I took the mail out early this morning (8AM). I had 6 packages go out today! Feels good, my dude!
One of the orders was a PD/SE32 booster box which I sold for $68. A successful flip! I originally purchased that booster box for $30.
PD/SE32 is a really difficult booster box to get a hold of nowadays. The only one I saw on eBay besides the one I was listing was selling for around $90 and it was coming straight from Japan. It’s been a highly sought after out-of-print booster box for awhile now.
I bought two or three of them when Kirwan’s game store had a sale on them a year or two ago. I’m guessing it was 2019, but time really flies so it’s possible that it could have been in 2018.
I opened one of the booster boxes, and saved the other. I figured I would hold onto it for a special occasion, but then I started pursuing my dreams of being an entrepreneur and I decided that I should sell it rather than having it take up shelf space. It appreciated nicely in the time that I had it, and I’m pleased with the sale.
Other Weiss Schwarz cards that I bought to flip haven’t done so well. I bought a box of JoJo’s Golden wind (or is it wing?) starter decks because I heard that there were license issues with that set. I was gambling on that set getting permanently pulled, in which case I would have some rare product that nobody could get anywhere else.
It turned out that there was no licensing issue, or it got resolved, and the set continued printing. Additionally, the English Edition came out, which makes the Japanese edition cards I have almost pointless to be selling in the USA. Every few months I’ll sell a deck, but the price I charge is not competitive due to having paid full price for the box.
I anticipate holding onto those starter decks for several years. Eventually, the available stock of those cards will diminish, and customers who still want the cards will have me as a source. My time to shine for JoJo’s starter decks is not yet!
Trading card hedge fund. THE DREAM.
The dream is to do what Rudy from Alpha Investments does with magic, only I’ll be doing it with Prememo and Weiss Schwarz. Buy discounted product, sit on it for 3+ years, sell at a large profit margin. Rinse and repeat.
The issue with that hedge fund is that the money gets tied up in the product for so long. Then there are all sorts of risks where the printing company could make another print run, or release an English edition and the value of my investment tanks. The important thing to remember is rule #1 of investing– never lose money. Rule #2 is equally important– Never forget Rule No.1.
If the value of a set tanks because of Bushiroad or Movic making another print run, it just means that I have to hold onto the product for longer. Years and years may pass, but eventually, the product I have will sell at an appropriate price.
That’s the kind of investing I’m looking to do, but it’s going to be challenging because I’m going to have to be patient and willing to invest lots of money into building a large enough hedge fund that will pay me a reasonable salary.
I’m not worried about it at all. This is an exciting time for me, and I look forward to learning this shit out and growing my knowledge and my processes.
I made good progress yesterday on everything except socializing. I finally apologized to M. via Discord chat about how I was grumpy and distant from him when he visited here. I spoke shame, explaining how I felt guilty/shameful for being poor.
I invited M. to play OpenRCT2 with me sometime. I want to try the multiplayer feature. I want to catch up with my best friend, as well.
I got invited to play TableTop Simulator this saturday with Nerds United. I’m going to decline because my answer is not, “heck yes!” It’s more like, “ehh, okay.” which I think means that I’m actually not interested.
I don’t want to play TTS because my internet can barely handle it. It’s a nuisance to have to worry about internet and voice distortion, in addition to having to figure out how to exist in that virtual game space, and be social, and manage anxiety, and hear everyone’s voice atop eachother’s… Just no.
If it were a one hour event, I would consider it. It’s a 5 hour event. Sure, I could leave any time, but that brings up another issue about my codependency. No game is exactly 1 hour long, which means that I would have to quit playing before the 1 hour was up, and I’d just be sitting there spectating until the 1 hour has elapsed.
Alternatively, I could go overtime, and leave after the game concludes which took the closest to 1 hour. But if I stay 15 minutes over the hour, why not stay 30 minutes over? Why not stay 45? Why not stay 2 hours, 3, or 5?
I just sent an invite to the organizer, J. I declined without stating a reason.
What’s my unstated reason? I’m boycotting covid lockdown. I’m boycotting the shitty user experience that is Table Top Simulator. I’m making excuses and I don’t want social contact, too.
It’s not really a boycott if I already bought Table Top Simulator. LOL.
Ok real reasons. I don’t want to spend any time with B. who I think is toxic. I don’t want to have a poor gaming experience due to my internet. I don’t trust myself to have the responsibility to call it quits when I am ready to be done.
I took a break and I had oatmeal with cranberries, almonds, and walnuts. Those cranberries are addictive! Must be all the sugar. I couldn’t find cranberries without added sugar. There are 50% less sugar cranberries, but those cost a lot more. I just ended up buying the cheapest bag I could find, but damn, they’re so good! I have to be careful with those and not overindulge.
I also ate the rest of the pistachios I have. Whenever I buy pistachios, I end up with a handful that I can’t open with my fingers. I feel guilty about this, but I usually throw them out after they sit in a bowl on my counter for a couple days. I don’t have the right tools to open a sturdy pistachio shell, so they just get wasted.
Not anymore. I’m putting them in a jar and I’ll hold onto them until I do have a way to open them! Even a hammer would do…
Happy Thursday!
I figured out that my lock screen disables do not disturb mode on Pop!_OS. That’s not cool. I don’t think this OS should have notifications. Notifications are a bad way to alert a user of something. Notifications are distractive, and they violate the rules of Program or be Programmed Ten Commands for a Digital Age (Douglas Rushkoff.)
I wish there was a trivial way to completely disable the notification system in Pop!_OS, but I don’t think there is. The best I can do is leave it in do not disturb mode.
ebay-last-call failed to notify me when it was 8:30. I’m almost ready to give up on that project because of how unreliable it is.
Just woke from a nap. I’m not being fair about the ebay-last-call project. My install script for that project is a hacky mess. I checked systemctl list-timers and I learned that ebay-last-call doesn’t appear on the list. The timer file isn’t even installed. That’s why it’s not working.
I just re-wrote the install script to be slightly less hacky. Everything looks good in systemctl list-timers. Tomorrow morning we’ll see if it runs correctly.
It’s a big pain restarting my OS! There’s so many small tweaks I’ve made to my system, and it takes a long time to get everything set up on the new system to how I had it on the old!
I went out for a bike ride. I went around the block. On 32nd I pulled off the road to let cars pass, and I’m glad I did because there were four or five that were trailing me. Drivers get impatient behind cyclists and sometimes they gun it and pass when it’s not clear to do so.
I hope that the future will bring a wider road with proper bike lanes!
I’m going to do some CoDA work, although I’m keeping it short today, because I feel like I’m behind and I need to jump into code ASAP.
CoDA 30q #23
Discuss the idea of calling a HALT when your life gets unmanageable.
Ooo, I like this one! HALT stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.
I could have used a HALT last night. I was too Lonely last night and I became sad.
I kinda did HALT, but it took way too long to do so. It took me about 3 hours of feeling miserable before I shut off my computer and went to bed. Part of the problem was that I wasn’t sleepy yet. Social activity would have helped me get sleepy as socializing takes more brain processing power and wears me out, but I wasn’t socializing because of the paradoxical feeling I get.
“I’m lonely, I don’t want to get close to people.”
Chris 2020
My paradoxical loneliness!
Ok so #23 is pretty easy. It just comes down to staying mindful and recognizing how my body is feeling. It’s like the physical vulnerabilities I learned in CBT Emotional Regulation.
Taking good care of yourself is your responsibility
That’s right! I struggle with this one, but I just have to remind myself of it over and over until I find a good system to deal with the struggle.
The thought I like to remind myself of is,
“I have to take care of myself. Nobody else is going to do it for me.”
Which is very true! I live a mostly isolated life. If I were starving here, nobody would notice for weeks! It’s my job and I deserve to be taken care of by myself.
Ok that’s it for now. CoDA, anyway. Today I want to get some good progress on sbtp-loyalty. I forgot to set up a sprint checklist on Github! I wrote myself a note– I’ll do that once I finish writing.
I was feeling pretty lethargic as I rode my bike today. I think I might not have eaten enough this morning. Actually I’m pretty sure that that’s the problem. I ate oatmeal around 8:30AM, and then I went back to sleep shortly after. I need more food in my body to convert to energy!
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how human bodies are like doughnuts. They have a hole on either end, and food passes through the middle and gets absorbed by various pinched-off parts of the doughnut middle.
I think about this when I eat food, and I’ve been extra cautious lately about putting food inside the doughnut hole which might irritate the inside of the doughnut.
LOL, that’s such a funny way of thinking about my body, but it’s true!
I’m grateful for Rev. Kusunoki. He’s so vigilant with his live streams. It often seems like he is completely alone in the temple, and he does his service anyway. I guess that’s a strange metric to measure vigilance by, since we live in the internet age where there could be many people viewing live via youtube, and hundreds or thousands more viewing a recording at a later date.
damn, son! I dunno.
That might have been a shame trigger just now. I was not thinking or typing eloquently and I judged myself.
It’s okay. I can utter rough thoughts and that doesn’t degrade me as an individual! I don’t deserve harsh judgement from myself for such things!
I’m grateful for cranberries. I’m going to eat some soon, and it will be a pleasure!
I’m grateful for bug-eyed Hatsune Miku artworks.
This is my current desktop background. Miku’s eyes are somewhat reminiscent of an insect’s, but not to the point where it’s creepy. I would melt if an AFK Miku with this appearance stared into my eyes with a loving smile.
Ooo, romance! I’m grateful for lovey-dovey thoughts like that one. They keep me going.
73. I choose to be happy.
74. I accept the good that is flowing into my life.
75. I will not allow anxious thoughts to steal my joy.
Excelsior!
