Business, Economics, and Taxes 2: That's Why We Fight to Take the Means Back

[Jimjamesak]

Sheesh. I quit and sold my collection on eBay when planeswalker cards and "mythic" rares were announced and I felt the game was being YGO-ized. I have since played it with my nephew and his decks a few times in the last couple of years.

All those releases have to water down ideas for new game mechanics that are actually good.

You might have actually missed the golden age of MTG. Granted, I’m definitely speaking through rose tinted glasses but original Zendikar block to Return to Ravnica is probably some of their best design work, Innistrad probably being the best IMO.

I finally checked out when COVID hit because the game had become utterly terrible, they designed way too powerful, repetitive cards and gameplay became stagnant, and honestly it seems things haven’t gotten better.

 

[Jimjamesak]

It seems like every Millennial home is filled with juvenile toys... for the owner. Every object has a game or comic book or anime or Disney or franchise theme. It is all an ultra expensive version of happy meal collectibles, and they've all bought into it.

I know I am not the demo but it's just so weird that consumerist scams the companies ran on them as kids they can still run on them as adults -- it's like they have no concept of "value." I assume eventually their kids or grandkids will rebel by never buying a single cross-marketed product. They'll turn off their screens and I dunno grow corn I guess.

Or make spears.

Just another reason to be happy this is a temporary assignment.

Like people never had model train sets or pinball machines in their basements back in the day?

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Wait until I tell everyone about my collection of vintage glassware from defunct airlines!

I went to Tech, which is basically Spergie U, so I suppose I have a higher degree of tolerance and understanding for other 40 year-old dorks with collections of whatever.

 

[Jimjamesak]

Wait until I tell everyone about my collection of vintage glassware from defunct airlines!

I went to Tech, which is basically Spergie U, so I suppose I have a higher degree of tolerance and understanding for other 40 year-old dorks with collections of whatever.

My dad collects Coca-Cola memorabilia and my grandmother had branded cribbage boards. So me having various LEGO cars does not make me a 40 year old dork. It makes me a 40 year old dork carrying on a family tradition!

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Collectibles became pretty much worthless since the Internet. Signed things, etc. Some things have risen or maintained value but those things are few and far between. I have a couple of very cool signed sports collectibles and they are worth less than I paid for them.

 

[Kepler]

Like people never had model train sets or pinball machines in their basements back in the day?

Fair. But they didn't center their lives around it. Unless they were, well, weirdos, they had a train set but every article of clothing was not an ironic reference to it, and every conversation didn't touch on it.

This could be Old Man Shakes Fist at Cloud, but it seems worse. Like yes of course there were people who hemorrhaged money on their playthings, but (1) that was only the elite (read: fucked up) hobbyists, and (2) the playthings were not infantalized. They were not deliberately freezing maturity at the age of 9.

Contrast this with attitudes towards food. Millennials are 100x more mature and responsible about food than Boomers and Gen X. They understand it. We were on auto pilot and shoveled whatever we were told into our mouths.

Maybe there is a conservation law of adulthood -- the net's always the same, the distribution just changes.

 

[MichVandal]

Plenty of people play them...its not like sports cards which have slways been more of a joke when it comes to value.

I don't doubt they do. But it's a game just like Trivial Pursuit. And how much does on ecard add to the game?

 

[MichVandal]

Like people never had model train sets or pinball machines in their basements back in the day?

As kids, we had a beer can collection. Pretending that rare rusted cans of beer had some kind of value.

All of the "collectables" we had at my home, I told my brother he was allowed to sell it all and keep the money. He baulked at that and we figure we will have to rent a dumpster for all of that stuff.

My aunt collected glass stuff, too- and we even got some books on their value.,.. which is not much, all things considered.

 

[aparch]

Are you all trying to tell me that my complete collection of Topps Desert Storm trading cards aren't worth the cardboard they're printed on?

If you'll excuse me, I need to go cry into one of my McDonalds Batman Forever drinking glasses.

 

[Jimjamesak]

I don't doubt they do. But it's a game just like Trivial Pursuit. And how much does on ecard add to the game?

For games like Magic and Pokemon the value is almost all in their playability. The two cards I linked to are valuable because:

1. They're two of the most highly playable cards in the most popular format of play.
2. They have limited printings because they're on a specific list of cards that can never be reprinted thus they have limited availability (They could, in theory, be reprinted but every legal analysis says that Wizards of the Coast would be in serious legal jeopardy through promissory estoppel).

Even cards that can be reprinted have value due to their playability, Flooded Strand is a very good example of this.

 

[RaceBoarder]

It seems like every Millennial home is filled with juvenile toys... for the owner. Every object has a game or comic book or anime or Disney or franchise theme. It is all an ultra expensive version of happy meal collectibles, and they've all bought into it. It's an adolescence prolonged into their 40s.

I know I am not the demo but it's just so weird that consumerist scams the companies ran on them as kids they can still run on them as adults -- it's like they have no concept of "value." I assume eventually their kids or grandkids will rebel by never buying a single cross-marketed product. They'll turn off their screens and I dunno grow corn I guess.

Or make spears. Or IEDs.

Just another reason to be happy this is a temporary assignment.

Boomers did it with Muscle Cars back in the 00's... Any 1960/70s Mustang, Camaro, Challenger, Corvette, etc. (that originally sold for $4,000-9,000) was getting stupid high prices at auction, with some going for well above $100,000. All because of nostalgia and wanting to return to their youth for guys who were 40-60 at the time and had cash to burn. That is no different than what you see today. Just the item of affection has changed.

 

[MichVandal]

For games like Magic and Pokemon the value is almost all in their playability. The two cards I linked to are valuable because:

1. They're two of the most highly playable cards in the most popular format of play.
2. They have limited printings because they're on a specific list of cards that can never be reprinted thus they have limited availability (They could, in theory, be reprinted but every legal analysis says that Wizards of the Coast would be in serious legal jeopardy through promissory estoppel).

Even cards that can be reprinted have value due to their playability, Flooded Strand is a very good example of this.

If they are really that rare, then they will never be played. So then the value is just a small piece of art. Which is totally fine- we have art. Just that a tiny piece of printed art isn't that valuable, unless painted by the original artist.

It's not that they have zero value, it's that the value compared to nominal art is going to be less. And at some point, the game will fade so dealers will start offering less.

Or that we have to be careful to not try to be part of American Pickers thinking that we will have a good retirement.

 

[Kepler]

Boomers did it with Muscle Cars back in the 00's... Any 1960/70s Mustang, Camaro, Challenger, Corvette, etc. (that originally sold for $4,000-9,000) was getting stupid high prices at auction, with some going for well above $100,000. All because of nostalgia and wanting to return to their youth for guys who were 40-60 at the time and had cash to burn. That is no different than what you see today. Just the item of affection has changed.

I think it was less pervasive but okay let's allow it. What that tells me is Boomers wanted to be Forever 22 and Millennials want to be Forever 12. I understand Forever 22. But why do people want be perennial children? Did the iPacifier do even more damage than we know?

 

[aparch]

I think it was less pervasive but okay let's allow it. What that tells me is Boomers wanted to be Forever 22 and Millennials want to be Forever 12. I understand Forever 22. But why do people want be perennial children? Did the iPacifier do even more damage than we know?

Maybe because for most of us of elder Millenial age, before we hit the legal smoking age, we had already experienced:

- Challenger explosion​

- Irish car bombing violence​

- Savings and Loan scandal​

- Black Monday​

- Iraq War​

- Rodney King​

- Waco​

- OJ Simpson trial​

- Ruby Ridge​

- Oklahoma City Bombing​

- World Trade Center bombing​

- Olympic plaza bombing​

- Columbine​

- Enron​

And maybe we just want a *slice* of our goddamned childhood back.

Now let me get back to sitting quietly, disassociating from the world for a few hours, with this large LEGO set that I bought with my adult money to fill the void in my heart from my youth.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

Maybe because for most of us of elder Millenial age, before we hit the legal smoking age, we had already experienced:

- Challenger explosion​

- Irish car bombing violence​

- Savings and Loan scandal​

- Black Monday​

- Iraq War​

- Rodney King​

- Waco​

- OJ Simpson trial​

- Ruby Ridge​

- Oklahoma City Bombing​

- World Trade Center bombing​

- Olympic plaza bombing​

- Columbine​

- Enron​

And maybe we just want a *slice* of our goddamned childhood back.

Now let me get back to sitting quietly, disassociating from the world for a few hours, with this large LEGO set that I bought with my adult money to fill the void in my heart from my youth.

He just really hates it when other people are happy and minding their own business enjoying their hobbies and not hurting anyone. I am a responsible adult who pays all bills on time, owns his home, has no debts other than a mortgage, contributes to a healthy retirement plan, has a job they like, has good friendships etc. So what if I want to spend some of my discretional income on a "toy"?

What LEGO set? I am somewhere around 500-600 sets (depending on if some minifigure only sets are classified as sets; closer to 600 if they are). I also have a ton of loose parts for trying to rebuild sets that have retired and I missed or create my own stuff.

I also have other hobbies (fly fishing and fly tying, ice fishing, fishing rod building, birding/photography, drawing/painting, etc).

 

[Kepler]

Maybe because for most of us of elder Millenial age, before we hit the legal smoking age, we had already experienced:

- Challenger explosion​

- Irish car bombing violence​

- Savings and Loan scandal​

- Black Monday​

- Iraq War​

- Rodney King​

- Waco​

- OJ Simpson trial​

- Ruby Ridge​

- Oklahoma City Bombing​

- World Trade Center bombing​

- Olympic plaza bombing​

- Columbine​

- Enron​

And maybe we just want a *slice* of our goddamned childhood back.

Now let me get back to sitting quietly, disassociating from the world for a few hours, with this large LEGO set that I bought with my adult money to fill the void in my heart from my youth.

SMDH. I hope you know every generation can come up with an equivalent list.

You aren't a put upon cohort. You are the first generation of whites raised when the primary social currency was victimhood, so you needed your own identity tag. I know generations aren't real, but starting with Boomers the obsession with generational identity as oppositional identity formation is a social fact and it's... not a good look. Boomers had all these same gripes 30 years ago and they were full of it, too.

Notice to anyone crying: unless you are a minority or LBGTQ you are Part of the Problem, right there with history's greatest monster, me. Pull up a chair, accept responsibility, and start working on solutions. Other people's real suffering is not your whimsical costume.

You are all Rachel Dolezal.

 

[Jimjamesak]

SMDH. I hope you know every generation can come up with an equivalent list.

 

[RaceBoarder]

I think it was less pervasive but okay let's allow it. What that tells me is Boomers wanted to be Forever 22 and Millennials want to be Forever 12. I understand Forever 22. But why do people want be perennial children? Did the iPacifier do even more damage than we know?

Back in the day, society also (literally) beat interests that you describe as "childish" out of people as they became teens/young adults. Society shunned being a nerd/geek and since they were only 10-15% of the population, it was difficult for them to connect with others who had similar interests with them. They just had their circle of 3-5 people in their high school who liked these things as that was that. They bunched up, but they felt isolated and like they were super rare/odd.

Cue up the invention of the internet and throughout the 90's into today, these people were able to look out beyond their school/town, and see that many other people had these similar interests. Many of whom were forced to be closeted in their hobbies because of society (look at how Alice Cooper talks about being an avid golfer among the rock scene in the 70s).

This connection and openness allowed people to not only embrace these "nerdy" hobbies, but it allowed them to flourish. What you see now is that this nurturing allowed these geeky hobbies to grow in numbers and stand next to "accepted" societal genres like "jocks" or "Rock/Music People".

 

[aparch]

What LEGO set? I am somewhere around 500-600 sets (depending on if some minifigure only sets are classified as sets; closer to 600 if they are). I also have a ton of loose parts for trying to rebuild sets that have retired and I missed or create my own stuff.

I also have other hobbies (fly fishing and fly tying, ice fishing, fishing rod building, birding/photography, drawing/painting, etc).

Your birding photos are amazing. Love seeing the new additions in the thread when you post them.

Haven't cracked the box open just yet, but the modular Botique Hotel. It's gonna look great next to the Corner Garage, Police Station, and Brick Bank sets. Also have the Parisian Restaurant still chilling in the box.

Have over 150 sets (mostly City of kits that interested me, then Speed Champions is likely 2nd most), and have a couple hundred from my youth packed away at my mother's house still. Need to rescue them at some point (if I only had a bigger house so the wife wouldn't notice right away... ).

 

[Proud2baLaker]

Your birding photos are amazing. Love seeing the new additions in the thread when you post them.

Haven't cracked the box open just yet, but the modular Botique Hotel. It's gonna look great next to the Corner Garage, Police Station, and Brick Bank sets. Also have the Parisian Restaurant still chilling in the box.

Have over 150 sets (mostly City of kits that interested me, then Speed Champions is likely 2nd most), and have a couple hundred from my youth packed away at my mother's house still. Need to rescue them at some point (if I only had a bigger house so the wife wouldn't notice right away... ).

The Boutique Hotel is a great build with neat techniques. I just finished Tudor Corner over the weekend (Christmas gift). I have all of the modular buildings. Some I had to sort through my bulk and also order some parts in order to get everything need to build. I did have to change the color of the Green Grocer as the sand green parts were way to hard to come by. Parisian Restaurant was the 1st one I got and the detail got me hooked. I didn't collect any other sets from the Ninjago line but the Ninjago City sets are amazing builds too with incredible detail in them. Display space is a big issue of course....