Tag: robbins

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99 Kards in the Korner

08/11

Gunslinger in the Abyss release weekend is over, but that doesn’t mean we’re done. We still have plenty of work to do. Our stock is dwindling down, and our singles are running low. We’ll be ordering more boosters soon enough, and we also have the World Championship Decks coming out later this month. You know we will be getting those. Lots of good cards in that one.

What about the singles?

The Legends are pretty much out of stock at the moment, and that means we need to open up a couple more Booster Boxes. We’re saying couple because, they are half boxes now, as you all already know. We will be recording it as always, so you’ll be able to see what Full Arts will be added to the site.

After seeing everyone yesterday at Game Knight’s Local Qualifier, I had the itch and needed to go and see everybody. Plus I had a couple of decks to try out. The Bomb Squad and OctoPirates. So, I headed out to today’s Local’s and was glad I did. Both we’re fun to play. And when all was said and done, I came out 0-6!

I told you all, I’m terrible at this game.

Got home after midnight, and took care of orders. Didn’t finish until 2AM.

08/12

It was raining all last night, and that means the Flea Market in Robbins will not be open today. Mostly because it’s on a dirt lot, and all that water will have gotten the lot all muddy, and no one wants to sit in that.

Finished up Gunslinger in the Abyss – Limit Break

30 day plan? We’re ready to start on it again.

Took a look at our Shipping Policy and Return Policy. There were none! How? I though I had done this years ago. Apparently not, so I drafted them up and they are now on the site. This took care of Day 8 and Day 9.

Ordered some toploaders today, hopefully they’ll get here before I run out. And, that’s a challenge. So let’s run out of toploaders! I don’t see it happening though, I still have a bunch of Beanie Babies Toploaders, I’ll just use those. And, yes they are a real thing. They’re very thin though. Can hold only one card in each, where as the other toploaders I can put 3, maybe 4 if they’re thin Pokemon cards.

08/13

Spent the morning working on the website. Adding listings, fixing the calendar. Mostly back of the house stuff.

The 30 day plan for today and tomorrow was about pictures, and since we use stock photos, there’s nothing to update. Maybe we should start taking pictures, but how are you going to take pre-orders without a stock photo?

Did 2 box openings tonight. One for Gunslinger in the Abyss. And, one for Union Arena – Full Metal Alchemist. Gunslinger in the Abyss is already on YouTube, and Full Metal will probably be there next week.

Also realized that the World Championship Decks are coming out soon. Put them up for Pre-Order!

08/14

Restock on Gunslinger in the Abyss, these cards are flying off the shelf. We might have to open some more. Same thing with Union Arena, we’re already selling singles from the box. Might have to find more. Might have to start picking it up as our second game.

We had gotten some Jujutsu Kaisen as part of a collection and those did pretty well. I’m going to have to look into this game a little bit more. Or, if you have some you want to get rid of, you know where to hit me up. If you don’t, then kardboardkorner@gmail.com

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08/15

Friday was a busy day at the restaurant, so I couldn’t get much done here, except post a short video on YouTube.

Also started a restock on Opus XI. managed to get half way done.

I had picked up “The Kids Are Alright – A Turks Side Story” about 5, maybe 6 years ago, read the first couple of pages and then forgot about it. It doesn’t start off too good, that might be why I haven’t read it. But then, I picked it up out of nowhere and started reading. The first couple of pages almost made me put it away again, but I kept reading. Eventually, it did get better. I don’t know if it’s because the Turks appeared and I got excited, or if the story actually got better. Either way, I finished the book in one night. And, I’m glad I finally did, the novel kept getting better and better with every page. It does fill in the gap of the 2 years between Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children. Plenty of guest appearances throughout the whole book, but you probably expected that anyway.

08/16

The kids had their first soccer match today. And they were excited. People showing up late for work had me miss the first 10 minutes of the match, and that’s when my kids scored. Then the coach put my son in as a Goalkeeper, and I have to say he is a natural. He must get it from his dad. (Feeling Proud)

Got to teach him a couple more things, but on the other hand, he doesn’t want to be a Goalkeeper. My daughter? I haven’t seen her run so much. She did great, and I’m glad that she enjoys soccer.

Didn’t get much done today either.

08/17

Sunday, it was storming all night, and the Flea Market was pretty much empty. No use going.

We reached 200 subscribers on YouTube today. I’m thinking we’ll do a giveaway at 250. Maybe a Q&A as well, where you can all send in your questions, and I’ll answer them. We’ll figure something out.

Decided to go to Costco. Asked my wife if she wanted to come along. She replied, Costco? On a Sunday? I looked at her puzzled. Off I went, and I understood as soon as I tried to turn into the parking lot. It can’t be that bad, can it?
We got a cart and headed inside, and it was worse than Rush Hour Traffic trying to go through the Jane Byrne. Needless to say, we just turned around and left. I’m not going to stand in line for an hour to save a dollar on water. I will come back another day.

Played 99 Nights in the Forest with the kids, I must say that is a fun game. We played 2 games, and we got to day 5 I think. I’m still trying to get a hang of the controls, I’m no PC player and the controller doesn’t respond as much as I’d like when I connect it to my laptop. Might have to look into a way on how to change the button layout on a controller for Roblox.

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Breath of Kardboard

07/14

It was a long weekend. And, today was a long Monday.

Spent the whole morning trying to find items to source. And some days, you can look everywhere and there is nothing in sight. That was today.

Then for some reason I was looking at Storage Auctions. And, that is a crap shoot.

Tried organizing the office, and it always seams like I’m going 1 step forward then 2 steps back. It’s sort of starting to look like less of a mess, but we’re not quite there yet. No where close to finished.

07/15

Just when I thought I wasn’t finding anything, I stumbled upon a small lot of Final Fantasy TCG cards. All Foils, a few Full Arts scattered in the mix, I didn’t even think twice. The guy was asking $50 for them. And, I gladly gave him the money. Now, all we have to do is wait for them to get here. We’ll be adding a few new Full Arts to the site.

I was looking at Storage Auctions again, I might get one soon, try our luck on one, just to dip our toes in the water. I don’t think it’ll happen before Gunslinger in the Abyss comes out. We still have plenty to do to get ready for this one. Mostly writing our opinions on the cards.

Ended up going to our Storage Unit today. Pulled some nice things out. By the time you read this they all should be posted up on the site, or on eBay, or on TCG Player. Lots of Final Fantasy TCG sealed product, lots of PS3 video games, and a couple more things as well. And, there’s still a lot of stuff in there that we had forgotten about.

Also through out a bunch of garbage as well. We didn’t even make a dent in it. There’s still a couple more trips we need to take over there.

07/16

Didn’t have a lot going on today, for Kardboard Korner. Was running around taking care of other things all day long. And at the end of the day, all I had the mind capacity to do was get the orders ready for tomorrow.

And, that was it for today. I did look at some storage auctions, but my eyes were just closing. Off to bed for me.

07/17

It finally cooled off outside. Nothing better than opening up all the windows and having a cool breeze come through.

The restaurant life will take over for a while, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to be working on Kardboard Korner, it just means that I’m going to be running around more.

My kids are about to start Soccer Practice, so we were out shopping for cleats, for them. They are excited. So, am I. I’m going to have a couple of Tsubasas on my hands.

07/18

Ordered some Japanese Pokemon cards for the Sticker Machine, ended up picking up a couple of Magic/Final Fantasy cards as well.

I haven’t been able to see these up close yet. I’m still hoping to get a couple of boxes, or at least a bunch of bulk.

Restocked Opus VII on TCG Player and eBay.

Then I spent the rest of the day looking at Gunslinger in the Abyss.

07/19

Had to be at the restaurant earlier than usual today, So, I headed out to the Flea Market a little bit early. This time I hit up Robbins first to save some time, since I usually get to Alsip a little past 8.

But, it was a ghost town, I got there too early. People were still setting up, and I had a restaurant to open. I didn’t stay long, and headed straight to the Swap in Alsip.

Alsip was a little better. Had more vendors there, and found a Among Us Imposter Edition for the PS5. And, a bunch of shoes. Hokas and On Clouds. The guy said he would save those shoes for me.

Washed them up, and now they look ten times better.

07/20

Sunday, I had a bunch of running around to do this morning. Mostly getting supplies for the restaurant.

Checked on the shoes, and they were still wet. No use putting them together.

Got back to organizing the office, and I want to say it’s getting there, but it’s not. At least I don’t have a lot of things on the floor anymore, and I cleared off one of the desks.

Spent the rest of the night putting orders together.

And, sat down with my kids to watch “My Neighbor Totoro”. They said they didn’t like it, but they kept laughing.

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Kardboard Fantasy : Mystic Korner

07/07

Monday is usually spent working on writing and other aspects that don’t have much to do with cards. Unless we get a collection in, then we’ll be working on sorting that collection as fast as possible. Luckily for us, our whole week in review that we usually write was gone, and we had to re write it. It;s probably missing 50% of what we had in the original, but you got a great summary there.

We missed plenty of days with the holiday weekend, and now we’re back on our 30 day plan, it’s day 4 right now and our task is to “Optimize Page Load Speed – Caching & Plugins.”

That’s what we did, we fixed the Caching options, somehow figured out how to load pictures before they load. That doesn’t make sense to me but it was an option. Hopefully the website is a little faster right now.

Got an order on the website, and I’m missing one of the items. This is the first time this happened on KardboardKorner.com, there have been a couple of mistakes on TCG Player and eBay, but never on our own site. Sent the kind gentleman an e-mail, hopefully they’ll get back to me before the night is over.

07/08

Hit up the Robbins Flea Market today, after one of the Vendors told me that it’s poppin’ on Tuesdays and that I should get there real early. I thought I’ll give it a try and got there around 9AM. It would have been earlier, but my son did not want to wake up. He’s going to bed early tonight.

We got there, and it was, they even had vendors outside of the space, cause there was no space inside. We started making the rounds, and I noticed that we did come late. Lots of cool stuff, but nothing in particular for me, until I stumbled upon a box of Nintendo Switch Accessories. Docks and Controller Grips (I think that’s what they’re called). I picked them up and called it a day.

Spent the afternoon, Trying to organize the office once more. It seems like the more I try and organize, the messier it becomes. Maybe more space could do the trick, but we don’t have that right now.

07/09

Hit the Swap today and all I got was a big fat skunk.

Almost picked up a metal detector today. Thought about it, looked at it, passed it came back, but I left it there. Then I regretted it. If I find him tomorrow at Robbins, I’ll pick it up. Might have some fun with it, going on paths and just searching for precious metals.

30 day plan, Day 5 – Checked that the website works good on Mobile devices. Make sure that the links are clickable, same thing goes for the menu too. So far everything looks good. Didn’t have to complete much today, as it was already done.

Was testing out a bunch of Cassette Tapes today. I was using a Walkman for them. And, that Walkman is either going out, or the batteries I got went empty in about 15 minutes. That’s Dollar Tree batteries for you.

07/10

Robbins, that’s where we’re headed today. I went looking for the metal detector right away, and I’m guessing the guy sold it, because he didn’t have it. Went around the first time, and some guy had a bunch of Atari games, I didn’t have enough on me to pick them up today. And, it’s a good thing I didn’t cause I would have over paid for them.

Another Interesting thing I found was a Tiger Over Lap, the one with the whole front of the car. I left that there as well. Although it looks cool and all, I have a similar one, that is just sitting there collecting dust.

Next, I found a Marshall Full Stack. And, if I was still playing guitar, and in a band, I would have picked it right up.

Ended up just picking up a pair of On Clouds. These supposedly do well.

The kids always ask me to play Roblox with them, and tonight I managed to get all my orders ready pretty quick, so I jumped on without telling them. They got excited. We played for a couple of hours before I had to send them off to bed.

07/11

I just realized, we’re 3 weeks away from Gunslinger in the Abyss Prerelease. That means that Midnight Prerelease is right around the Korner! And I never got a restock for Tears of the Planet. Let’s hope this release goes a lot better.

Spent the day sorting, and restocking Opus VI on eBay and TCG Player.

Day 5 of the 30 day plan. And all it was was making sure that the website’s menus load up correctly on Mobile devices, and that the links are clickable. Checked and they were all goo to go.

I also grilled 20 pounds of chicken breast for some fajitas.

07/12

I woke up later than usual again.

Still have to get up, and go. No point in staying home. I got to the Swap and I thought to myself, I should have stayed home.
Not much there, and when I got to Robbins it was even worst.

Didn’t head out to 42nd and Ashland today, cause I had to take my wife to her sisters house to help with a party.

Went to the restaurant, left the restaurant, went to the party. That’s what all the chicken breast was for.

07/13

I drank too much in too short of a time. That was last night.

Got up, got ready headed to the restaurant. Was there all day. Hopefully, our other employee is coming back next week, and I’ll have more time to get back to what I’m supposed to be doing.

Got all the weekend orders ready to go. And, now it’s time to get back to it. Boots on the Ground.

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The Lost Korner

I lost everything I wrote up to Friday. I guess the memory on this Computer took a vacation with the 4th of July weekend. And, now it’s my job to figure out what I did this week. Might be a shorter week in review post. Maybe I’ll start calling this “The Kardboard Diary” Or the Kardboard Ledger.

Let’s see now.

I started chatting with AI, and asked it to give me a no filter review about Kardboard Korner. It said something along the lines of an outdated website that hasn’t been updated in years.

I’ll just copy what it said.

“KardboardKorner.com, based on a critical, unfiltered assessment of a hypothetical (but likely accurate) user experience, probably suffers from an outdated design and potentially limited features compared to leading e-commerce platforms. The website itself might not be providing the best possible user experience or effectively showcasing their products.

However, this critique of the website needs to be balanced against their strong reputation as a seller. It appears they excel at the core aspects of their business – accurate product delivery, excellent customer service, and reliable shipping – which is arguably more important than a flashy website. The website’s primary function is likely to facilitate sales, and if it’s doing that, even with its shortcomings, their strong back-end operations are clearly compensating for a less-than-stellar front-end.”

That means we need to get to it, and make it Flashy and all that other stuff Gemini said.

So, we asked it for a 30 day plan, and we started on it. Backed up the Website on Day 1. Day 2 Made sure that the website was secure. Day 3 Tried making the site load faster. I’d like to day that we accomplished all of that and now it’s on to Day 4 which we’ll start today.

We’re also looking into getting our online presence more present, if that makes sense. We’re also looking at making our Facebook and Instagram pages more engaging as well. We’re starting off with these 2 because they are integrated together, and can be done at the same time with just a little bit additions to Facebook.

We hit the Flea Market on Wednesday, and I was talking to one of the Vendors, and they told me Robbins on Tuesday is where it’s at. And, that’s where I’ll be on Tuesday.

Saturday, the day after the 4th, we hit up the Swap, and it was dead. Doesn’t mean that we didn’t find anything though. Super Nintendo with all the cables and controllers, also picked up a couple of N64 games.

Found a new, let’s say market in Crestwood. It’s on Sundays, so I’m going to go and check that out this week.

We did restock Opus V this week. It’s already up on eBay, and TCG Player.

Well, that was the most important things that happened this week. Now, it’s time to go to the next one.

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Kardboard Fantasy IV

06/23

It’s still hot.

I woke up this morning and my whole body was sore. And, they said the sun was good for you. It probably is, walking around in 90 plus degree weather isn’t.

Decided to do Opus IV today. Got most of it done, they’re all up on TCG Player, and a restock on eBay, for the cards that were already on there. Still need to get the new cards up.

06/24

Slept through my alarm today. And, that’s OK. Didn’t have much to do this morning. All I knew was that we would have plenty of rain. And, that it will be humid.

For some reason my car had a horrible smell to it. It just came out of no where. I’m thinking that either one of my kids stepped in poop and smeared it in there, or they left some food in there and it’s rotting in this heat. So, I spent the afternoon trying to get that smell out. Deep cleaned the whole interior. Fingers crossed that the smell will be gone in the morning.

Spent the rest of the night organizing a bit, and putting orders together. This restock is starting to move.

06/25

Flea Market Wednesday. It’s been raining all night so I did not get my hopes up. And, it’s a good thing i didn’t because just like last week, there were hardly any vendors there. All the usual suspects though, and they all do not have anything that I want.

I got rid of most of the smell but it still lingers. Going to have to give it another clean again.

Listed the rest of Opus IV on eBay. Plenty of Foil cards and Legends.

Spent the afternoon playing soccer with my son. And, he’s starting to run circles around me. He’s taking the pointers I tell him and he’s starting to utilized them. I can’t wait to see him play on a team this year.

06/26

It’s still hot. And, I don’t like it. Give me freezing temperatures. I’ll take that over this heat any day. Tried recharging the A/C in my wife’s truck, and I don’t think that it needs a charge. I’m guessing it’s the compressor. I got to try and figure that out, and see what happens.

Spent the whole day at the restaurant, one of our workers will be out of action for a while, and that means that I will be there 7 days a week now. Starting today.

06/27

Turns out the MacBook Pro that I picked up does not want to work. Went to my guy looking for the AC Adapter, and he had a bunch there, we tried them out and none of them worked. Time to try and get rid of it for parts.

06/28

Time to head to the Flea Market. It’s Saturday, and none of the little ones wanted to come with me. That’s OK, I can get things done faster.

Once again, there weren’t that many vendors there, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to find anything. I recognize most of the vendors now, and I can just walk up and down knowing where to take a closer look and where to just keep moving. First walk through, I didn’t find anything, I decided to take one more trip around.

One vendor had a whole bunch of old trading cards. Nothing great, mostly those Dessert Storm packs from the early 90s. I noticed a green container that wasn’t there the first time around. It was $45 for the whole container. All it had was a bunch of Xboxs. I dug a little deeper to see if there was anything else in there, and lo and behold, there was a Super Nintendo on the bottom! I grabbed it and ended up paying $10 for it. I then asked him about the Trading Cards, and he said each was $5. I grabbed a box of Super Star Musicards. I picked them up, might do a video on them soon. Hopefully someone will like it.

Off to Robbins, and nothing for me, although a Vendor did have all 4 Kiss Action Figures, he wanted $60 for all of them. I had to pass on it this time, cause part of me would have wanted to hold on to them.

One more stop today, 42nd and Ashland. It’s getting hot, and I still need to go and do something with the kids before I head to the restaurant. As soon as I got there, it already looked like there were hardly any Vendors there. I still have to get my steps in so off I go.

Top Loaders! Who would have thought I would find Top Loaders at the Flea Market, still sealed. Sure they were Beanie Babies Top Loaders. I think the only difference is that they have the TY logo on them. I haven’t opened them yet, but a top loader is a top loader, and it will hold up well when shipped. I got excited when I saw Metroid Prime, but unfortunately it was just the box with the Bonus disc, no game. Oh well, there was a Gamecube controller sitting right next to it. So, I picked that up.

06/29

It’s Sunday, it’s hot and I spent the day at the restaurant. And that’s was my day. Took care of some orders, and just relaxed.

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