MrMark0673

Yeah, it’s the only sealed game I kept. Love the game, love the art, love the vibe. Never intended to sell, but just haven’t done anything in the hobby for like a decade. Hope all is well brother.

Been a while. Moved to a new house and found some of my old stuff collecting dust. VGA Gold 85+ sealed Totally Rad. Aside from a Heritage Auction in February, I'm not seeing many sealed copies floating around to comp.

Exactly. Whether I get a 1099 from eBay or not, I've always been responsible for taxes on goods sold. It can be framed as a "97% threshold decrease"... in the responsibility of getting issued a 1099. It's a 0% change in any person's personal tax responsibility.

Well what's the alternative? We sell stuff, we pay taxes. It sucks, but that's sorta been the deal for a very, very, very long time. I have a business. I sell stuff. I get taxed. I'm a school teacher. I make a salary. I get crushed in taxes. I don't *love* the system, but it's the current price of living in the US.

Nothing changed except that it will be easier to get caught if you break the law. I'll report my taxes, accurately as I always have, and I won't change any of my behaviors. I get massive returns due to legal loopholes in real estate tax law, so I have absolutely no reason to try to cheat the system.

I just watched Prince of Darkness again last night on Peacock. Not Carpenter's best work, but it's always been a favorite of mine. I really enjoy the mending of Science and Religion and some scenes are genuinely unnerving. If you're a Carpenter fan and haven't seen it, it's a must watch for sure.

You know it's bad when people no longer try to deny obvious conflicts of interest and instead try to spin it as if it's something we should openly accept. "If anything, Jim Halperin has a wealth of experience in conflicts of interest and manipulation. If you think about it, this is more of a positive than a negative." Bananaland.

All kidding aside, Deniz reached out to me and Matt December 4th 2017 to explore participating in WATA in various capacities. We never got further than that initial conversation. At the time, I really liked Deniz (I’m much more conflicted now as I truly see the company has being horribly unethical), and his pitch was solid. We just had way too much going on at the time with real estate, teaching, raising families, and owning a boxing club. Having seen where the company has gone and their methods to get there, I’m very happy with my decision to never participate in any capacity.

I'm glad that Karl's platform has brought the information to a larger audience. I feel like I covered a lot of it back in 2019: Some of the defenses in that thread have aged comically bad. At the time, WATA hadn't started charging a percentage of "market value" when submitting a game to grade. Just another way they were able to greatly increase profits while manipulating the market.

I’m just here for the popcorn. Hope you’re doing well bud, it’s been too long.

Giskard returns, my dude. Pretty wild.

Purchased multi-family #4 in October, gearing up to buy more by the spring. Everything is at least a million around here, but even with high prices and competitive market, you can get deals done if you know what you're doing. There will be some slowing down and a correction, but you won't see what happened in '08. It's a long conversation, but the lending that was happening during that time was very different than the lending you're dealing with today. Not worried about timing the market as the rent rolls cover the mortgage and then some. No vacancies or missed rent during all of Covid, and all my units are officially leased through 8/31/22 now. Not to mention the amortization, appreciation, depreciation, and other benefits. Nothing better than real estate.

Acti-plaque?

Rob posts over on Pinside every once in a while. I haven't spoken to him in years, but I hung out at his place once with a few other members back in the day (Limbofunk for sure, maybe SNESMaster? It's been a while). He's a good dude.

Unlikely unless it's for a massive payday like his brother with Floyd. The problem is that Jake isn't terrible. He's a decent club boxer and low-level pro. He has no real adult responsibilities, unlimited financial resources, and can train with top pros all day long. Coupled with a reasonably high athletic ceiling and he's going to keep winning if he chooses the right opponents. He'll continue to cherry pick the right fight, each slightly more "credible" than the next (youtuber, pro athlete, pro fighter in Askren) until he creeps his way to a massive circus fight where he has potential to lose. I think the biggest mistake he could make is taking a relatively unknown up and comer like Tommy Fury (even with the short amateur career and minimal pro opposition) this early. If he fights someone like Woodley and gets slept, at least he can say that Tyron is a monster with serious accolades. I hate the brothers and the celebrity boxing circuit as a whole, but they're excellent at exploiting idiots to pay for their events.