VGC's Anonymous/"General" Topic:

[Warmsignal]

They hold it against you. You get bumped down the list of valuable personnel when it comes time to make cut-backs and letting people go. Basically show your slave-like dedication or become expendable. That's my cynical take of the day.

[ignition365]

I've never worked anywhere with sick leave, but I've heard the stories.

My company just does paid time off.  Vacation or sick you burn that.

[pzeke]

What up my VGCollectfam! (Heh.)

Anywho...

[...] because the eon ticket is $99 and theres no way latios is worth that [...]

An Eon Ticket for that price would pretty much be a steal given the cheapest I've seen sold for around $140, and I usually see them go for over $200+ - I actually sold I brand new one for $500+.

As far as I've read, you need a high-quality printer coupled with premium glossy paper, and the scans need to be at the highest resolution possible for the card to work, all of it costing you a few hundreds, which in the end you might as well just bite the bullet and get the actual thing. If you intend to print more than one card, though, then I guess the investment is optimal, otherwise, not so much.

Nintendo can try as hard as they want. You can’t scrub anything from the internet. If you want anything, you just have to look.

In the few instances that Nintendo actively went on a "crusade" to shut down websites hosting ROMs was primarily when they were prepping their online service where, at the time, they were set to offer NES games with the subscription. They effectively took down two ROM-hosting websites, and the fallout caused other websites to either jump ship or stop hosting Nintendo-based ROMs, while many others went dark, some of which have slowly resurfaced. This also resonates with AM2R, which got a cease and desist a little after it was released by its creator, where a year later we saw the release of Metroid: Samus Returns. One could easily say that Nintendo was simply protecting their product and that they were well within their legal rights, which is unequivocally true, but it was still a dick move nonetheless. Understandable dick move, but still a dick move.

Let's be real now, though: Nintendo is a hypocrite when it comes to emulation and ROMs.

But yeah, the Internet is a wild, wild west.

I think a general piece of advice that can be useful to any collector right now, is to focus on picking up those games which are still inexpensive first. I wouldn't have really advocated for that in the past... but if there's anything the past couple of years has proven to me, it's that any game (and I do mean any game) can see a significant price spike for no apparent reason. I'm not saying go out and buy useless filler, just the ones you're interested in which are still low in price. Don't let the low value deceive you, the quality of a game is not reflected in it's price high, or low.

You might be tempted to spring for those that you see climbing up and up in price, but I say put those on the back burner unless you've gotta have it now. There's actually still a lot of games which are very inexpensive and I don't know that this will always be the case. If you don't, you'll not only being paying up for those games which were already spiked AND you'll be paying up for the ones you contemplated the most convenient time to buy when they sat at $10 - $15 for years and years. What a steal it is to still be able to even buy games at $15. Just go for them. Better now than $45 in another six months, or maybe $150 next week.

[...] I'm probably overreacting

Pretty much, yeah. At the end of the day we're all expendable, not essential.

Anyway, let me close with this meme for the sake of staying relatable...

[kashell]

That meme captures how I view work as an entity when using SL.

[tripredacus]

The thing about sick leave these days is that everyone thinks you have covid.

[sworddude]

Anyway. I´m about to recieve a Game boy advance e-Reader from my cousin, he has had it sitting around for a few years and never uses it. From there I will go through the ordeal of figuring out how to print the cards because the eon ticket is $99 and theres no way latios is worth that. .

The digital latios ain't worth much although I've seen people getting some money for legit event mons. let alone that the exact same event can be triggered by hacking in wich it will be identical

It's more about the physical item it came in a cool booklet with an actual ticket. For people who collect pokemon merch it's worth.

That's collectors in a nutshell things can have a different value per person. and admittedly these old school events have a great story behind them

[Warmsignal]

Let me know if you guys have heard this one... today I received a package from an eBay order. Standard bubble mailer type deal. Except, this time it’s wrapped within a plastic baggie with a printed note from USPS. Basically an apology letter “We are sorry. We fucked up your package. But we’re sorry. I mean, seriously guy, we’re reallllly sorry. We strive to do better but... we’re sorry”

What’s wrong with it? Well it honestly looks to be covered in blood. Dried up dark splotches of dark red / brown smeared across the package, and vibrant crimson wet droplets still beading up on the inside of the baggie.

WTF.

[burningdoom]

Let me know if you guys have heard this one... today I received a package from an eBay order. Standard bubble mailer type deal. Except, this time it’s wrapped within a plastic baggie with a printed note from USPS. Basically an apology letter “We are sorry. We fucked up your package. But we’re sorry. I mean, seriously guy, we’re reallllly sorry. We strive to do better but... we’re sorry”

What’s wrong with it? Well it honestly looks to be covered in blood. Dried up dark splotches of dark red / brown smeared across the package, and vibrant crimson wet droplets still beading up on the inside of the baggie.

WTF.

Yep, I've gotten that one. And when you bring it to their attention, they tell you, "Well, you should have bought insurance for it."

The only business where you have to buy insurance for poor service, so frustrating.

[sworddude]

Let me know if you guys have heard this one... today I received a package from an eBay order. Standard bubble mailer type deal. Except, this time it’s wrapped within a plastic baggie with a printed note from USPS. Basically an apology letter “We are sorry. We fucked up your package. But we’re sorry. I mean, seriously guy, we’re reallllly sorry. We strive to do better but... we’re sorry”

What’s wrong with it? Well it honestly looks to be covered in blood. Dried up dark splotches of dark red / brown smeared across the package, and vibrant crimson wet droplets still beading up on the inside of the baggie.

WTF.

Yep, I've gotten that one. And when you bring it to their attention, they tell you, "Well, you should have bought insurance for it."

The only business where you have to buy insurance for poor service, so frustrating.

First of all That description is disturbing 

as far as insurance goes. That's the case with every shipping company on the planet there ain't a shipping company out there who wouldn't remind people of the insurance when things go wrong and they can't compensate for a lost or damaged item your accepting the terms when you ship with them. and to be fair at least over here insurance is less than 2$ extra on regular shipping.

If an item is lost or damaged withouth insurance the best you'll get is an apology and in very rare cases you money back on just the shipping costs. Low risk though it's fortunately an extremely rare thing.

[burningdoom]

Yeah, the shipping business, exactly. That's a stupid policy. "If we fuck up, you have to pay for it." That's not like a car insurance or house insurance where it's in case of accidents, wear and tear, or disasters happen. The USPS damaged the item, I feel like they should have to be responsible for that. It's a cop-out.

[Warmsignal]

Thankfully the item contained within the packaged wasn't damaged, but the package itself felt like a bio-hazard. I had to open it without touching anything. The seller probably could have filed a claim on it, but it wasn't worth the hassle since the item wasn't damaged. It was just really bizarre and gross to receive a bloody package with a non-descriptive generic apology note on it.

[telly]

I wonder if a handler for USPS got cut or otherwise hurt and blood got on the package or something?

[Warmsignal]

So I just went out physically gaming hunting for old times sake. I went out of town and hit a bunch of places that used to be gold mines 10 years ago. For me it was a nostalgic, somewhat depressing trip down memory lane. Feels like wading through the carnage of a nuclear fallout. Every place I hit had very little to offer. Mostly current gen stuff, or lingering 7th gen heavily picked over. The only retro being old sports games that nobody ever wanted. There's nothing left out there anymore. It makes me feel kinda bad for anyone who've gotten interested in this stuff recently. Unless the town has a dedicated retro game store, there's just nothing to buy even if you were willing to spend.

I ended up coming away with a pile of OG Xbox sports titles, carefully selected for the condition of their cases so I can swap and upgrade some of the games in my collection. At a dollar each, that's not too shabby. In all of the rubble, I somehow did manage to spot one score that was evidently overlooked for years inside of one of my old haunts. A really clean and nice copy of Soul Caliber II for Xbox. Got it for $2. A vanishingly small taste of the good ole' days. It's a bygone era and was fun while it lasted, but those days aren't ever coming back.

[dhaabi]

Yeah, the shipping business, exactly. That's a stupid policy. "If we fuck up, you have to pay for it." That's not like a car insurance or house insurance where it's in case of accidents, wear and tear, or disasters happen. The USPS damaged the item, I feel like they should have to be responsible for that. It's a cop-out.

If all delivered items were guaranteed to be replaced or reimbursed, many (more) "accidents" would be staged by recipients. While some can attribute damaged goods to shipping companies, I've encountered plenty of parcels with broken glass inside, liquids spilled open and dripping, and sharp edges protruding out of the box. And, in almost every one of these mentioned cases, I personally fault the sender in how the item was poorly secured and packaged and not how it was processed and delivered.

I wonder if a handler for USPS got cut or otherwise hurt and blood got on the package or something?

If the parcel was delivered with a printed note, I would imagine so. I can't envision this happening on the last leg of delivery once parcels are redirected outside of a shipping plant to an individual office and especially so once the item is en route.

[burningdoom]

Yeah, the shipping business, exactly. That's a stupid policy. "If we fuck up, you have to pay for it." That's not like a car insurance or house insurance where it's in case of accidents, wear and tear, or disasters happen. The USPS damaged the item, I feel like they should have to be responsible for that. It's a cop-out.

If all delivered items were guaranteed to be replaced or reimbursed, many (more) "accidents" would be staged by recipients. While some can attribute damaged goods to shipping companies, I've encountered plenty of parcels with broken glass inside, liquids spilled open and dripping, and sharp edges protruding out of the box. And, in almost every one of these mentioned cases, I personally fault the sender in how the item was poorly secured and packaged and not how it was processed and delivered.

I wonder if a handler for USPS got cut or otherwise hurt and blood got on the package or something?

If the parcel was delivered with a printed note, I would imagine so. I can't envision this happening on the last leg of delivery once parcels are redirected outside of a shipping plant to an individual office and especially so once the item is en route.

He had a note of admission from the post office where they apologized for damaging it. How could that possibly be fraud?