SNCB Podcast Episode 001 Transcript

NOTE: These transcripts are generated automatically, so there are plenty of mistakes.

Oliver: [00:00:00] Hey guys and welcome to the very first episode of the Sleeve No Card Behind podcast. Today I’m joined by Anthony, otherwise known as Forever Outdated. Just a really genuine, nice guy. We talked about Zelda games, how he got his old Pokemon card collection from his grandmother, and how he drop kicked a Brilliant Stars Elite Trainer Box off the patio of his apartment building.

So, I really enjoyed having this conversation and I hope you enjoy listening to it. So, uh, how are you doing today? 

Anthony: Yo, dude, I’m doing great. It’s a beautiful, beautiful day here in Houston, Texas. Wonderful weather. It’s a very, very cold breeze, but the sun is very hot. 

Oliver: It’s cold there right now? 

Anthony: Uh, just the breeze.

The breeze, it’s cold. The sun is very hot. 

Oliver: It’s cold here. I’m in B. C., Canada. Wow. 

Anthony: You got a different kind of cold up there. 

Oliver: Yeah. Yeah. It can get really good. [00:01:00] Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, so Anthony, you are known as forever outdated on Tik TOK. I’ve been following you for two years now. I just checked. Wow. I didn’t expect that actually.

Anthony: That’s crazy bro. 

Oliver: And we have communicated. That’s crazy. Through the comments a little bit. Um. But we’ve never spoken before. Yeah. We’ve never actually had a chat. So I was really excited to, to bring you on and see what you’re doing as a Pokemon card creator and just kind of give you the spotlight for a bit.

So I think. Okay. Solid. That’s very cool. I think the first time you dropped a comment on one of my videos was, I think it was regarding Dire Dire Docks, the track I chose for one of my videos from Super Mario 64. And then once again, I think with the rumbling, the Attack on Titan intro. And I was like, this guy gets it.

I checked out your [00:02:00] profile. Obviously, you’re a very talented musician. And then I saw your Zelda stuff in the background and then found your Pokemon content. 

Anthony: Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely, man. I’m a retro 90s kid, Nintendo 64 diehard fan, you know? You’re 

Oliver:

Anthony: big Zelda fan. That’s also part of where the nut Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, like, like retro Zelda, mostly.

Oliver: Okay. 

Anthony: Um, I, again, I am outdated. Forever outdated. I do really like that handle, by the way. Oh, thank you, thank you, yeah. You know, I try and come up with something that’s a little unique. So it’s not just like, you know, uh, Pokey this or Pokey that. It’s like, I’m not, I’m not taking a shot at anybody for using those kind of handles.

It, it’s great. Um, but, um, Forever Outdated is just because, like, I always feel like I’m behind on whatever’s going on. You know? [00:03:00] Um, you know, there’s always something new going on, a new game, a new this, a new that. And I’m like, what? What, this new, this other new style of music? Okay, cool. Cool. You know, I’m just like I’m I’m I’m still late 90s early 2000s.

That’s uh, it’s about where I’m at and Yeah, that’s what it is. I can respect 

Oliver: that. That’s the kind of the age group behind Pokemon cards, too hey, because it’s it’s weird because now we’re we’re in our late 20s or 30s and I look at my my YouTube or my tik tok data and I can see that 80 percent of my audience is aged 25 to 35 And it just, it, every time I’m like, oh yeah, I keep forgetting, I keep forgetting that.

Anthony: Yeah, and the Kanto Johto kids, man. Yeah, 

Oliver: it’s true. 

Anthony: That’s, uh, that’s where I’m at, man. That’s where I’m at. 

Oliver: Do you, uh, have you played the new Zelda games? Or are you just into, like, retro? 

Anthony: [00:04:00] Uh, unfortunately I haven’t. I, I, I work, I work a lot, so I honestly haven’t had time for, uh, Tears of the Kingdom or, um, Breath of the Wild.

I have. briefly played some Breath of the Wild at, like, a friend’s house, um, just because, like, I heard so, so many wonderful things about it, and I’ve heard a lot of great things about Tears of the Kingdom, too. Um, and I’m very interested to get into that when I, when I actually have a little bit more time, like, like, to myself, just in general.

Um, I’m definitely gonna dig into those. Um, I mean, I actually have the Switch, and I have just about everything else. Just haven’t gotten the game yet. 

Oliver: Yeah, it’s a, it’s a big time sink. Those games take a lot of hours, for sure. 

Anthony: Yeah. Or so I’ve heard. Yeah, that’s all, like, all the, all the new mechanics, and like, the, the huge, uh, the, the huge maps, it’s just like big, like, [00:05:00] open world, and the graphics generator, it’s just like, it’s crazy.

Yeah. Everything that I’ve seen, I’m great, I’m floored with the quality. 

Oliver: Yeah, it looks amazing. What is your, uh, favorite old school Zelda game? Majora’s Mask. Yeah. I mean, that’s everyone’s, right? 

Anthony: Uh, uh, usually, usually people are like, Eh, I didn’t really like that one. It’s usually the response I get from people, Um, most of the time they want to, you know, Ocarina of Time, which I get it.

Of course, yeah. Ocarina of Time’s my second, second favorite, easily. Um, but, you know, Majora’s Mask, just like, to me, like, how difficult it is, and just everything about Majora’s Mask is just picture perfect, in my opinion. 

Oliver: I think I like Wind Waker the best, actually. That’s 

Anthony: actually a wooden Majora’s Mask, up there.

Oliver: Oh [00:06:00] yeah, I see it in your videos, actually. 

Anthony: Yeah, it’s actually, it’s actually wooden. It’s like, it’s, it’s not plastic. Okay, that’s cool. It’s like, it’s like a, it’s a handcrafted wooden piece. Wow, that’s sick. Yeah, yeah, she, uh, I think she said it’s a Russian, like, like this, like this Russian custom shop kind of thing.

Oh, cool. So I was like, I was like, that’s incredible. Yeah, that’s awesome. Just a quick, quick side quest. It, uh, Was continuously falling off the wall at my previous apartment. I don’t know what that’s all about. 

Oliver: But you’ve got it stuck on there now, hey? 

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. 

Oliver: Yeah, actually, um, I had a plastic one kicking around.

Like a 3D printed one. Hey, nothing wrong with that, man. Wood is cool, though. A wooden one sounds so cool. 

Anthony: Oh, yeah, yeah. You [00:07:00] know, if you think about like, in The King and Mal, it was wooden, and that kind of thing. Of course, of course. 

Oliver: Yeah, I’m waiting for a Majora’s Mask remake, or, or some Well, I mean, didn’t they Did they remaster it for the 3DS, or did they just do Ocarina of Time?

Anthony: I think they did Majora’s Mask, I thought. 

Oliver: Yeah, I’m I want to say they did. Maybe I should look into that, because I’ve been wanting to I don’t think I ever beat Majora’s Mask. Majora’s Mask. 

Anthony: I feel that, bro. I feel that. I think I got to like the third giant and, uh, and that was when I was like 10. Yeah, same.

Like, with no walkthroughs and no internet. 

Oliver: Same. Those games are hard, man. I feel like all retro games are impossible now. 

Anthony: Yeah, I think, I think, you know, we were onto something as kids. I think we were a little bit more open minded. Yeah. To where, you know, we might be able to, like, rack our brains and figure [00:08:00] it out eventually, and then you also had the time back then, you know, like, we were, we were kids, so we had a lot more time.

Oliver: Yeah, you’d, you’d put the game down, go to school, and come back with fresh ideas, right? 

Anthony: And then go straight back to it. 

Oliver: Um, so, tell me, when, when did you start collecting Pokémon cards? 

Anthony: So, my grandma, um, actually was kind of the catalyst of my Pokémon card collecting back in the late 90s. Um, she was buying Base Set packs and Jungle and Fossil and Rocket, um, Base Set 2 cards.

Um, that’s all of what my childhood binder composed of. She even had, uh, tops, too. Uh, those tops, tens. Yeah, those, the movie, the movie tens. The ones that came with, like, the movie scenes [00:09:00] and all that. Um, so, I got really fortunate that that’s what, um, that’s what she was collecting with me in the late 90s and into the early 2000s.

Um, and, I, I played all the, the Game Boy Color games and, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, you know. 

Oliver: What was your first Pokemon game that you picked up? Pokemon Go? Yeah, me too. 

Anthony: Yeah, yeah, I had, uh, I, I was fortunate enough that they got me the, uh, You know the, the Pikachu limited edition, the special edition Game Boy Color?

You know which one I’m talking about? 

Oliver: Yes, I know exactly the one. I know. To this day, I should just go buy it, to be honest. I still want it so bad. Yeah. 

Anthony: I’m still holding off on repurchasing it myself. I don’t have it anymore. I feel like by [00:10:00] the time I go to buy it, it’s probably gonna be like 300 or something.

So 

Oliver: I actually looked into it and they aren’t that bad quite yet. But, um, the pandemic definitely spiked the price on those. 

Anthony: Yeah, I think it, I think it kind of cooled off, like whenever, you know, like the, the pandemic kind of started to pull back a little, you know, and I, I can, you know, I think it’s something that at one point I’m definitely going to own it again, maybe even with the Karen case, hopefully.

Oliver: Oh, that’d be cool. 

Anthony: Cause they had a matching carrying case. Yeah. You know. 

Oliver: I love, I mean obviously. Yes. I love that stuff. I like hoarding. Yeah. Hoarding that stuff. 

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. Talk about hoarding. 

Oliver: Um, so, did you ever take any breaks collecting Pokemon cards? Or have you just been like, [00:11:00] I mean, have you been collecting this whole time?

Anthony: You know, I, I wish, I wish I could say that I did, um, you know, I took probably, I guess, uh, around my 2003 ish, 2002, 2003, you know, cause, cause that, that whole thing was really funded by my grandma. Mm. Um, so when we moved away from her and moved to Texas, um, Then, she wasn’t, she wasn’t really there as much, um, unless it was, like, a special occasion, so, um, my parents weren’t really into, uh, continuing that, um, so, unfortunately, a lot of, like, a lot of my cards got, like, tossed, um, which, you know, it’s, it’s partially my fault, too, you know, like, it’s like, they were probably in a toy box, just, like, out, out, [00:12:00] out, out, about, right?

You know, like, probably most of us, right? Um, and so, at that point, I had kind of veered off, and I got real serious about skateboarding. Um, so unfortunately, I, I, I did take a long break, and then I came back into the hobby, uh, late 2020. 

Oliver: Yeah, um, was it the pandemic that brought you back? Uh, yeah. 

Anthony: Uh, yeah, um, you know, the funny thing was, is I wasn’t on TikTok, I wasn’t on, um, I wasn’t even watching the YouTube videos or anything.

I, I remember just, like, distinctly, I was just walking in Walmart one day, and I looked over, and there was a full setup of Unbroken Bonds, um, just, like, You know, you know the three pack, the three pack [00:13:00] repacks that they do? Yeah, yeah. And there’s a full display of that. And I was like, I was like, man, that looks really cool.

Like the Charizard and Reshiram. I was like, that, that’s cool. Uh, you know, I think, I think I’m gonna grab that. And, and I grabbed it like on my lunch break. And that just like kinda snowballed into what, what’s today now. Um. And, uh, then, you know, I grab a Minitin, I grab this, I grab that, and then shortly thereafter, Shining Fates came out, and that kind of sealed my fate, shortly after that.

Oliver: And now, uh, now you can’t stop, right? 

Anthony: Yeah, I think that’s a good description for it. That’s funny 

Oliver: because so many people came back to collecting during the pandemic just because it became so popular. But similar to you, I kind of just like stumbled [00:14:00] back into it during that time. It was weird because I, I had, um, uh, rebuilt my battle station.

I got new lights for my PC and my desk and everything. And I had my base set cards framed on the wall. And I posted a picture to reddit and it’s like check out my new battle station And I just like within the hour had like 20 comments asking me about the Pokemon cards And I was like was like guys Pokemon cards are not cool anymore Then I was like, I was like that’s such a weird response.

I kind of feel like Maybe I’ll go grab a pack just for old time’s sake and they were sold out everywhere. And then I got back on the internet and everyone’s like, Oh yeah, Pokemon’s like the biggest thing ever. And I was like, yo, whoa, when did this happen? How? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s it. It’s weird. Yeah.

Yeah. Totally. 

Anthony: [00:15:00] Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think what it was is, um, In 2020, especially during the lockdown phase, when everybody was just inside for, like, a month or two, we were all starting to realize that we have all this extra time. And not only do we have this extra time, but there’s, there’s a pandemic happening.

You know, the world’s being affected, right? Our friends, our family, everybody. So, I think what the natural progression was, is that everybody just kinda was like, You know what? Let’s get back to the core and the root of who we are. Let’s, let’s look into who, let’s remember. Let’s go back. Let’s feel that again.

You know, me personally, I, I went and um, I bought Nintendo 64 games for my Nintendo 64. Um, I even re bought [00:16:00] a GameCube and bought some, some of my favorite games for GameCube. Um, I had accidentally purchased a Dreamcast a few years back before that. Um, and that had Sonic Adventure, which I was huge on when I was a kid.

So, you know, I kinda spammed that, and You know, I, I actually took the time to beat Arc Arena of Time. You know, so basically what I’m getting at is we had this extra time to kind of get back to the core values and our childhood and, you know, just kind of recap what, what’s important, what was important to us as kids.

We were inside for, for hours and hours and days and weeks. You know, we needed something that, that Like, not be depressed and find something constructive to do. And that’s what me and my family did. You know, um, she [00:17:00] was currently pregnant with our son. And, um, I was like, you know what? I’m gonna crack open my old video games.

I’m gonna get back to it. You know, I’m gonna write music. You know, I’m gonna do anything that I can. And I think that a lot of people had a similar experience, you know, they were bored, they were tired, they didn’t know what to do. And they were like, you know what, let’s have fun. And and you know, ever since then, I’ve just been having too much fun.

Oliver: Yeah, that that as well as people, you know, when you’re stuck inside, you start cleaning out your old stuff. I think a lot of people found their Pokemon cards. 

Anthony: Yeah, yeah, that’s great, man. That is so great. You know, thankfully, um, my grandma had actually gifted me a childhood bound, uh, the main childhood binder back, um, in 2018.[00:18:00] 

Wow. Yeah, 2018. So, so I took it back in and I looked at it, you know, I was like, wow, Look at this, you know. It didn’t, it didn’t quite get me, like, back into collecting, but it was so nostalgic. You know, taking all the cards out, looking at them. Um, The binder that she gave me is the blue Pokemon branded binder with the Tarzard in the middle.

Oh, nice. It is like the Pokemon binder, you know? Like, like, from the Pokemon company, not just like a random binder, you know? So, so it just like, it blew my mind that, that like, she even still had that. I was like, that’s so crazy. 

Oliver: Yeah, I know a lot of people lost their collections and it’s, it’s rare now to hear that someone still has their childhood cards, right?

Yeah. 

Anthony: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I [00:19:00] thought they were all gone, you know. 

Oliver: That’s really cool. Because 

Anthony: there was time and, yeah, there was time and time again where, um, you know, um, my mom and dad would go in and clean out my room, you know, when it got out of control. 

Oliver: Yep. 

Anthony: And, uh, my Yu Gi Oh! and my Pokémon cards were victims to that.

Yep. But, again, you know, rightfully so. It was, it was our fault. 

Oliver: I managed to hold on to a lot of my childhood cards, but the majority of them are somewhere else. 

Anthony: Yeah. I don’t know who has them. Hopefully in a good loving home. That’s all you could hope for. 

Oliver: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so did you find any, like, amazing cards in that old collection?

Anthony: Um, yeah. Mostly, like, Bayside Unlimited and, uh, Jungle and Fossil Hollows. Cool. [00:20:00] Um, there wasn’t, like, the big three, like, Charizard, Blastoise, or Venusaur. Like, I guess we weren’t, like, enough to pull that. Um, but one of my top favorite childhood pulls was the Alakazam, uh, hollow from Bayside Unlimited, which was, which is in there.

Number one. Uh, the Lapras hollow. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Number one. And, um, the Lapras, um, and then all the Tops cards. Cool. You know, the, the Tops cards are just frickin sweet, man. And, and she, she apparently went ham on the Tops. Cause we, uh, uh, recently Pokirev did an opening of those Tops 10s. And it comes with, like, this big box topper, and it’s, it’s a Topps box topper.

And, um, I believe I have the Pikachu one in my childhood [00:21:00] binder. Wow. Like, the box topper. Wow, that’s 

Oliver: awesome. 

Anthony: Yeah. And, uh, so what’s crazy is, uh, so when he opened those and I started seeing the movie scene cards, I was like, dude, those are literally the ones in my binder right now. I was like I always wondered what product she got it from and then watching that video actually helped me.

I was like, oh dude, there it is 

Oliver: Yeah, poky revs. Actually, he’s great for that. He’s done a lot of like really old school openings like like old Um mcdonald’s booster packs or like stuff like that, right right like At if you take it at face value, you think it’s just content for youtube but a lot of it’s actually like he’s You He’s recording a little bit of history, and he’s documenting some old cards that otherwise didn’t really have a documented origin in some cases.

Anthony: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and I totally [00:22:00] agree. Totally agree, and I am a massive PokéRev fan, so I usually, I’m, I’m clicking, I’m clicking that upload like a couple seconds after it came out. 

Oliver: Yeah, he’s good. I do a lot of research for sleeve, no card behind. And I actually, I go back to his videos lots just because, you know, like he’s opening these cards from 25 years ago and it’s like, okay, now I have like video footage to see what order these cards came in, you know, was there just one hollow per pack, et cetera.

It’s a, it’s amazing, um, how that’s actually become such a great educational resource. 

Anthony: Oh yeah, I totally agree. I think, uh, one of the craziest, uh, McDonald’s openings he did was the Japanese McDonald’s opening. Um, that had the Johto starters. 

Oliver: Yeah. Those 

Anthony: holo patterns, uh, with the [00:23:00] E series were just absolutely phenomenal.

I was like, dude, I have never seen those before, but if I could ever find one, like in store. And like, in, like, mod play. Yeah. I’m probably going home with it. 

Oliver: Yeah, that it’s the Chikorita that, that I see in my, in my mind’s eye, that, that, um, ugly, but beautiful Chikorita. 

Anthony: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I think, I think it was like what Cyndaquil, Totodile, Chikorita, and I think there was a Pikachu in that one too, that was like, the chase was the Pikachu.

Yeah. Yeah. And, and that, uh, the E Series Energy. That was real nice, dude. I think the English 151 kind of did a decent job doing kind of a rendition of that same kind of energy too. That’s 

Oliver: a great point. I didn’t think about that. But 

Anthony: you know, yeah, maybe not to the level of that Japanese quality in the early 2000s, but still like it’s still [00:24:00] kind of a rendition of that.

Oliver: Yeah. 

Anthony: So it’s really nice. 

Oliver: Um, so when did you start? I should say Did you start your TikTok with the intention of turning it into a Pokemon TikTok? 

Anthony: You know, in the beginning I was just kind of confused. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna do um, the full time Pokemon or if it was just gonna be like guitar covering like anime songs or metal songs or Or workout videos.

I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do. I was just kind of recapping my life to some degree. And then after a while, I thought maybe it made more sense just to stay with the Pokemon cards. But I still left everything up, you know, from back then. Like the Attack on Titan cover. Even though it was like really low quality.

Awesome, by the way. Like so good. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I, I, I, [00:25:00] I just thought the song was too good. I was like, The song is way too good for me not to play it, you know, and, uh, so, like, I, uh, I did that, and, um, I had also did, like, the Gerudo Valley from Legend of Zelda. I, I, I actually, I remade that song, um, so, and with, like, complete melodic death metal aspects.

But it stayed true to, like, the song tempo, and the key of the song. So, it’s still the song. It’s just like, it’s a metal, like a death metal rendition of it. And, um, last I checked, nobody had one. I was the only one who had one. So, I was like, I’ll take that. Last time you checked, right? You’re gonna 

Oliver: turn around and there’s gonna be a million of them.

Anthony: Dude, I’m for it, man. I’m for it. I would love to hear more death metal, uh, Legend of Zelda covers. That’d be really sick. 

Oliver: Yeah, I, uh, I would not argue with that. 

Anthony: [00:26:00] Mm hmm. But, um, yeah, I mean, I think if you look at my more recent videos, you see that I got a little bit more serious about the editing. Um, I got a little bit more serious about trying to make it a little bit more concise.

I did notice that. And, and, and a little, and a, just a little bit better. You know, even if I’m just doing a car rip, or, or something like that. Cause, I’m so busy, you know, like, sometimes that’s all I have time for. And if I hit something big in my car, I’m gonna post the video. Even if it doesn’t look great, I’m still gonna post it.

You know, cause it’s just like, like that other night. I hit that uh, Charizard EX SAR from Walgreens. Yeah, I saw that. And It was like, that was one Minitin. It was just one Minitin, the first pack. I hit, I hit the Charizard, like, Well, TikTok’s gonna see it, even if it looks terrible. I’m still gonna show it.

And those 

Oliver: videos do well, you know? It’s, it’s [00:27:00] weird. Yeah. Actually, just last night, I finally, I finally pulled this bad boy. Nice, dude. I really haven’t opened a lot of packs either, so. Yeah. It’s, uh, just sitting there. I like to look at it. 

Anthony: Dude, yeah. I, you know, if, if I didn’t have a terrorizing three year old in here all the time, I’d probably have a lot more cards out, 

Oliver: too.

Great point. 

Anthony: I, uh, I do have this bad boy up here, completely out of reach that I was fortunate enough to, 

Oliver: uh, to score. I remember seeing your video, yeah. But, um. You’re lucky. 

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah, I was very, very, very lucky. I’m just gonna leave it in the plastic like that. And, uh, you know, I, I think it’s, I think it’s great.

And like I said, I’m, I’m really fortunate and I’m very grateful. I’m not, I’m not trying to be cocky about having it, you know. I know a lot of people had a really bad [00:28:00] experience trying to get there, so. 

Oliver: Yeah, that was a, a little piece of Pokemon card history right there. 

Anthony: Yeah, I mean, and. And, and it just, it really blows my mind that the Pokemon company flopped so hard on, uh, getting it to the people.

Oliver: Yeah, I don’t know. I’m not really surprised. I mean, that made headlines, I think, all over North America. That was a lot of, that was a lot of exposure for Pokemon cards, you know, even though it wasn’t done correctly. I’m not saying it was intentional, but Yeah, yeah, for 

Anthony: sure. 

Oliver: I don’t think the outcome was bad for them.

Yeah, 

Anthony: you know. Yeah, I mean, I think, I think overall, it wasn’t that positive. I just think that a lot of people had a terrible experience trying to take part in it. And then, overall, a lot of people ended up emptying out a lot of the inventory at Pokemon, PokemonCenter. com, but then, like, their card [00:29:00] came bent in half, or they didn’t get one at all.

You know what I mean? And so for me, as a collector, I just feel bad for them. 

Oliver: Yeah. 

Anthony: Yeah, I feel, I feel terrible for the people. 

Oliver: Once I’ve received a card that, that was, um, valuable and it was damaged in the, in the mail. And it’s, it’s the worst feeling cause you, you know, sometimes you wait like three weeks for this thing to show up.

Anthony: Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. That was, um, Yeah. Rainbow Rare Charizard V Star, for me, for Brilliant Stars. I, uh, had to, I ordered it once from Makari. Guy said it was good. And, um, I actually made a video about this on Makari, er, sorry, not Makari, on TikTok. Um, and, uh, I was looking it over on the video, and I found, like, this video.

Big ding in the, in the, in like the [00:30:00] bottom, and I was like, bro, like you can see it, like, it’s so bad.

I was just like, dude, I’ve been chasing this card for like over a year now, I finally get it in my hand and it’s damaged. Did you end up getting compensated for that? I, I, I just sent it back to him. I was just like, I was just like, here you go dude, I, I’m sorry, I can’t. I, you know, I, I, I probably spent, you know, well over a lot of money trying to pull that card, and then finally to buy it and it’s damaged, so I’m like, no.

I’m sorry. Yeah. I can’t do it. 

Oliver: I had a 

Anthony: But I made sure that it was packaged well, and I sent it back. 

Oliver: Yeah, teach him how to package it. 

Anthony: Yeah, you know what was weird is it seemed like it was packaged good. You know, so that’s, that was the [00:31:00] weird part. Oh, you don’t think it was damaged in shipping? You 

Oliver: think it was before?

Yeah. 

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But, I think, you know, I, I think, to give the benefit of the doubt of any Pokémon teller, um, you don’t know what their experience is with cards. You don’t know how closely they, they, like, if they really know how to look at the details of the card. Right. You know. They might just look at it front and back and be like, oh, great, cool, you know, where, where people who love cards are like looking, you know, like, like, you know, like us, you know, we’re, we’re going to look it over and we’re going to like, look at it.

Oliver: Yeah. I ordered earlier this year. Have you seen the, um, um, from the heart gold soul silver era, they had the, the legends cards or it’s a two halves put together. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I ordered, um, I found an eBay listing for the bottom half of Ho Oh [00:32:00] and the bottom half of Lugia. I have the top halves.

So I was like, yes, right, totally, um, totally buying this one. And it showed up and they were fake, not even good fakes though. Like they weren’t even foil. They were like photocopies. Like really, really bad. And I messaged the guy and I was like, Hey man, these are fake. And he’s like, Oh yeah. How do you know, by the way, no refunds.

I was like, no dude. They’re like. Super duper fake. And I talked to him some more and he just had no idea. He had found it in a storage unit, looked them up, saw they were worth money and sold them. Right. So I ended up getting my money back, but that’s exactly the point you just made. Right. It’s a non collector, uh, selling the cards.

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. And, and see, and that’s, and that’s the thing. It’s like, you really, you really don’t know what their [00:33:00] experience is. And so they just. They just want to, like, get some money back out of it, but they don’t realize that this is actually just a 100 percent fake pen. You know, we, we, we, I’m sure as collectors, sometimes we want to be really upset with them.

But I think, on the other half, we gotta try to give some benefit of the doubt that, you know, people just make mistakes sometimes, and they really just don’t know. Yeah. And, now that you’ve said that, uh, I actually acquired some Legends cards in a, uh, Christmas gift from my grandma, uh, two years ago. Whoa.

And, I’m actually not sure if they’re 100 percent real either. Oh, really? Uh. They are a little different. Yeah. They’re really faded. Faded? Like the ink, it looks very faded. Interesting. So. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, um, I have, I think I have one of [00:34:00] the spiders back there, actually. I brought out my binders just in case, uh, just in case we were gonna go that far, you know?

Oliver: In case we nerd out that hard? 

Anthony: Dude, I’m all for it, man. I am all for 

Oliver: it. I did notice those Legends cards are a little bit different. Like, I’ve got mine that I know, um, are authentic. But I still, every time I hold them, I’m like, ah man, it like, I don’t know if it’s a little thicker, a little thinner, or if the colors are off or something, but there’s just something that makes them feel a little bit weird.

Anthony: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, let me, uh, let me just grab this real quick. Man, chin pumping, that’s really, really cool. 

Oliver: When I say amazing card, so some of the best artwork in the trading card game. 

Anthony: Oh yeah. Heartfold SoulSilver [00:35:00] is very underrated. Um, I found some Spanish ones on Mercari that were selling for a good price.

Um, I, but I’m, I’m a little too focused on everything else right now. So I’m not, like, trying to, you know, deejay on, uh, Spanish heart gold soul silver um But it was written in chinese. It’s kind of cool. 

Oliver: Yeah. Yeah. I have a lot of german cards for some reason 

Anthony: Oh, you do. I 

Oliver: don’t know why 

Anthony: Ah, I I found it, bro sui kun inti Yeah, that’s that’s the one it’s the top and the bottom.

Oliver: Oh, really? That’s so cool 

Anthony: Yeah Yeah, yeah I mean, let’s see. Yeah, I mean it’s definitely hollow The back is what makes me question it. 

Oliver: Is it, is it like a lighter hue of blue on the back?

Yeah. Okay, mine are the same. 

Anthony: Yeah. [00:36:00] Okay, okay, so maybe these aren’t fake though. I mean, I, like, I think these came from my cousin who worked at Toys R Us at the time. So, um, he was working at Toys R Us in the, uh, Harkold SoulSilver Black and White era. Oh my gosh, 

Oliver: man. 

Anthony: Beautiful. Yeah. So imagine these were just in a huge thing of bulk.

And I just, I was just like sorting through the bulk and I was like, No way. I had to hold back right there and not say the other word. Yeah. Yeah, you see what I’m saying? Yeah, mine look like 

Oliver: that too. I don’t know what it is with those, but they’re off a little bit. I might have to look into that. Aw man, that’s awesome.[00:37:00] 

Those cards are incredible. Yeah, that’s the bottom 

Anthony: right there. And yeah, I mean, little bit of whitening. Um, definitely like mod play, but I mean, as a binder piece, like, dude. Oh, 

Oliver: 100%, that’s awesome. 

Anthony: Yeah, unbelievable. That’s incredible. And that was like one of the coolest pieces in the collection. It wasn’t, I would say it probably might have been the coolest.

But there were some really sick like, other um, like full arts and stuff like that as well. 

Oliver: Mostly modern. 

Anthony: Um, but, like, a lot of what I’ve been, like, focused on right now is more, like, the top Sword and Shield alternate arts. Yeah. Um, I think, I think, like, before Sword and [00:38:00] Shield, like, is, like, kinda off shelves, we should probably have some of the best cards, like, after spending all the money.

Because, like, the money’s basically spent already. So, like, instead of, like, spam ripping these sets until we might accidentally get the wrong alternate art, um, or not get one at all, I feel like it’s kind of important to just, you know, try, try and keep the value in your collections to some degree, right?

Because, I mean, I, I think most people like us have probably spent easy four or five thousand dollars trying to rip all of these different sets. I know we don’t want to look at it like that, but it’s definitely happened, right? Yeah, 

Oliver: yeah. 

Anthony: So, so, I mean, let’s be real, right? But, you know, um, I do go after rare cards when after, whenever they’re on, like, a really, really nice [00:39:00] price.

Yeah. And I’ll show you one that I just hit at an antique store. So, this is Misty’s Tears, uh, first edition, Neo. Awesome. Awesome. So, so this, he gave it, uh, eight dollars. Really? Uh, market value’s twenty, yeah, eight dollars is what I got it for. Um, the card’s actually in really good shape. Uh, for being a first ed Neo Misty’s Tears.

Um, but the thing is, is, like, that deal was obviously too good. Misty’s Tears, it used to be a banned card. Uh huh. For the first artwork, was banned. This is, this is the second artwork in its first stat. So it was like, It would be stupid of me to not buy this for 8 right now. I agree. It’s worth 24 right now.

So, you see what I’m saying? [00:40:00] Like, you know, just, just kinda go after, Like, if, if, if there’s a screaming deal and you got some money in your pocket and you’re ready to get something cool, then I think that that’s, uh, that, that’s, uh, Those are the kind of things that, as collectors, we should be looking out for.

Oliver: Yeah, I agree. We need, we need to, um, pull back a little bit on the, on the modern booster packs and, and focus on stuff that. You know, I’m 

Anthony: Value. 

Oliver: Yeah, I’m not really big into the like, Yeah. investing scene, but I do think that like, hey, let’s, at the same time, let’s be smart with our money and buy cards that are going to go up in price so that when we look back, um, our money hasn’t gone down the drain.

At 

Anthony: least not 100%, right? Um, because if you just rip, uh, like even a booster box of moddering right now, it’s You’ll be really happy to walk away with 50 bucks [00:41:00] worth of value right now. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and, and that says a lot. That says a lot about, you know, spending 140 bucks and walking away with maybe 50 dollars of perceived value.

Yeah. Uh, it hurts. So, I do try, yeah, I mean it does. You know, like, you, you wanna have fun, but you also wanna look out for your assets. Yeah. Because you have to keep in mind that eventually, these assets maybe have to be liquidated at an untimely manner. True. And you want to make sure that that money at, to some degree, is going to hold at least some decent value.

So, I think that’s kind of one thing that, uh, Pokémon card collecting has kind of inherently helped. Um, a lot of these young Pokemon card collectors technically become investors to some degree. [00:42:00] So, you kinda gotta, like, at some point, like, kinda practice some safe, you know, just some safe moves that are gonna keep you good.

Oliver: Yeah, some low risk, long term moves. Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Anthony: And thankfully, I was already actually literally investing in 2017, so I’ve already made some pretty good sizable mistakes in that, in, in like literal financial investing. So, I, I, I am able to exercise a bit more responsibility, you know. Not, not, not saying that I’m, uh, I’m like super awesome or anything.

At least, uh, at least I’m being somewhat financially responsible, so. 

Oliver: Yeah, no, we’re on the same page for sure. Yeah. 

Anthony: Yeah. 

Oliver: There’s also the effect of social media these days too, right? Because sometimes people post and they’re like, Oh, check out this, this card I just picked up. I, I don’t know, it might [00:43:00] just be a binder card.

And it’s like this first edition Charizard. And it’s, and you’re like, hold up. That’s like six figures and this guy’s acting like it’s nothing. You know? And then it makes, that’s like the 1% people are buying these like, yeah, extre, like, like extreme end of the spectrum. Expensive cards. And we see that on social media all the time.

And it really starts to dilute your perception. You know, when, when you like. Uh, splurge and end up spending like 150 on a card. Uh, it makes it feel weird. 

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. No, I totally, I totally feel that, man. I think what the, the thing about social media is it, it can incite FOMO and young impressionable people because young impressionable people see these people who do have expendable income.

And [00:44:00] who are able to buy these things on a dime whenever they want. Um, but these younger people who are on budgets, who are trying to pay their bills, trying to pay their rent, you know, trying to take care of their necessities, they experience these extreme levels of FOMO. Um, so they get so hype, they buy a ton of stuff, which overextends themselves.

And then they, they start to fall into the regret stage, where they didn’t pull what they wanted, they didn’t get their chase card. They’re down in the hole this amount of money. You know, these are kinda things that I like to think about. Um, it’s unfortunate that that happens, but hopefully you had enough fun to justify what happened.

That’s, that’s all I can say at that point. And hopefully you just learned to be a little bit more responsible. And not let your emotions take over your money. Hopefully. Because [00:45:00] money is not emotional. You know, money is not emotional. It’s not supposed to be. But humans are emotional. And we feed off of emotions.

And that’s what keeps us kind of into this brutal cycle sometimes with the amount of money that we’re spending versus the amount of Uh, results that we’re getting out from the money that we’re spending. That’s, uh, that’s super smart. 

Oliver: Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. 

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah, I, I like to think real deep. I like to think deeply.

Oliver: Yeah, I like to think deep about Pokemon cards, too. Yeah. 

Anthony: Yeah. It’s, it’s a nice thing. Do you watch, uh, RadolPokemon? 

Oliver: Uh, I’ve seen a few of his videos. Yeah. 

Anthony: Yeah, I think, you know, he, he might be a bit cynical, um, but there’s a lot of truth and there’s a lot of logic behind some of the things that he’s saying.

You know, [00:46:00] so I think he’s, he’s, he’s a decent person to learn from because he, he doesn’t try to overhype people, you know what I mean? He just tries to kind of play like a nice neutral role, but still have a lot of fun. 

Oliver: Yeah, yeah, he’s a straight shooter for sure. I noticed that. So, um, you have anything in the works?

Any upcoming plans for your content creation on TikTok? 

Anthony: Um, I mean, really, the way that I am approaching my content creation right now, Um, You might have noticed that the frequency of my uploads has slowed down a lot. Um, and a lot of that comes from that, like, some of the packs that I’m opening, I mean, I’d say most of the packs that I’m opening, I’m not really getting much out of.

So, I don’t like posting anything that makes me seem ungrateful. You know, like, I don’t, I don’t want to post something that makes me [00:47:00] look ungrateful. So Basically, the reason why I’m saying this is that what I am posting nowadays is I’m posting fun videos, where I’m pulling something really crazy, I’m having a lot of fun, so I can share that wholesome experience with everybody, and everybody walks away feeling good about watching the video.

You know, there was one video where I literally, uh, football punted a, uh, Brilliant Stars ETB off of my balcony because I pulled one card. 

Oliver: And Brilliant Stars, really? That had such good pull rates. 

Anthony: Not for me, bro. Okay. Not for me. Oh man. Yeah, there, there’s this thing, um, collector’s fatigue. when you’re over collecting too [00:48:00] often, and you get really fatigued from not getting what you want.

And I experienced that to the extreme with Brilliant Stars, uh, cause I pulled, like, three Haunch Crows alternate arts, and, um, there’s, like, a couple alternate arts, and I can’t remember the other one right now, But, basically, I’ve pulled every other alternate art but the Charizard alternate art. I’m sorry.

Um, over, like, the, over two years I had been opening Brilliant Stars. And, um, so, that was a Black Friday Target deal where I got, like, two ETBs from, from Target. And, um, Yeah, one of the ATBs was really good, where I pulled like a lot of cool stuff out of it, and then the other one I just pulled one card. So I was like, I was like, okay, so how can I make [00:49:00] this negative experience fun?

I’m gonna football punt this ATB off my patio, and we’re gonna video it. 

Oliver: No, that’s, that’s actually genius. You know. Yeah, that’s good. 

Anthony: You know, you know, and it was funny, it was so loud when it hit the concrete, like nothing was going on in my apartment complex at the time, I was like, 

Oliver: oh, 

Anthony: I was just like, oh, hopefully nobody thought that was a gunshot, it was, uh, it was crazy, but, you know, basically what I was getting at is, I, I can get a little collector’s fatigue over time from over collecting, not hitting my chase cards.

And so I don’t want to post those kind of videos where, like, you can see I’m disappointed, I’m not having fun, I, you know, I feel bad, and I don’t want to post those kind of videos. So now, I am strictly [00:50:00] just uploading videos that are fun. And, uh, That, to me, is so much more wholesome, I get better response, um, than me just looking disappointed at the camera all the time, you know?

Oliver: see. I see. That’s a good strategy. Yeah. Yeah. That, that does remind me that you opened two god packs this year, as well. I did. 

Anthony: I did. And she pulled both of them. That’s, that’s crazy, man. 

Oliver: That’s saying something. I’ve never even seen one in person. 

Anthony: I mean either. That, that was the, the, the, that was the first time that I ever did.

We opened eight boxes of Shiny Star V in 2021. Wow. That’s like 

Oliver: Yeah, I’m, uh Yeah, we were Those are low odds for God Pack, right? Very low. 

Anthony: Extremely low. Uh, but I mean, so is Shiny Treasury X, too. I [00:51:00] think it’s like one, uh, One, maybe one box out of twenty, possibly. Yikes. Yeah, I mean, that’s the whole case. That you’re talking two grand.

Yeah. About two grand worth of Japanese booster boxes to hit one God Pack. 

Oliver: Yeah, I wouldn’t go chasing God Packs. That’s That’s crazy. 

Anthony: Yeah, me neither, man. Um, we just, we, we have, we have opened three boxes of Shiny Treasure EX. And, to be honest with you, this is the best, and I’m, I’m, I’m serious, the best luck we have ever had for Japanese.

We opened VMAX Climax, we opened V Star Universe, we opened, uh, Shiny Star V. I was open to Chilling Rain, The Battle Styles, and I actually opened Double Blaze back in 2020, [00:52:00] which was Unbroken Bonds. Uh, you know, and I, I didn’t have very good luck with any, almost any of those boxes. Yeah, but, but Shiny Treasury X, it just came back in a real big way.

Um, we had an SAR last night. Nice. Nice. Guess who pulled it. Not 

Oliver: you. 

Anthony: Not me. 

Oliver: That’s okay. And 

Anthony: it was the first pack. 

Oliver: I get. Wow, man. 

Anthony: Dude, what is her luck, man? She’s got crazy hands, what can I say? 

Oliver: Yeah, yeah, 

Anthony: just send them to her, man. She’ll open them. 

Oliver: Yeah, yeah, that’s some amazing luck, man. I also don’t have any money.

I don’t have great luck and like pulling that Charizard last night was um, it’s actually an interesting feeling. It’s, it’s a lot of hype and I had this immediate rush [00:53:00] to go buy more but it was a different because I also get that when you open a whole bunch and you don’t get your chase card. I also want to go buy more but it’s a different feeling when you actually did pull the chase.

Anthony: Yeah, I, I think, I think that this is one of those things that you gotta be really careful about. Because you hit the chase, and you’re just on cloud nine. You’re so excited, you finally hit it, it might’ve took you six months, it might’ve took you a year, it might, you know, who knows. And so, through that journey, You experience a lot of disappointment, and a lot of, I wish, I wish I could’ve, hopefully I will, and then you finally do.

And you get this unrealistic expectation that almost every single pack after that is gonna be an absolute banger. And then you start to come back down to [00:54:00] reality, when you realize that most of the other packs that you’re about to open are not gonna be anything like the one that you just hit. 

Oliver: Yep. 

Anthony: And So, it, it, it’s, it’s a sad reality we come back to after we hit the chase.

Cause you hit the chase and then you rip like 200 worth of packs and then you don’t hit any more chases. But I mean, I, I would say 151, you, you got a pretty good shot of hitting something pretty awesome. Um, I mean. 

Oliver: Yeah, yeah, I agree. There’s some good pull rates in this set. 

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s a great set to invest into long term, too.

I know it’s still technically hype right now. The price has only technically gone up since it’s released, which could be good, but it could also be bad. So, it’s just something just to take into consideration. I’m personally investing in the [00:55:00] booster bundles myself, I think. I think that’s gonna be the booth.

Oliver: Yeah, I’m looking at, uh, Celebrations products now. 

Anthony: That was 

Oliver: sweet. Uh, sort of, uh, from a retrospective look. And, um. 

Anthony: Good, good, good. Yeah, I, I. Those Charizard boxes, man. If you can, if you can find those Charizard boxes, they’re usually cracked. Like, the, the hit rates are usually pretty, pretty high on the Charizard Uh, no, like the Lance’s Charizard V box.

Oh, yeah, yeah, 

Oliver: yeah. Yeah, there’s Lance’s Sylveon, right? That was the other one? 

Anthony: Yeah, yeah, and there’s the Zacian. Right. Uh, the Zacian V, uh, collection box. And then there was like a Dragapult box. Um, but I, the Charizard box is, is an absolute move. Um, so if you ever see them for 20 bucks on the shelf, [00:56:00] Yeah, 

Oliver: I actually wouldn’t be surprised if I do see them again, because they printed the crap out of those.

Anthony: Yeah, well, when they, when they did the reprint, and the cool thing is the reprint has Fusion Strike and Evolving Skies. But the, the initial print had like Darkness, Ablaze, and Vivid Voltage, I thought, back in 2021. Yeah. So, so, it’s actually, it’s one of those times where the reprint is actually way better than the first print.

Oliver: Yeah, you gotta get that Evolving Skies, right? 

Anthony: Yeah, yeah, for sure, man. I mean, don’t open it. Yeah, 

Oliver: well, that’s the thing, right? Now if I get an Evolving Skies booster, I’m like, Oh my god, I have to seal this up and put it in the vault. Yeah, 

Anthony: yeah, yeah, I mean, if, if you have the willpower. Uh, yeah. Yeah, 100%. I, [00:57:00] unfortunately, don’t have the willpower, even though I just traded for the Moon Breon not that long ago.

Oh, did you? So. I did, I did, I collect the con. 

Oliver: Oh, actually, I wanted to ask you about that. That looked incredible. 

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah, dude, yeah. Um, go ahead, what were your, what were your questions about it? I just wanted to know 

Oliver: if you had a good time. Yeah. 

Anthony: Well, um, I was only there for an hour and a half and I fell sick shortly thereafter.

Um, so unfortunately I didn’t get to experience it to the fullest. But, what I did experience was really awesome. All those sealed booster boxes was cool. Oh yeah, yeah, the, the WOTC sealed booster boxes, that video went nuts. Yeah. And I couldn’t believe how many negative comments I got on that video. Oh, really?

I didn’t notice. I was like, nice chill out, man. Yeah, I was just like, dude, like, this is such a sight to [00:58:00] see. This is amazing. You know, but, people were being real cynical. Whatever. I had a great time, man. Like, I was absolutely floored in person when I saw that. Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like that. I saw that in person.

I was like, I was like, dude, I would be stupid to not. do a video of this right now. Um, and dude, I mean, the overall experience was great. Like, the vendors were really cool. They had so many amazing cards that just about any vendor you could pull up to. Awesome. A lot of them were really nice, um, about trading products.

Um, so I brought a lot of products. Um, I brought Evolution Sleeve Boosters. Um, I brought a three pack of Furious Fist from XY. Um, I brought a lot of Steam Siege that nobody wanted. [00:59:00] Um, I brought quite a few duplicate alternate arcs that I had. And I traded just about all of it. Oh, 

Oliver: wow. 

Anthony: And I got, and I got, And unfortunately, I did trade my Giratina Alternate Art, as well.

Right, 

Oliver: right. 

Anthony: Um, it was, it was, it was painful, bro. It was painful. Aw, that card is so nice. I didn’t really want to do it, but, I had to make up the difference for the Moombreon. Yeah. And I was like, you know what? If I don’t, if I don’t trade for this Moombreon, I might continue to keep blowing way too much money on, uh, trying to, trying to pull it, so, I gotta, I gotta commit.

So I did, and it was great, man. I finally got the Moon Beyond. I got, um, a Radiant Collection Mew from Legendary Treasures. Oh, wow, cool. From Black and White. Legendary Treasures is my favorite black and white set, so. It’s probably the best, yeah. I am [01:00:00] collecting some of those cards. Yeah. Because of the hit rates and the Radiant Collection.

Uh. And, uh, also that, that gold Reshiram. The first gold card. 

Oliver: Mm, yeah. 

Anthony: Yeah. So, um, I’m real big on that. Um, but it’s I actually, uh, Yeah. Just, just one really cool thing that happened off camera that I didn’t get on camera, but definitely happened, is I traded my ghastly Master Ball from 151 to this Japanese stan, and he had an open booster box of V Star Universe on the table.

He had three packs left. And I was like, Hey, I haven’t opened any packs the whole time I’ve been here. I might as well open some packs. And I felt good about that box. One of the packs had a double secret rare. [01:01:00] It had, uh, the Roxanne, uh, secret rare and the Suicune V secret rare in the same pack. Oh, 

Oliver: nice.

That Suicune is awesome. Said 

Anthony: on camera, so I can’t prove it, but 

Oliver: When I first saw that Suicune, I was ready to do anything for it. 

Anthony: Dude, that Suicune, the Entei, man, I, I’m, I’m such a sucker for Jodo. I am a big sucker for Jodo. 

Oliver: Yeah. So we’re coming up on the one hour mark here. We should probably wrap it up.

Um, yeah. Yeah. Go ahead, man. Uh, so you are forever outdated on TikTok, uh, is there anywhere else that, uh, people can find you? Yes, 

Anthony: sir. Yeah, you can find me on YouTube as well. I am posting, um, not as active on YouTube, but I do post some good, good quality videos on there too. Um, and then you can also find [01:02:00] me on Instagram as well.

Uh, it’s a little bit more just about my life on that account, but I do share some Pokemon stuff on there too. Same username? Same. 

Oliver: Same username on all three. Cool, man. I’m deffinitely definitely gonna give you a follow on uh, YouTube and Instagram. Sweet man. Then I’ll follow you back. Oh, thanks . Yeah.

Alright, well I appreciate your time so much. Thank you for coming on today. Yeah. And uh, I’m sure we’ll talk again soon. 

Anthony: Yes, absolutely man. Yeah, feel free to hit me up anytime and I’ll be glad to schedule another one sometime soon. 

Oliver: Cool. 

Anthony: Awesome. 

Oliver: Well, take care, man. 

Anthony: Awesome, man. Thanks for having me. Have a good day.