know where your money is at all times and don’t lay out a bundle on top of crowded card tables. @CardPurchaser

@j_marq7 @PokemonDealsTCG @StevenxTCG I doubt they're resellers. They're most likely gambling addicts. What type of person would risk getting into a fight in public, where everything is captured on video? That's degenerate addict behavior.

@PokemonDealsTCG @StevenxTCG I generally agree! However asked a few stores after my 9-5, there were 3 fights yesterday with people in lines. they were all Walmarts to be fair LOL but something tells me those fights aren’t from these people who work off hour jobs or just collecting…it’s scalpers. Fighting?🤦🏻‍♂️

Kinda tired of people calling others waiting in line “jobless behavior”. The entire world does not run on a 9-5 schedule. Jobs are more flexible than ever. Millions of people work retail jobs, restaurant jobs, overnight shifts, non traditional hours. I had a 9-5 job for the past 10 years (I mainly freelance now) and I could literally go into work and leave whenever I wanted because I was trusted to do my job (and then I was in charge) If you’re upset that you’re stuck at work and calling everyone else who has free time “jobless”, maybe to need to find a job that fits your lifestyle better 🤷‍♂️

@PokemonDealsTCG @StevenxTCG I've worked more non-conventional work shifts than I can count. I both laugh and cringe every time I see someone suggest that if you're standing in a line at 10 AM, you're unemployed. People who think like that are entitled.

It's crazy how many people seem to think that literally no other job exists than a standard 9-5 locked up in an office somewhere. If a person seriously thinks that way, I suggest giving Pokemon a break and instead use some free time to meet other human beings face to face. People work all kinds of shifts. Middle of the night drops can be rough but for people who work overnight, maybe those are some of the only drops they can try online. There is so much selfish energy that some people can't see 2 feet in front of themselves. A lot of people who are stable and employed are okay to wait in line a couple hours and make friends with other fans doing the same thing. Yes, a lot of people waiting are flippers but it's not literally everyone lol, that's ridiculous. I saw tons of real collectors get packs and rip them today from waiting in line a little bit, or getting lucky on a store visit. The people who have no nuance and suggest every person waiting or visiting store for product is a "scalper" seem to be unaware that is one of the most annoying and toxic perspectives in this space, and it's not remotely realistic. It's not fun to miss anything due to work, but it's gonna happen sometimes. That's life, there will be more opportunities.

@DillGatz @Osinttechnical Yes, a WRONG opinion. The B-52 is a thing of beauty.

@RLRottman @Osinttechnical It's an opinion brotha

The Navy Crowlers fly Wild Weasel missions. I know they also carry EW pods. I don't know what exactly those pods do. I doubt they lay down a large bandwidth of RF noise to hide a formation of attacking aircraft. That technique largely no longer works. Current ECM relies a lot less on jamming and more on deception. Fighter aircraft's active EW capabilities are contained in pods. They can be installed or removed based on mission requirements. Their function is self-preservation against RF threats.

@RLRottman @fre7044 @Osinttechnical Why does the the Navy have EF Growlers? Why do fighter aircraft have active ECW capabilities?

The Air Force no longer has electronic warfare aircraft. 🙁 The current doctrine is to knock out command-and-control radar with standoff cruise missiles. If they know where SAM sites are, they target those with cruise missiles, too. In Desert Storm, they flew F-4G Wild Weasels in with the initial B-52 strikes. Now they use F-16s to fly Wild Weasel missions. I don't know how they do that with a single-seat aircraft, but even in the late 1980s, it was pretty easy to target a SAM site with an AGM-88 HARM missile.

@fre7044 @Osinttechnical Put the weed down and pay attention. What was the first strikes on Iran? They're air defense missile systems. What leads in on every air strike? Electronic warfare aircraft. More sophisticated and more powerful watts delivery to block out surveillance and targeting radars.

@fre7044 @skyart66 @robins_bre81098 @Osinttechnical How many B-52s were downed by enemy fire in Desert Storm? They faced more advanced Soviet surface-to-air (SAM) sites and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) over Iraq than they faced over North Vietnam. The answer is none. No B-52 was lost to enemy action in Desert Storm.

@skyart66 @robins_bre81098 @Osinttechnical North Vietnam's air defense was "gone" in 1970. You sent in the B-52s claiming all was clear. Then all of a sudden...

@fre7044 @robins_bre81098 @Osinttechnical The B-52H has larger, more powerful engines than the B-52D models used in the Vietnam War. They're not stealthier. It's not that kind of aircraft. The B-52H is covered head-to-tail with advanced electronic warfare equipment.

@robins_bre81098 @Osinttechnical OK, now explain how B-52s are now faster and stealthier, 60 years later? As for Iran's air defense, what makes you so convinced that it's all destroyed? Keep on dreaming and bring'em on.