jonebone

Did you ask the seller about his source? Is he a former Microsoft employee or located near any of their distribution centers?

I'm confused on that one. If you thought it was a reseal, why would you pay for grading... and then when you got it back as "authentic", why would you tell everyone it's a reseal? I don't think reseal is the right word, I think "inconclusive" makes more sense. I assume that Wata noticed the security seal was different and didn't want to risk their brand name on a questionable game. I assume VGA probably missed this detail and just thought the game was authentic off of the seal type. And to be fair, there are a lot of resealed Halos out there that get rejected. So if it passed the VGA authenticity check, then the wrap is either legit or much better than the typical DVD style reseals that hit market. The sticker is confusing though. Maybe this was overstock resealed at factory? Who knows that the theory would be. This also isn't the first time two grading companies haven't agreed on something. I can give a specific example myself on a baseball card. I bought a Ripken minor league rookie card from a minor league collector, knew it was legit. Paid about $1k but it was after the grading scandal when apparently too many trimmed cards were being passed as legit. I sent to PSA and they returned it (and my grading fees) saying card did not meet minimum size requirements. I had to return it but PSA didn't say fake, they said indeterminable. I told another Cal collector the story, he bought it and sent to BGS (the other big card company). They graded it an 8.5, the highest graded copy of it on record, and he's got himself a 7 or 8 thousand dollar card now. I'm still not happy about that one. Point being, grading companies are just expert opinion and expert opinions can disagree. Personally, I think Wata did a better job with this game but I'm not sure any one can definitively say it's a reseal. At best you could say it is a questionable variant that cannot be confirmed or refuted at this point of time.

Nothing specifically. Just focus on spending more time with my family and educating my children to the maximum extent possible.

That was my old Gauntlet correct? Glad I started you down the path, nice ones!

Minnesota has outdoor pools and beaches? News to the rest of the country!

Welcome glad to see you around again!

For 35 or so pages we did. I dont vote because all of them are crooks IMO. You can easily talk about the issue at hand without trying to find someone to blame. Its typical American culture though. Always one side vs the other and never working together. The hurricane was coming and the pandemic was going to hit full force regardless. I know we could have prepared better but there would still be panic and lots of death no matter who is in office.

I expect the distancing requirements to relax by late Spring and we'll probably be able to do a "normalish" Summer with everyone being on edge. Probably not a lot of far distance trips but I think people will return to socializing a bit. The experts won't say one way or the other, but I expect this to be a bit seasonal and less transmittable in the summer. In other words, your spouse gets it and is kissing you, you're getting it regardless of the time of year. But in terms of casual transmitals by just walking by a stranger in public, I suspect that will drop a lot. Then we get the big boom of phase 2 in the fall when schools try to begin again. That's going to be where I'm most concerned. When everything tries to get back to normal.

Man that show was such a train wreck. It's hilarious to watch and amazing all of the plot twists. But man oh man, they make Duck Dynasty look like high class rednecks if there is such a thing.

I got one of those gloves CIB and I don't really collect accessories anymore. Maybe it's time to list it...

Realistically, we're going to peak (as a country) at some point in Spring. I expect it to slow significantly in the Summer but I would be willing to be a substantial amount of money this comes back in the Fall. If you look at past pandemics there are usually multiple break out periods until the vaccine develops... which is still more than a year away (probably closer to 18 months). Though they'll do everything in their power to fast track it.

Virginia has already issued it's stay at home order until June 10th...

And I haven't noticed because I haven't really gone anywhere in 2 weeks. The oil industry is going to be cripped here in the states, lots of people will be out of work and companies will close up.

Yeah, necessity breeds innovation. We're seeing lots of companies produce protective equipment or masks that otherwise would not. For as savage as the general public can be, adversity can bring out the best in a lot of people.

I can't take this seriously at all. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that IT warfare / hacking / data security etc is probably the #1 threat and China has kicked the world's ass in that regard for the longest time. Especially as we come into a 5G world that's an "internet of things" where every damn electronic device is going to be on the internet. Weather, you could spend all the money in the world and not do anything about that. Hurricanes, tornados and other acts of mother nature will destroy the world no matter what. It makes zero sense to have a massive budget there. No return on those dollars spent. Income and wealth gaps, we're a capitalist country. We subsidize the poor but if you want complete wealth equality then you should go live in a communist country. That study is a joke to be honest. Especially if they are ex-military. We sit in classified meetings every now and then to hear about the threats out there and if the public knew how far behind the curve the USA is they'd be wanting even more defense spending. Though I do admit, any Government spending or Govt program in general is extremely inefficient. Industry typically does much better with each dollar, though even look at a company like Boeing which has completely screwed up as of late.

Yes but not as active as the old threads used to be. A lot of people show them off on other social media.

Looks like a reseal but with free returns you have nothing to worry about. Someone with that high of feedback probably has it to auto accept the return if you file it anyway. No issue other than hassle.

Sysco is at least one I've heard of but I'm not fond of their fundamentals either, high debt ratio. Debt in itself isn't a bad thing, you need debt to scale a company in the early stages, but more mature companies need to pay it down and eliminate a reliance on it. If you're just buying to hold for near term or quick sell, fundamentals don't really matter much. It's all about the market trend and technicals (chart patterns), IMO. If you're buying and holding for a long time then you had better like the fundamentals of the company too.

For you new stock guys, check out finviz.com. That's the first one I check when someone mentions a stock: https://www.finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=pfgc On PFGC the first things I notice is that very low cash value per share (0.17) with a high debt ratio (1.71). So be weary of that one. That means they owe almost twice as much in liabilities as they own in assets. You can look at the stock chart and tell it is very beaten up and will likely have volatile moves each way, but I'm not sure that's one I'd want to hold long term. One in the food section I like personally is Weis (WMK). Arch may have heard of them, not sure about the rest of you. They're a mid atlantic grocery store. I never heard of them until about 2 years ago when they bought out all of the Food Lions around here. A good friend of mine is a store manager and will likely make district manager in next few years (manager of about a dozen stores). They do very well... they're strategy is essentially to be the cheapest in town. They usually are. They lose market share to the bigger chains (Giant / Safeway around here) but they have completely turned around Food Lions that were ghost towns. This is all ancedotal of course. But their book looks a lot better. $5.63 in cash per share, does pay a dividend, no debt, and their book value per share is about equal to the stock price. I haven't got in yet but I do want to establish a long in them at some point. You aren't going to get yo-yo like returns on PFGC that you guys are playing, but I do believe that is a stock that could be comfortably held for a long time... depending when this market finally bottoms out (which I don't think we're there yet).

They definitely would go bankrupt but I assume the Government will bail them out.

Boeing just cut their dividend for the first time in 40 years. They are more beaten up than most for other reasons but if a company is bleeding cash with no end in sight then paying the dividend is the least of their concerns.

Hey good to see you again, been a long time. You collected a lot of VGA, sold them off and disappeared around 2013 IIRC. Now VGA has a competitor in Wata, comic book collectors piled in droves and prices have gone insane but have finally started to cool a bit. As for NA - Go Collect bought it with half assed promised and let it collapse into the ground.

What the hell are you talking about? Re read the thread and look who started it. I've taken it seriously from day 1, though I'm not doomsday prepper mentality. My comment is to someone saying "this week is going to get bad" is they havent seen nothing yet. Every passing week is going to get MUCH worse until it gets better. I left the house once in 9 days to hit a grocery store at 6AM and that's been it.

We're barely even started of course it's going to get back. We're still several weeks out from maximum infection rates IMO. Most people don't even know a first hand confirmed case (family member, colleague, etc.). We'll get to the point where everyone knows multiples I suspect.

I'm worried about public schools even being able to open on time in the fall. Conventions / sports are much lower priority than that.... even as much as I miss them.