@BrickCenter_ Everyone clowning in the comments is only clowning because they can’t relate to wanting something so bad and feeling like you’ve let yourself down. He’s got heart and cares enough to show emotion, that’s huge.
@GemMint10_Cards@CardPurchaser I always preface by saying I’m new to all this shit. However, breaks and PSA grading honestly seem to be the biggest rip-offs in the hobby as a whole. Breaks are almost always awful if you get the whole box, let alone you get a specific player from the box.
Unrealized gains tax for Gen-Z:
You buy a Pokémon card for $50.
Someone offers you $500 for it. You say no. You love that card. You're keeping it.
The government says: "Cool, but that card is worth $500 now. You owe us $100 in taxes."
You: "…I didn't sell it."
Government: "Don't care. Pay up."
You don't have $100 lying around. So you're forced to sell the card you love just to pay a tax on money you never received.
Next month? That card drops back to $50.
Your card is gone. Your money is gone. And the government shrugs.
That's a wealth tax on unrealized gains. They don't pay you back the tax...
Now picture this.
Your mom calls you crying. She has to sell the house she raised you in. Not because she can't afford it. She's lived there 30 years. It's paid off.
But some website says it's worth more now and the government says she owes $15,000 she doesn't have.
So she sells your childhood home. The kitchen where she made you breakfast. The doorframe where she marked your height every birthday.
Gone.
To pay a tax on money that was never real.
Now picture the opposite.
Your dad put everything into his small business. For 20 years he built it from nothing. One year the business is "valued" at $2 million on paper. He owes a massive tax bill. He empties his savings. Sells his truck. Borrows money. Pays it.
Next year the market crashes. His business is worth $200,000.
He lost everything to pay a tax on a number that doesn't exist anymore.
Does the government give him his money back?
No.
Does the government give him his truck back?
No.
Does the government care?
No.
They sold this idea as "taxing billionaires." But billionaires have armies of lawyers, offshore accounts, and trusts. They'll be fine.
You know who won't be fine? Your mom. Your dad. Your neighbor with a small business. The farmer down the road who's had the same land for four generations and now has to sell it because dirt got expensive.
You're not taxing wealth. You're taxing people for owning things.
It's like getting a parking ticket for a car you might drive somewhere someday.
They want you to own nothing and be happy. To fund the fraud, waste and abuse of the welfare state they created.
There is enough money. More tax isn't needed. It's all a lie. But you've been gaslit into believing this is a rich vs poor debate.
I hope you understand what's at stake.
@Dan_1927_ @jackschmidt__ @pizzdaddy@PSAcard@CardPurchaser Pure interpretation bias on an employee by employee basis. One of the problems with getting too big for any company. Somehow they’ve faced no liability, but I don’t imagine that lasting forever. Difference between a 7 and a 9 can be multiple figures.
@jackschmidt__ @pizzdaddy@PSAcard@CardPurchaser I mean I agree, but you already paid to get it graded. And they come back and say that essentially the card is too rare to grade at that price point that you already paid for. The principle of it is that the card community will still pay. It’s a slippery slope that’s led to this.
@Dan_1927_ @jackschmidt__ @pizzdaddy@PSAcard@CardPurchaser The funny thing to me is that it’s been proven that other companies (alternatives) are just as good in terms of design, quickness, and even more sophisticated in grading. I honestly can’t believe people still send them cards, especially at a $700 price point for a “rare card.”