DoctorEncore

Wise Man Brewing (Winston-Salem, NC) Tropical Shirts - Berliner Style Weisse with Blackberry & Raspberry Another win for Wise Man. This one's pretty darn sour, but still light and delicious. Perfect for a sunny day.

If the spring keeps this beautiful weather coming, I'll be grilling out every weekend. My wife's got some veggies roasting in the oven, but I've got the good stuff on the grill.

I've heard it's actually great, but if it's not your cup of tea, you'll probably be able to get a used copy for cheaper at some point. I'd be surprised if a sealed copy ever goes for cheaper than that though. I don't think we'll ever get the Wii U fire sales for the Switch.

Looks great! What's your favorite item or set of items?

Finally hunkering down and getting to the end of Paper Mario: Origami King. I'm just about to clear the green streamer and can't wait to be done. The game is extremely charming, but the battle system is just so so so terrible. I've said it a dozen times before, but this would be one of my all-time favorite Mario games if it just had a standard battle system. Missed opportunity for sure.

As I approached the end of my NES collecting, it definitely felt more like a job than a hobby. After years scouring eBay, that was more of a conscious decision to go all-in and get to the end. My ability to focus and push through is the reason for my success in life, but it can definitely take some of the fun out of the hobby. I've been doing a better job of balancing collecting with playing since moving into other systems. I now routinely take a few weeks off of eBay and it's a great feeling every time I do. Maybe I missed some amazing deals, but if I don't know about them, it doesn't matter. Ignorance is bliss!

Some of these are actually TV shows, so it's a bit off-topic, but I'm a rebel like that. Chip N' Dale (NES): Apparently this show aired on the Disney Channel and I didn't have cable as a kid, so I suspect I fell in love with the game first. I probably saw some episodes at daycare or at friends' houses later on, but the game definitely holds a lot more nostalgia for me than the show. Duck Tales (NES): According to Wikipedia, this show aired in syndication, so I probably I watched it and played the game at the same time. That seems to fit with my memory since I have a lot of love for the show and game. Easily one of my all-time favorite NES games. Top Gun (NES): I probably played the first level of this game about a hundred times and crash landed on the carrier on at least 90 of those attempts. To this day, I'm not sure that I've ever watched the whole movie. Robin Hood (NES): I think this game is criminally underappreciated. The action RPG stuff is a lot of fun and there is a decent amount of story stuff taken directly from the movie. The biggest frustration is the horse riding. I've definitely seen the movie a few times and it's decent, but I really like the game. Dick Tracy (NES) I never quite got the hang of this game, but I could usually put a couple bad guys behind bars before running out of lives. I think the action platformer parts are pretty fun even if the driving parts tend to be annoying. I eventually saw the movie, but the game is where it's at for me. Bonus List - NES Games I Definitely Played Before Seeing the Movie but Thought They Sucked: Cliffhanger Friday the 13th Jaws Who Framed Roger Rabbit Back to the Future

Holy heart attack, Batman! Looks delicious though.

Nice get! And crazy story to boot. The sign looks great.

I absolutely adore the original and can't wait to watch this. Hopefully the wife and I will get to it next weekend.

I'm a general surgeon so I cut people for their own good. Please don't send me pictures of your inguinal hernia.

Wise Man Brewing (Winston-Salem, NC) Outraged Daughters - Irish-Style Red Ale I don't drink a lot of Red Ales anymore, but when I do, I prefer the heavier, maltier takes. This is my first craft from Wise Man and it really hit the spot, so I'll definitely be checking out their other stuff soon.

A few more stragglers came in this week. The Annapurna Interactive Collection is the standard edition to go along with the Special Edition I grabbed from iam8bit a while back. Other stuff is just a few more random additions. I better get back to collecting this week or I'm not gonna have anything to post next week!

Is this a second sealed copy or is this the one confirmed copy we've seen before (I'll leave the owner's name anonymous since he's not participating in this conversation)? If they did make any significant number of US copies, I suspect they pulled the carts and manuals and destroyed the boxes before shipping them down south. My suspicion is they only printed a few "sample" boxes for proofing, but this clearly was never sold in the United States as an official release.

I collected completely in isolation for about ten years until I joined this site. I didn't know what was cool or rare or valuable outside of what it cost on eBay. I never read the opinion threads or participated in discussion on NA, but I did use many threads there as reference in my collecting journey. I only joined VGS because I wanted to help rebuild the knowledge base. I still completely avoid all collecting communities (Facebook, Instagram, Reddit) outside of this site because I'm just not interested in those random people's collections. I just collect what I want, regardless of the broader community's opinion and that's been a great way to enjoy the hobby for me. I see it as a personal journey although I enjoy the more supportive community aspect we have here. In the end, anyone criticizing your collecting is simply jealous, envious, or selfish.

Sometimes I wonder if traditional thinking on P/E even plays any significant role in stock trends anymore. Amazon is at 71, but is clearly a great company and has lost 15% this year. Tesla is a 1000 and is up about 20% for the year (previously up around 80% for the year before crashing down to earth). I really need to do some energy research this week. It seems like that's where the money is. Also, it seems like earnings announcements are more like dice rolls than anything lately. Beat expectations but didn't beat them by 40%? Immediate ten percent drop. I mean, come on market.

Very good points for sure. I guess I'm really talking about a very long hold on these companies. Getting in now nets you a 20-30% discount from where they were a month ago. But you're absolutely right, buying in the middle of this dip (mini-crash?) means you better be prepared to see red before green. I just really like the growth potential of these four and I think they are at a decent entry point right now. I don't plan to take any profits on them for months or years. I've actually held my current Microsoft stake since 2018 and may keep holding for 10-15 more years. Are you gonna try to find an early entry point for Coinbase? It should be hot, but the OSCR IPO has me second guessing.

Can't say I know much about the energy stocks but I noticed a few are looking strong. I'm personally big on AirBnB, Square, Apple, and Microsoft during this downturn. I think their bottom prices during this dip are going to be absolute steals. Apple and Microsoft are just ridiculously strong companies right now with great leadership. AirBnB should see a huge revenue jump as the year goes on. And Square has used the pandemic to grow in really smart ways. They are the number one non-marketplace app for crypto and they just opened their own bank. They are catering to the next generation of earners and I think it will be rewarded.

Well, I was actually very fortunate to NOT get in on the IPO. It was apparently a very hot commodity and the IPO price pushed all the way to $39 per share. At first I was a little disappointed, but once the stock went public, it fell almost immediately. Today was a bit of a bloodbath for the market and OSCR ended the day down more than 10% in the high $34 range. I picked up a small position at $35.30 just to see if I can make a few bucks on a publicity bounce this week. It's kind of amazing to think a stock can IPO at 39, then somehow have people selling at $34.50 on the same day. I guess the new strategy is buy high, sell low?

I don't care what people do to their carts as long as they don't falsely advertise them as unaltered.

You can use any standard SNES/SFC controller and it will work just fine. Regarding the 8bitdo controller, as long as you buy the correct version (I recommend the 2.4ghz version since it has essentially zero lag), it will come with the receiver which plugs directly into the controller port. The controller port powers the receiver, so you only need to worry about keeping the actual controller charged. EDIT: Pictured is the Bluetooth version, but the 2.4ghz is identical.

Thanks dudes. It looks like negotiations between the big institutional investors caused them to delay and revise the price upwards. It's now looking like it will go public tomorrow at $36-38 per share rather than the original plan of $32-34. I actually do like the company and the way they're approaching medicine with a focus on telehealth/video visits, but the price is a bit much. I left my original buy offer intact, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

I'd wager dollars to donuts that it closes some sort of piracy-related loophole in the software. That's pretty much Nintendo's only motivation for updating anything older than the Switch.

I have also had this happen with physical purchases.

I've made it to the big leagues! I got some very cool news from ETrade that I am eligible to participate in the Oscar Health IPO tomorrow. It's not a guarantee that I'll be able to purchase any shares, but I did put in an offer. There is no lock-up for these shares, but if I sell them within 30 days of purchase, I may not be able to participate in IPOs in the future. Fingers crossed that I get some and that the stock doesn't tank.