Category: Niko’s Soap Box

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Tales from the Board

04/21

I’ve been looking for Toploaders all morning. They’re out there, they just have gone up quite a bit with these tariffs. We might start looking into alternatives for shipping out cheaper cards.

Also did a restock for Opus XII Crystal Awakening on TCG Player and eBay.

04/22

Purchased Japanese Pokemon EX cards for the vending machine at the restaurant. These are a hit with the kids. 50 cents well spent in their eyes. People have started coming in just to get Pokemon cards, they easily spend 5 to 10 dollars at a time.

Started working on decks for Final Fantasy IV.

04/23

Tried going to the Flea Market this morning. It was rained out. I was hoping to catch my guy there where I got all the Pokemon games last time. Guess we’ll have to wait another week.

Managed to find some Final Fantasy VII Anniversary Art Museum Vol.1 and Vol.2. And also some Hidden Legends. No News on a restock for Tears of the Planet and Legacy Collection.

04/24

It was time for sailing, Garage Sales. Saw a Craigslist post, and I got excited. 15 family garage sale, all at one address. Dropped the kids off at school and headed straight over there. I should have known better. When they hype up the garage sale, that’s when there is mostly junk. Junk for me that is. But, it’s ok I did manage to find a 5 pound scale that I can use at another garage sale.

But, the morning still isn’t over. Still have some time before I have to get to my “real” job. There’s a Rummage Sale going on at a VFW. I got there I didn’t expect much, but sometimes you do find some good stuff. As I’m walking around, I see a gentleman starting to grab a lot of books, I take a closer look, cause curiosity gets the better of me, and he’s grabbing old Stephen King hardcovers. That could have been me if I got there 5 minutes earlier, which I would have, If I didn’t go to Lemont.

But, that’s how it is sometimes. You win some lose some. I did walk away with a Walking Dead figure.

Finished the TCG Player/eBay restock for Opus XIV Crystal Abyss.

04/25

Sailing again. Today wasn’t much better than yesterday, but I did manage to find an auto of Lou Brock. I don’t even know who that is. But, apparently this card is worth around $20. It’s on eBay if you want it.

After that we restocked Opus XV Crystal Dominion. Also added some Yu-Gi-Oh singles as well.

04/26

Nothing of importance today.

04/27

It’s Flea Market Sunday. Didn’t find much for inventory other than New Super Mario Bros Wii, and The Rock Brawlin’ Buddy. But, I did manage to find some things for the office. A tablet and a Chrome Desktop. Still need to figure out if they work or not, but it’s a cheap gamble. can’t go wrong with $15 for both.

Had the little ones with me, we probably walked a few miles going up and down every lane, checking out what each vendor had to offer.

The highlight at the Flea Market for them is always the Lemonade. You buy the cup, and every time you go back, you get to refill it for 3 bucks.

Shop for singles and more at our TCG Player Store!

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The Chronicles of Kardboard?

Yeah, we’re still working on that name.

04/15

Did a restock on Opus X. For TCG Player and eBay.

04/16

After I dropped the kids off at school, I decided to head straight to the Flea Market. I didn’t expect to find much, Wednesdays are usually not that great over there. And, I’m sure glad I did. Plenty of Video Games, Consoles, and Controllers.

Spent the rest of the day testing everything we picked up. And, started listing everything as well. I’d say we sold about 50% of it in the first 24 hours.

04/17

It’s Thursday, and it’s Spring, that means there should be garage sales out there! That means, I’m going sailing! But, there was only one problem. No Garage Sales in sight.

I drove around the usual route I would take. No Signs. Nothing. Just a barren wasteland, and signs for the local elections that happened about 2 weeks ago.

Had nothing much going on for the rest of the day, decided to take the kids to Bachelor’s Grove. It’s an old haunted cemetery. With the graves dating back to the 1800s. It’s a nice little walk and you get to take a glimpse at the history of the local communities.

04/18

Expired SEC.

Spent the morning with HostGator, trying to resolve the issue. They took care of it, so the site is back up. Well, of course it is. You’re reading this on the website.

After that, we restocked Opus XI on TCG Player and eBay.

04/19

Had my seven year old put together orders with me. I had her find the cards, put them in sleeves and toploaders, sign her name on the thank you note, and put the card in the envelope. Took us about five to ten minutes fro each card. But, she’s getting better at it.

04/20

It was Pascha (Greek Easter), we took the day off to cook food and spend time with our family.

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Back On Getting Side-Tracked

Now, where did we leave off?

We did get sidetracked with Tears of the Planet, and everything that came with it. But, now it seams like everything is back on track. For the most part. Running a business feels like it’s a train wreck waiting to happen. We just have to make sure that when things go wrong, we can steer that train back on the tracks. Hopefully we can avoid the wreck and go around it.

And, that’s what we have been doing for the last 6 and a half years.

6.5 Years?

It seems like yesterday.

We started off with an eBay store. I just checked the date too. Nov-26-2018.

It took us quite a while to get that first sale. But, it finally came, and slowly Kardboard Korner began to grow.

I don’t even know how I got to talking about the begining, but I remember that we had gone to the Flea Market, and found some Pokemon packs selling for a dollar. I thought to myself, how are they getting them so cheap that they can sell them for a dollar each. This was back when packs were going 3 for $10 at your local LGS.

Some of you might have already read this story before, and yes those packs were fake.

As you can see, we can get sidetracked pretty easily.

And, I just spent 2 hours looking at Japanese Vending Machines, trying to find a purveyor for Japanese stickers and cards. I’ve been meaning to change up the Sticker Machine at the store with something a little more unique. It seams like everywhere I go that has vending machines, it’s always the same stickers and tattoos that are in there.

Most of them aren’t even worth putting in. The only thing that really moves is the Pokemon card section. I could easily have put in a bunch of bulk, but I decided on Double Rares and anything unique that I can get for around a quarter. Luckily I managed to get a good deal on some Japanese EX cards, and those have people coming in just for the cards. I see people drop in 5 dollars at a time, trying to “Catch ‘Em All”.

Back on the Japanese stickers and cards, I haven’t found anyone selling them.

I’ll keep looking though.

Selling? kardboardkorner@gmail.com

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Final Fantasy IV

I can remember back in 1992, we would always go to Blockbuster, and we would rent a Video Game for the weekend. For some reason Final Fantasy II caught my eye, and it would always be rented out. Every weekend that we would go it would always be the first game I would look at to see if it was available. Finally, after what felt like years of going, it was finally there. I hurriedly grabbed it and told my mom this is the one.

I had no idea what Final Fantasy was. All I knew is that for some reason I wanted to play it. The drive home was longer than usual, as I read the instruction manual. I knew I’d be in for an adventure.

SPOILERS

The story started off on the airship, we started off taking down the enemies as they tried to attack our ship. Of course we won, Dark Knight Cecil was a beast, taking them all down one by one. We arrived in Baron, the King congratulated us, and then got pissed off that we questioned his intentions. And, he sends us on a suicide mission. Kain decides to come along, and off we go.

We reach Mist and little did we know that the package we had would burn the whole village down. I was devastated. This isn’t going to happen on my watch. I quickly restarted the game. And kept trying to discard that package that the king gave us. I tried using it in the castle, didn’t work. I tried selling it, couldn’t sell it. I tried discarding it. Nothing. Let’s try and use it in battle. Again, Nothing! And, then I realized, or at least I thought I did, that I should have used it on the Mist Dragon. I was ready, I marched my way through the Mist cave and got into the battle, and nothing. Silly me, I have to use it when it’s in it’s mist form. Nothing.

I gave up. I marched into Mist with my head hung low. Even though I tried and I tried, I still burnt the village to ashes. And, all I got for my troubles was a fight with Titan. I lost Kain, and I had to drag a girl across the desert. I didn’t even know where I was going. For 30 minutes I was wandering around the desert, I couldn’t find Kaipo, the village that was smack in the middle of the desert. I kept wandering around and around. I even entered a cave and this old man told me to go back to Kaipo!

At least I got plenty of experience.

After I finally found Kaipo, headed straight for the inn. Baron’s guardsmen came crashing in demanding I give up the girl. That’s not happening, I already killed her mom, and burnt down her village. I can’t let her get taken. Cecil fights them all off and the girl forgives Cecil and they start traveling together. But, before we go we take a walk around the village.

Is that Rosa? Hurry talk to her. Nothing, she’s out. She’s sick, we need to save her. Luckily, they know what she needs, so it’s our job to hunt down the Antlion.

End Spoilers.

And, that was my first Experience with Final Fantasy. I figured we should talk about the Games and Characters that make up the TCG. In order of the way I played them. We’ll post more on Final Fantasy IV in the following days.

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SSL and the Undead Toy Show

Hopefully you missed it.

We had our SSL Certificate expire for some reason, and it didn’t automatically renew itself like it was supposed to. Well it did renew, it just wasn’t showing up as renewed.

Tried logging on to the site, and well it caught me by surprise. No worries, just get a hold of our domain host, and have them take care of it. It took them about 30 minutes to take care of it for us.

And, now we’re back to normal.

So, what happened last week?

We did the Undead Toy Show, in Countryside. That was OK. I’ve noticed that there is a lot less foot traffic this year, as compared to other years in general. Shows and Events are just slower than usual. But, that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop what we’re doing. How else are we going to meet everybody, and hopefully sell them stuff.

Like a Wolfpac Sting wrestling buddy.

Where will the next show be?

No Clue.

And, if we don’t find anything, we’ll be at the Swap-O-Rama on Sunday.

See you there!