Category: Niko’s Soap Box

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From JRPGs to Quarter Boosters: Flea Market Finds

Back to Basics: Hidden Hope Restocks & Retro Finds

The hype from the latest release has finally settled, and while we love the midnight energy, it’s nice to get back to our regular programming. For us, that means one thing: The Restock.

We recently finished processing Beyond Destiny, and today we are officially moving on to Hidden Hope. We’ll be rolling these out across the website, TCGPlayer, and eBay throughout the day. If you’ve been looking for specific singles to polish off your latest deck, keep your eyes on our shop—they’ve been moving fast!

A Flea Market Score (and Some Sports-Game Skips)

I managed to hit the flea market today, and the retro gods were smiling. I found a nice little stack of original PlayStation (PSX) titles that I couldn’t pass up:

  • Star Ocean: The Second Story: A total JRPG classic.

  • Fighting Force: Perfect for anyone missing those old-school beat-’em-ups.

  • Resident Evil 2: Unfortunately, it’s just Disc 1, but for the right collector looking to complete a set, it’s a great find.

I did have to leave a pile of sports games behind—I probably could have grabbed them, but we all know the struggle of trying to move old Madden and FIFA titles!

The “Quarter-Pack” Gamble

I also found a few booster packs for just a quarter each. One was Kaijudo—which some of you might remember as Wizards of the Coast’s 2012 relaunch of the Duel Masters franchise. Even if it’s a “dead” game, seeing that Wizards logo for $0.25 makes it a mandatory buy.

I also snagged a Star Wars Rogue One booster. I was chasing an autograph, but I pulled a Shoretrooper Character Icon. It’s valued at about $2.00, so hey—I’ll take a 700% return on investment any day of the week!

Shop for Singles and More at our TCG Player Store!

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I Went to the Flea Market and All I Got Was This Frog Tape

The holiday season was a whirlwind, wasn’t it? If you noticed things were a little quiet around here, don’t worry—we haven’t gone anywhere! Between the holiday rush and the kids being home for Christmas break, life simply moved into “chaos mode” for a few weeks.

But as of this morning, the kids are officially back at school, the house is quiet, and we are diving back into what we love. It’s time to get back to work!

A Cold Morning at the Flea Market

I kicked off my first “free” morning with a trip to the flea market right after school drop-off. Since it’s still freezing out, it was a bit of a ghost town.

I did spot some Magic: The Gathering cards, but the asking price was actually higher than what I’d list them for myself! (Pro tip: always know your numbers before you buy!) I didn’t leave empty-handed, though—I scored a six-pack of Frog Tape for a dollar a roll. A win is a win when you’ve got shipping and projects to do!

New in the Shop: Curated MTG Bulk Lots

Speaking of work, we have been busy processing a massive amount of inventory. We’re excited to announce that we are launching 1000-count MTG Bulk Lots on the website!

We wanted to make these better than your average “blind bag” bulk. Here is what makes ours different:

  • Zero Duplicates: You won’t get 50 copies of the same common. But, you might get the same copy if they’re from different sets.

  • No Basic Lands: Every card is a playable, or non-basic land. I don’t think there’s any Tokens in them either.

  • Huge Era Spread: Expect a mix of everything from Revised all the way to the newest sets.

We’re aiming to have these live on the site this afternoon. If you’re looking to build your collection or find some hidden gems for your next deck, keep an eye on the shop!

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Your Weekend Update

It’s been busy since the day before Halloween.

And, Halloween was my Anniversary, so I didn’t do much that day cause I was out Trick or Treating. Even found some Adult treats that made the Trick or Treating even better. There’s also a house that has a Camera set up, where we take pictures there every year.

Saturday and Sunday I did decide to head back to the Flea Market. I went late on Saturday and there was hardly anybody there, cause they were already gone for the day. But, Sunday morning it was poppin’. And, since I was in a hurry to get back to the restaurant to open up, I usually miss a lot of things, but if you don’t go, you’ll miss everything.

This Friday is Midnight Pre-Release, so we’ll be getting ready for that this week.

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10/29/2025

Worked through most of 2017 MTG Bulk. Getting closer to the end, but I know all the 2018 cards are about half of the bulk cards that we bought. That one is going to be fun going through.

Also spent a good hour looking for a card that we sold, and was misplaced. That’s always great. That is another fun project that we’ll be undertaking soon. We got to organize all the cards. Most of it is organized, but there’s maybe 20k-30k cards that aren’t listed that need to be grouped together.

We also officially anounced Midnight Pre-Release for Journey of Discovery, that will be next Friday.

The kids didn’t want to play 99 Nights in the Forest, but they found a similar game called 99 Nights in the Arctic. It’s pretty much the same game where you have to survive. There’s more weapons to use, and we just had a fun time, no strategy, just run around find weapons, save the kids and keep on going.

Shop for Singles and more at our TCG Player Store!

 

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10/27/2025

Start of the week, so let’s get our Monday work done. That includes our Weekend in Review, and the Card of the Day, for Instagram and Facebook.

After that, we got down to do our MTG Bulk. went through 2015 and 2016 today, lots of cards listed on TCG Player, and lots of cards for our bulk lots, that should be going up tomorrow or today, depending on when you read this.

I had to start organizing the office again. Especially since Journey of Discovery is right around the Korner. Speaking of which, that means Midnight Pre-Release is right around the Korner as well. And, you know what that means. You’ll have a chance to win a Prerelease Kit, simply by showing up and joining Prerelease.

Details will be going up shortly.

Shop for Singles and more at our TCG Player Store!