I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
 
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to.
Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547
I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can.
I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts.
Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T

Intro

• "The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
  • "I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
• "For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
  • "We're spread way too thin."
• "If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
• RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
  • Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
  • ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
  • Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
  • Widespread match fixing
  • The Pandemic
    • "People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
    • "People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
      • "To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
      • "Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
      • "People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
• "It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
  • RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
    • He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.

CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association

"Who does this union really fucking serve?"

• RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
  
  • He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
    • He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
      • He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
    • Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
    • RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
    • Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
      • "and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
• He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
  
  • "We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
  • He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
  • "They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
• He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
  
  • He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
    • He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
  • He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
    • RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
  • "I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
  • "Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
    • "Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
    • "That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
• He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
  
• He also says their rankings are a joke
  
  • "Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
• He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
  
• "Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
  

ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission

"They have been put in an impossible position."

• RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
• "ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
  • "Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
  • "Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
    • Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
      • Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
  • "They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
    • "They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
• ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
  • He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
    • Also says more coaches being banned are coming
    • He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
• ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
  
  • "I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
  • "So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
    • "Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
• RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
  

Stream Sniping

"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"

• RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
  • On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
    • "Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
      • He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
        • He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
        • The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
        • "ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
• He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
• "All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
  • He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?

Match Fixing

"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."

• RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
  • "Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
• "Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
• Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
  • Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
    • They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
      • "I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
        • "Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
• RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
• "There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
  • "It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
• "It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
  • "I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
• He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
• "That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
  • "All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
• "I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."

North America

"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."

• RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
• There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
• He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
  • RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
  • He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
• He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
  • He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
    • They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
    • When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
    • "was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
    • He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
• He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
  • He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
• He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
  • He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
• He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
• He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
  • Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
• RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
• RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."

Talent

"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."

• RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
• He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
• Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
• He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
  • He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
• He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
• He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
• New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
• He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
• He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
• He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."

Valve

"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"

• Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
  • Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
• In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
• RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
• He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
• RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
  • A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
  • RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
  • RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
• RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
• Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
  • They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
• RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
  • Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
• He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
• Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
  • RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
• "It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
  • Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
• "Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
• "People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."

Closing Statements

"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."

• RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
• "We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
• "There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
• "How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
• "Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
• "The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
  • He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
• He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
  • "If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
    • "They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
• He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
• "Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
• "This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
• "You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
  • "Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
• "Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
  • "You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
• "I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
  • "I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
• "I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."

Walt Disney Company
Ticker: $DIS
Market Cap: 341.8 Billion
Assets: 201.5 Billion
Subsidiaries: Disney +, Pixar, Hulu, ESPN, FX, ABC, etc
First, Disney is a safe as fuck investment. It’s a blue chip and should be a part of your portfolio. But fuck portfolios, this is a casino, so why will Disney moon? Why the fuck does Disney need a DD? Well, I'm Long $DIS, but today will also make for a good earnings play.
Disney Plus. Have you heard about it? Well, millennials with kids sure have. As the millenials start pumping out babies after 12 months of social distancing, they’ll quickly learn kids get bored easily, and fast. Disney Plus will be as big as Netflix in a few years, and will probably eclipse it for multiple reasons. They have a huge library that they own themselves, and the ability to have streaming premiers, etc. Not to mention the package with Hulu and ESPN. Netflix has a market cap of around 250 billion with only 40 billion in assets and 1.5 Debt-to-Equity vs Disney 0.7
Don’t get me wrong, I’m long Netflix too, but clearly $DIS is the better deal here when you consider their other revenue streams. The fucking rocketship that Disney Plus is has only just started getting priced in, and is where Netflix was 6-7 years ago, but with an accelerated course to get there since people already adopted streaming. They also own their own content and have been producing since their inception, and have a better moat than Netflix. Even if the revenue from Disney+ doesn't match Netflix, they'll be able to pull a bigger profit and recycle old IP.
Oh, let's not get into sports. ESPN, Cricket, etc. Mickey already has his dirty paws in everything. More independent services to charge for.
Their earnings have taken a hit from their parks and experiences being limited from COVID. But the vaccine is rolling out, and their peak profit from this is in the Summer, where COVID transmissibility tends to be low, and partying tends to be high. This will have a much less effect on earnings than predicted the parks get busier this year with vaccinated people ready to go HAM from a year of isolation. Their parks are operating at 35% capacity, but they aren't at capacity for the bulk of the year. Even if the parks take a significant hit this year, it won’t even be noticed as $DIS tears through hyperspace. Fuck the moon. We’re talking Star Wars^TM type intergalactic travel. 🚀
Revenue Streams
Media Networks: 28.4 Billion
Parks/Experiences: 16.5 Billion
Studio Entertainment: 9.64 Billion
Other: 17 Billion
Earnings Play
As for an earnings play, they report today. This is a casino. They’re still holding low considering the uncertainty with their parks, but park travel is low in the winter, and should have a low effect on earnings. But while kids were home, not in school, and causing a ruckus, Disney + subs increased dramatically over the Fall. Look at Google Trends and notice the clear increase over Q4, probably fueled by the Mandalorian and the holiday classics people go nuts for.
TLDR (and for those of you that can't read)
$DIS 🚀🚀🚀
Positions:
10c 2/12 $190
10c 3/29 $200
5c 6/17/22 $250
95 shares at $113
AH Edit #1: Get fucked bears
Edit #2: this stock is a bargain below $250. We'll be trading at $300 by EOY

Shipping
Shipping is $4 tracked for up to 8 oz and at cost for any amount above within lower 48. For shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, APO, or US territories I will have to specifically determine the rate which will be at cost. I can ship anything less than $20 in value, less than 3 oz in weight, and not too bulky in a stamped envelope for $1.10, however there will be no tracking. Please note that anything in a 2x2 may be taped over for risky shipped. I will ship outside the US, but the rate will have to be specifically determined. It looks like world wide shipping would start at $9 for Canada and $11 for all other countries if you want tracking. With USPS experiencing historic delays and a plethora of other issues, I will not ship out of the country without tracking. Once I deposit packages in a USPS receptacle, you are at the mercy of USPS and as they are in responsible charge of the delivery, you should take up any issues with USPS.

Payment
I accept Google Pay, Zelle, Cashapp, Venmo, and PPGS. I will not take PPFF as I do not wish to get my account suspended. Leave the comments section blank for all payment methods. Not that you should be making any comments anyways, but I cannot stress this enough DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES MENTION CUBA OR IRAN. Buyer pays applicable fees on all payment methods. Note that the fees for Venmo, Google Pay, Zelle, and Cashapp are ZERO. Note that the fee for PPGS is +3% of order total +$0.30. I will no longer accept checks or money orders.
Please note the following new stipulation: I will only accept Zelle, Cashapp, or Google Pay for purchases under $50. Purchases of $50 or more may utilize any of the listed payment methods including PPGS and Venmo.

Other Notes
No trades at this time. I generally only ship on weekdays, so purchases on Friday through Sunday will ship out on Monday at the earliest. Additional pics available upon request for coins over $5. I don’t have the time to mess around taking more pictures of coins less than $5 in value. DO NOT SEND CHATS, I WILL NO LONGER ANSWER THEM. Please use the link below to send me a private message.

https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=pikey_mikey&subject=&message=

Please no time wasters. I do not guarantee that I will answer PMs in the order received. I will answer them in whatever order I see fit which may be out of order. If I don’t get timely responses or timely payment, I will sell the coins/notes to the next interested party. I believe my prices to be fair as they are based off of Ebay sold listings and community market trends. Reasonable offers are welcome, but I don’t have much room if any to negotiate on smaller purchases. Offers of spot will not be tolerated. If I want to sell it at spot, it will be listed as such.

I still have plenty of old sales that are still active. I can work on the prices and combine shipping if you are so inclined as to look up any old sales.

Silver Commems
Prices are absolutely firm
11x 1976 Canada Montreal Olympics 5 Dollar (ASW = 0.7227 ozt ea) - $18.64 ea (5% below spot) ($17.67 ea @ 10% under spot if you take them all)
14x 1976 Canada Montreal Olympics 10 Dollar (ASW = 1.4453 ozt ea) - $37.28 ea (5% below spot) ($35.29 ea @ 10% under spot if you take them all)
1991, 1995 Germany 10 Mark - $8.04 ea (5% below spot)
1983 Portugal 500 Escudo - $12
1966 Portugal 20 Escudo - $6.50
1972 Portugal 50 Escudo - $11
1969 Swiss 5 Franc - $14

Bullion
Horseshoe Casino Silver Portion of Round (I think it would have had a brass ring around it making up a larger round) just over 18 grams gross weight - $15.72 (spot)
Lot of 10x Silver 5 Grain Bars - $10 for the lot

World Silver
1891 Tunisia 5 Centime (base) - $8
1813 Swiss Cantons Ticino 3 Soldi - $12
1312AH Sudan 20 Piastre (base) - $30
1889/91 Ethiopia Gersh - $5
1895 (1903-28) Ethiopia Gersch - $10
1929 Egypt 2 Piastre (holed) - $1.75
1917 Egypt 5 Piastre - $7
1937 Egypt 2 Piastre (nice details) - $8
1293 Egypt 1/10 Qirsh (base) - $2
1312 Sudan 20 Piastre (base) - $26
1223AH (1829?) Ottoman Kurus Mahmud II (holed) - $4
1960 Turkey 10 Lira - $10
1935 Turkey 25 Kurus - $2.50
1947 Turkey 50 Kurus - $4
1937 Turkey 50 Kurus - $5
1939 Turkey 1 Lira - $7
1223 AH (1834) Turkey 5 Piastre (base) - $5
1255 AH Turkey 20 Para - $2.50
1293 AH Ottoman 10 Para - $3
1921 Philippines 50 Centavo - $12
1907 Philippines 1 Peso - $22
1876 Bolivia 5 Centavo - $4 ea
1862 Bolivia ½ Sole - $5.50
1895 Bolivia 20 Centavo - $8
1874 Chili ½ Decimo - $4
1910 Chile 5 Centavo - $3
1947 Colombia 10 Centavo - $2.50
1947 Colombia 20 Centavo - $3.50
1879 Colombia 10 Centavo - $10
1953 Colombia 20 Centavo - $6
1913 Colombia 10 Centavo - $2.50
1905 Costa Rica 10 Centimo (ex jewelry) - $2.50
1929 Costa Rica 5 Centimo - $6
1924 Costa Rica 25 Centavo - $8

Shipping
Shipping is $4 tracked for up to 8 oz and at cost for any amount above within lower 48. For shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, APO, or US territories I will have to specifically determine the rate which will be at cost. I can ship anything less than $20 in value, less than 3 oz in weight, and not too bulky in a stamped envelope for $1.10, however there will be no tracking. Please note that anything in a 2x2 may be taped over for risky shipped. I will ship outside the US, but the rate will have to be specifically determined. It looks like world wide shipping would start at $9 for Canada and $11 for all other countries if you want tracking. With USPS experiencing historic delays and a plethora of other issues, I will not ship out of the country without tracking. Once I deposit packages in a USPS receptacle, you are at the mercy of USPS and as they are in responsible charge of the delivery, you should take up any issues with USPS.

Payment
I accept Google Pay, Zelle, Cashapp, Venmo, and PPGS. I will not take PPFF as I do not wish to get my account suspended. Leave the comments section blank for all payment methods. Not that you should be making any comments anyways, but I cannot stress this enough DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES MENTION CUBA OR IRAN. Buyer pays applicable fees on all payment methods. Note that the fees for Venmo, Google Pay, Zelle, and Cashapp are ZERO. Note that the fee for PPGS is +3% of order total +$0.30. I will no longer accept checks or money orders.
Please note the following new stipulation: I will only accept Zelle, Cashapp, or Google Pay for purchases under $50. Purchases of $50 or more may utilize any of the listed payment methods including PPGS and Venmo.

Other Notes
No trades at this time. I generally only ship on weekdays, so purchases on Friday through Sunday will ship out on Monday at the earliest. Additional pics available upon request for coins over $5. I don’t have the time to mess around taking more pictures of coins less than $5 in value. DO NOT SEND CHATS, I WILL NO LONGER ANSWER THEM. Please use the link below to send me a private message.

https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=pikey_mikey&subject=&message=

Please no time wasters. I do not guarantee that I will answer PMs in the order received. I will answer them in whatever order I see fit which may be out of order. If I don’t get timely responses or timely payment, I will sell the coins/notes to the next interested party. I believe my prices to be fair as they are based off of Ebay sold listings and community market trends. Reasonable offers are welcome, but I don’t have much room if any to negotiate on smaller purchases. Offers of spot will not be tolerated. If I want to sell it at spot, it will be listed as such.

I still have plenty of old sales that are still active. I can work on the prices and combine shipping if you are so inclined as to look up any old sales.

Silver Commems
Prices are absolutely firm
11x 1976 Canada Montreal Olympics 5 Dollar (ASW = 0.7227 ozt ea) - $18.64 ea (5% below spot) ($17.67 ea @ 10% under spot if you take them all)
14x 1976 Canada Montreal Olympics 10 Dollar (ASW = 1.4453 ozt ea) - $37.28 ea (5% below spot) ($35.29 ea @ 10% under spot if you take them all)
1991, 1995 Germany 10 Mark - $8.04 ea (5% below spot)
1983 Portugal 500 Escudo - $12
1966 Portugal 20 Escudo - $6.50
1972 Portugal 50 Escudo - $11
1969 Swiss 5 Franc - $14

Bullion
Horseshoe Casino Silver Portion of Round (I think it would have had a brass ring around it making up a larger round) just over 18 grams gross weight - $15.72 (spot)
Lot of 10x Silver 5 Grain Bars - $10 for the lot

World Silver
1813 Swiss Cantons Ticino 3 Soldi - $12
1889/91 Ethiopia Gersh - $5
1895 (1903-28) Ethiopia Gersch - $10
1929 Egypt 2 Piastre (holed) - $1.75
1917 Egypt 5 Piastre - $7
1937 Egypt 2 Piastre (nice details) - $8
1223AH (1829?) Ottoman Kurus Mahmud II (holed) - $4
1960 Turkey 10 Lira - $10
1935 Turkey 25 Kurus - $2.50
1947 Turkey 50 Kurus - $4
1937 Turkey 50 Kurus - $5
1939 Turkey 1 Lira - $7
1255 AH Turkey 20 Para - $2.50
1293 AH Ottoman 10 Para - $3
1921 Philippines 50 Centavo - $12
1907 Philippines 1 Peso - $22
1876 Bolivia 5 Centavo - $4 ea
1862 Bolivia ½ Sole - $5.50
1895 Bolivia 20 Centavo - $8
1874 Chili ½ Decimo - $4
1910 Chile 5 Centavo - $3
1947 Colombia 10 Centavo - $2.50
1947 Colombia 20 Centavo - $3.50
1879 Colombia 10 Centavo - $10
1953 Colombia 20 Centavo - $6
1913 Colombia 10 Centavo - $2.50
1905 Costa Rica 10 Centimo (ex jewelry) - $2.50
1929 Costa Rica 5 Centimo - $6
1924 Costa Rica 25 Centavo - $8

Here is a relatively quick summary of the major angles leading into Full Gear. Links to AEW's Youtube, Twitter and Instagram with highlights and clips of what is going on. I'm including other angles that I feel might end up being relevant to Full Gear, but am not attempting to summarize everything.
The Buy In: Serena Deeb (NWA Women’s Champion) vs Allisyn Kay
Summary: Serena Deeb is a wrestling veteran, very skilled in the ring, who has just become the NWA champion, in addition to being an AEW wrestler. Allisyn Kay, a former NWA Champion, wants her old title belt back.

• 9/2 - Serena Deeb, in her AEW debut, lost against visiting NWA Champion Thunder Rosa.
• 10/27 - Serena Deeb had a rematch against NWA champion Thunder Rosa on her own turf, and won the NWA Women’s Championship. (Watch the PPV here on Fite TV)
• 10/28 - Serena Deeb defended the NWA belt against newcomer Layla Hirsch.
• 11/4 - AEW announced that former NWA Champion Allysin Kay will now challenge Serena Deeb for the NWA title at Full Gear.

John Silver vs. Orange Cassidy
Summary: Orange Cassidy is a lazy wrestler who can go toe to toe with the best, if he bothers to try. John Silver, a member of the Dark Order, is a little bundle of hyperactive aggression. Orange Cassidy took on the leader of the Dark Order, Mr. Brodie Lee for the TNT championship. While Mr. Brodie Lee won, the Dark Order, and John Silver in particular, want to punish Cassidy for even trying in the first place.
This will be a pretty comedic match, by two people who are genuinely good in the ring.

• 9/23 - Mr. Brodie Lee, with the Dark Order at ringside, faced Orange Cassidy to retain the TNT Championship. John Silver interfered with the match to help Mr. Brodie Lee get the win.
• 9/30 - Orange Cassidy beats Preston Vance of the Dark Order. John Silver mocks Orange Cassidy and the Best Friends during the match.
• 10/14 - Orange Cassidy faced Cody, who had just won back the TNT Championship. John Silver tried to interfere but was ejected from ringside. Orange Cassidy pinned Cody, but ran out of time.
• 10/21 - John Silver intensely cuts a promo about how the Dark Order is going to dominate all of AEW.
• 10/21 - John Silver and Alex Reynolds face Private Party, the Butcher and the Blade and the Young Bucks for the chance to face FTR at Full Gear. They lose, but Silver does look pretty darn good. (Reynolds gets injured though.)
• 10/28 - John Silver attacks Orange Cassidy during the lumberjack rematch with Cody for the TNT Championship, allowing Cody to win.
• 11/4 - John Silver and most of Dark Order attack Orange Cassidy at ringside.
• 11/4 - Orange Cassidy stops John Silver from hitting Cody with a chair after the Dark Order’s defeat.

TNT Title: Cody Rhodes (TNT Champion) vs. Darby Allin
Summary: Cody is the son of legendary wrestler Dusty Rhodes, a charming talker and face of the company. He is the TNT Champion. Darby Allin is a reckless daredevil. They have faced off often over the past year, with Cody barely managing to win every time. Will Darby finally win over Cody?

• 9/23 - Cody returns after a vicious beatdown by Mr. Brodie Lee weeks prior. Then, Mr. Brodie Lee challenges Cody to a Dog Collar match.
• 9/30 - Darby Allin beats Absolute Ricky Starks. This will later be revealed as why Allin is facing Cody at Full Gear.
• 9/30 - Cody at first seems to not accept the Dog Collar match, but then agrees. He and Mr. Brodie Lee get in a big brawl.
• 10/7 - Cody beats Mr. Brodie Lee in a Dog Collar match to regain the TNT Championship. Orange Cassidy will be the next challenger.
• 10/14 - Darby Allin watches as Orange Cassidy almost beats Cody, hitting a time limit tie. Cody retains the TNT Championship. Then, Darby Allin is announced as the challenger for the TNT Championship at Full Gear.
• 10/28 - Darby Allin watches as Cody beats Orange Cassidy in a Lumberjack match for the TNT Championship.
• 11/4 - Taz is upset that neither Brian Cage or Ricky Starks are booked for Full Gear. Starks feels he deserves the slot Darby got. Taz says that they will be at Full Gear anyways.
• 11/4 - Cody, with the help of the Gunn Club beats the Dark Order. He then calls out a watching Darby Allin before their match at Full Gear.

World Tag Team Titles: FTR (AEW Tag Team Champions) vs. The Young Bucks
Stipulation: If the Bucks lose, they can never challenge for the Tag Team belts again.
Summary: FTR are arrogant brawlers who say they're the best tag team in the world, and they have the AEW Tag Team titles to prove it. The Young Bucks are arrogant high-fliers who say they're the best tag team in the world. They've both been arguing over who is the best for years, and now finally get to prove it. Previously, FTR messed with the Young Bucks by manipulating Hangman Adam Page, taking the Bucks out of the last title match, and the Bucks are still upset about it.

• 9/9 - The Young Bucks superkick Alex Marvez when he tries to interview them about the aftermath of All Out.
• 9/16 - The Young Bucks superkick a referee, then get mocked by FTR.
• 9/23 - Matt Jackson breaks Tony Schiavone's phone when he brings up FTR.
• 9/23 - FTR announce that they'll be doing shorter title defenses against teams they pick.
• 9/30 - FTR claim the Young Bucks don't deserve a title shot. Then, Matt Jackson superkicks Tony Schiavone to interrupt the interview.
• 9/30 - FTR defends the title belts against SCU.
• 10/7 - FTR defends the title belts against TH2. Best Friends continue to demand a title shot, but FTR still chicken out.
• 10/7 - The Young Bucks watch FTR's match against TH2 at a very strange angle. Then, they superkick the camera man.
• 10/14 - FTR defends the title belts against Best Friends.
• 10/14 - Four tag teams are chosen to compete for a chance to challenge FTR. The Young Bucks are one of them, and superkick all of their competitors.
• 10/21 - The Young Bucks win the 4 way match for the chance to challenge FTR at Full Gear, but are attacked by FTR afterward. Matt Jackson's leg is injured.
• 10/28 - FTR and The Young Bucks are interviewed. FTR leave when they think the Young Bucks are getting preferential treatment. The Bucks announce that if they lose this match, they’ll never challenge for the tag titles again.
• 11/4 - The injured Young Bucks beat Private Party. FTR tries to jump them again after the match, but Hangman Adam Page, followed by Kenny Omega come to their aid.
• 11/4 - Recap of the storyline leading up to the match.
• 11/4 - Tully Blanchard has been banned from ringside for the match at Full Gear.

Women's World Title: Hikaru Shida (c) vs. Nyla Rose
Summary: Hikaru Shida is the AEW Women's champion, who had been doing an open challenge for her title. Nyla Rose is a bruiser of a beast, loving to slam women through tables. She's recently gotten Vickie Guererro as her manager. Nyla lost her world title to Shida earlier this year, and has been waiting for a rematch.

• 9/9 - After Nyla defeats Tay Conti, Shida makes sure Nyla doesn't attack her after the match.
• 10/13 - Nyla said she wouldn't go into the ring again until she got her title match against Shida.
• 10/14 - Shida defends the world title against Big Swole.
• 10/28 - Shida accepts Nyla's challenge for Full Gear.
• 11/4 - After Nyla Rose quickly beats Red Velvet, Nyla’s manager, Vickie Guererro calls out Shida in the crowd.

World Title Eliminator Tournament Final: Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page
Summary: Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page until recently were tag team champions. Hangman's bad decisions lead to their defeat at the hands of FTR. Now Kenny wants to go back to being a singles star, and Adam Page feels abandoned and hurt. Can the sad drunken cowboy beat his former partner, one of the best wrestlers on the planet? Winner of this match gets a shot at the World Championship.
The saga of Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page is one of the best storylines in wrestling to date. The first chunk of it is summarized here, and the second chunk was summarized by me here.
I am not including the Being The Elite segments here too, even though Hangman has been doing some REALLY good work there, because they are really tied up with other plots and hard to summarize briefly.

• 9/5 - Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page lose their teamwork during the title defense against FTR. FTR wins the match and the Tag Team belts. Kenny Omega storms off without Hangman or the Young Bucks.
• 9/9 -Tony Schiavone interviews Hangman Adam Page about the loss at All Out, and how he's really hurting after it, but feels they can continue as a tag team together.
• 9/9 -JR interviews Kenny Omega about the loss at All Out, and how he's ready to move on and return to singles competition.
• 9/16 - Hangman gets a singles victory against Frankie Kazarian, while Kenny on Commentary is passive-aggressively berating him. It was originally going to be a tag match, but Kenny said no.
• 9/23 - Hangman gets another singles victory against Evil Uno, in what was also a tag match that Kenny passed on. Kenny continued to do passive-aggressive commentary during the match.
• 9/30 - The Eliminator Tournament to determine the next contender for the AEW World Title is announced, and Kenny Omega will be in it, shocking Hangman Adam Page.
• 10/21 - Hangman Adam Page beats Colt Cabana to move on in the Eliminator Tournament.
• 10/21 - Kenny Omega, with a new arrogant attitude, swiftly beats Sonny Kiss to move on in the Eliminator Tournament.
• 10/28 - Hangman Adam Page beats Wardlow to become a finalist in the Eliminator Tournament.
• 10/28 - Kenny beats Penta El Zero Miedo to become a finalist in the Eliminator Tournament. Now he'll face Hangman at Full Gear.
• 11/4 - Kenny Omega is interviewed about the Full Gear match against Hangman. He's confident.
• 11/4 - Hangman Adam Page is interviewed about the Full Gear match against Kenny. He isn't.
• 11/4 - Video package set to "You Don't Know What You've Got, Till It's Gone"
• 11/4 - Both Hangman Adam Page and Kenny Omega show up to help the Young Bucks deal with FTR. Page and Omega shake hands, but there is still tension between them.

Chris Jericho vs. MJF
Stipulation: If MJF wins, he can join The Inner Circle.
Summary: Chris Jericho is a raging egotistical rock star, and leads the villainous Inner Circle. MJF is a spoiled egotistical rich guy, with a massive bodyguard in Wardlow. MJF wants to join the Inner Circle, but has to beat Chris Jericho to prove he has what it takes.

• 9/9 - MJF and Jericho meet and compliment each other, but each secretly call the other a loser.
• 9/16 - MJF announces that he’ll consider joining one of the many factions forming at AEW.
• 9/23 - MJF and Jericho both know the other called them a loser, but seem to bond over it.
• 9/30 - MJF and Wardlow give gifts to the Inner Circle. But Sammy Guevara doesn't get a gift.
• 10/14 - MJF officially asks Jericho if he can join the Inner Circle. He gives Sammy a jacket that is completely too big for him. Jericho decides to have a dinner meeting with MJF first.
• 10/21 - At the dinner meeting, Jericho and MJF do a musical number together. Jericho decides to have a Town Hall meeting to decide if MJF can join the Inner Circle.
• 10/28 - The Town Hall meeting to determine if MJF should join the Inner Circle: Part One
• 10/28 - The Town Hall meeting to determine if MJF should join the Inner Circle: Part Two
• 10/28 - At the end of the Town Hall, Jericho issues the challenge. If MJF can beat him at Full Gear, he gets in the Inner Circle. Sammy Guevara and Ortiz, who don’t approve, challenge MJF and Wardlow for next week’s Dynamite.
• 11/4 - Before MJF and Wardlow face Sammy and Ortiz, Jericho calls MJF "soft."
• 11/4 MJF and Wardlow face Sammy Guevara and Ortiz. Matt Hardy, in disguise, attacks Sammy in anticipation of their match, allowing MJF to win. MJF then attacks Chris Jericho at the announcers desk.

Elite Deletion: Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara
Summary: Matt Hardy, a legend in the ring, has been trying to get Sammy Guevara to reach his full potential by leaving Chris Jericho's side. Sammy doesn't want an old man telling him what to do. They've been feuding for months now, with both of them getting injured along the way. It really needs to end.
This will be a cinematic match, filmed at the Hardy Compound.

• 9/5 - Matt Hardy is legitimately injured during his match against Sammy at All Out, but finishes the match anyways, despite that being a really really dumb idea, beating Sammy Guevara. Probably AEW's worst decision to date.
• 9/9 - After being seriously injured at All Out, Matt Hardy speaks about how he's going to rest up and recover.
• 9/16 Matt Hardy has been ambushed and attacked backstage by unknown assailants. The Inner Circle arrive, but claim not to know anything about it.
• 9/23 - Matt Hardy tries to figure out who attacked him backstage. Then, Jericho shows up, admitting he didn't assault Matt Hardy.
• 10/14 - Sammy Guevara issues a challenge to Matt Hardy. He was the one who attacked Matt Hardy back stage. It was him all along.
• 10/23 - While Matt cheers on Private Party during their match, Sammy interrupts him. Sammy and Matt fight each other at ringside.,
• 11/4 - Sammy Guevara, during his match against MJF and Wardlow, is attacked by Matt Hardy, who was dressed as Serpentico.
• 11/4 - While Matt Hardy is coaching Private Party before their match, Sammy Guevara attacks him from behind.

AEW World Title "I Quit" Match: Jon Moxley (AEW Champion) vs. Eddie Kingston
Summary: Jon Moxley is a tough bastard, who spent years in the WWE, and beat Chris Jericho to become the AEW World Champion earlier this year. Eddie Kingston has been an indie wrestler for years, struggling to make ends meet before recently joining AEW. Eddie thinks Moxley is a sell out. Moxley thinks Eddie has become bitter and jealous. Once friends, now they're going to practically murder each other in the ring.
NOTE: The promos that both Moxley and Kingston are giving are PHENOMENAL.

• 9/5 - At the Casino Battle Royale at All Out, Lance Archer is the last man standing, but didn't technically get Eddie Kingston over the top rope. Lance wins a shot at the world title, but Eddie is pissed.
• 9/16 - Eddie Kingston points out that he didn't lose the Battle Royale at All Out. He claims he should get a title shot.
• 9/23 - Eddie Kingston calls out Moxley before their title match later that evening.
• 9/23 - Moxley manages to choke out Kingston, and retain the AEW World Championship. After the match, Moxley is attacked by the Lucha Bros.
• 9/30 - Kingston harasses the referee who stopped the match and gave the win to Moxley, claiming he’d would have rather died than surrender. Moxley heads to the ring in response, but Kingston leaves.
• 9/30 - Moxley faces Kingston’s chosen challenger for his title, The Butcher, and wins.
• 10/7 - Moxley cuts a promo, preparing to face Lance Archer.
• 10/14 - Recap of AEW’s first year, mixed with Moxley vs Archer promos and recap.
• 10/14 - Moxley defends against Lance Archer. After the match, Kingston and his family beat up Moxley. Kingston cuts a BRUTAL promo after the show finishes airing. (Anyone got a link to it?)
• 10/21 - Eddie and his family crash the pre-show to talk about how the Lucha Bros and Butcher and Blade will dominate.
• 10/21 - Jon Moxley explains his friendship with Eddie Kingston.
• 10/28 - Moxley does a promo about how he'll have to be willing to kill Eddie Kingston.
• 10/28 - Eddie calls out Moxley before their upcoming match, then beats Matt Sydal with Moxley’s own moves.
• 11/4 - Eddie and Moxley have an intense in-ring confrontation, with the stipulation that if either of them gets violent, their upcoming match is cancelled.

Section Zero: Background
Hello all, happy hoildays! I stumbled upon this subreddit not long ago and have enjoyed the commentary and experiences everyone's shared. Wanted to add another perspective from a mid-30s first-gen American. I've had some missteps regarding careers and finances, but I feel like I'm in a slightly better place now. I tried YNAB in the past but I wasn't consistent enough with it. These days I use Mint to monitor my finances and have a "Finance Friday" each month to review all my accounts and spending. I currently live with my partner TJ and his dog RR. We do not combine finances, but he has been unemployed since March. I have helped him with some bills and basic necessities here and there until he finds his next job or career.
My current financial goals are to just maintain a status quo and not get any debt until pandemic times are over. Then I will focus on a house remodeling fund and savings for taking care of my parents.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances? My parents taught us about money from a frugal perspective. They are immigrants who worked in food service/factories. There was always this “save save save” mentality. Even when they started their own small business, we saved like there was no tomorrow. In high school, my calculus teacher bought us all “The Millionaire Next Door” book and had us read it as an assignment - that was my first structured introduction to finances.
Did you worry about money growing up? No, there was always food on the table and a roof over our heads. I knew that our extended family would support us if needed.
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it? Yes. My dad didn’t finish the high school-equivalent in their country, while my mom did finish high school, but no college. My older and younger siblings took a different path in life after high school. I am the first and only in my family to graduate from college. My parents covered all tuition for my two bachelor degrees with the agreement that I support them fully during their retirement and send them gifts/extra money whenever I can. I feel very lucky and privileged that they were able to provide that education for me.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net? 24 when I went on a work holiday abroad. My family was always available to help when needed, but the experience abroad helped me stand on my own feet. As an adult, I also inherited that “save” mentality and put a lot of my earnings towards savings. I didn’t date until my 30s, lived frugally, didn’t go out to eat/hangout with people, shopped thrift stores, and had very few hobbies. I am starting to “live a little” now though.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? Aside from the tuition, my parents have helped with a down payment for my first house and living costs during periods of unemployment.
​
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance
If the place I was working at offered a 401k, I would always contribute up to the company match. I started my IRA in my mid-20s and would try to contribute the yearly max. I've stopped that the past 2-3 years though. My Other Brokerage is some play money, but I got tired of staring it and switched to index funds. I haven't contributed anything to it in a few years.

• 401k: $34,127 (5% company match on contributions)
• Brokerage: $22,421 ESPP
• Roth IRA: $40,615 VTIVX
• Rollover IRA: $15,760 VTTHX
• Other Brokerage: $7,235 VTI
• Coinbase: $1,286 ETH (mostly just playing around with it)

Equity if you're a homeowner
Purchased my first home for $382,000 with 20% down, right before lockdown earlier this year. Perfect timing, right?? I plan to live here until my retirement. My parents contributed $15k while I used most of my savings for the rest.

• Current Equity: $80,371

Savings account balance: $3,073
Checking account balance: $7,800
Credit card debt: I charge everything on my credit card for the points, then pay it off each month using my checking account balance.
Student loan debt: Traditionally no student loan debt as mentioned in Section Zero.
​
Section Two: Income
Income Progression (listed as gross income with cost of living area):
High School

• $11/hour MCOL - Helped with small family business.

College and first “career” job

• $12-19/hour MCOL - I did events/banquet serving after classes and had an internship doing software administration.
• $22/hour MCOL - Junior web developer. I realized after a year that programming was not my calling.

Mental health break

• $12/hour LCOL - Work holiday abroad. I got a steady banquet server job for that whole time. It was enough to live minimally in a hostel, do weekend trips, WOOF and figure my life out.

College (again) and second “career” job

• $12-15/hour LCOL - Decided to go back to school for a different bachelor's degree. While pursuing that degree, I worked at hotels and events as a banquet server again. I also did “search engine evaluation” whenever there were tasks available.
• $36,000/year salary LCOL - Software administrator at a casino after graduation.
• $39,000/year salary LCOL - Systems analyst at same casino. I left after 2 years, feeling disillusioned with the casino industry. I moved back home with my parents until I could get back on my feet again.

Third “career” jobs

• $20/hour HCOL - Entry level advertising role. I was applying to all types of office jobs and that was my only bite.
• $45/hour MCOL - Cold-called from a global company who needed someone with my software administrator experience from the casino job. It was an 8 month contract. Although I was starting to love my advertising job, the increase in pay was no question.
• $65,000/year salary MCOL - After the contract ended and a few months of unemployment, I landed my current job at the same company. It is an “early career” role according to their job levels.
• $66,900/year salary MCOL - Cost of living and merit increases after 2 years on the job. Pre-COVID we got a $5000 bonus each year. They have now stopped bonuses as well as all COL and merit increases.

​
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
Monthly Net (paid bi-weekly): $2,758
Deductions:

• Taxes: $1214
• (Pre-Tax) Insurance (Medical, Dental, Vision, Life) + HSA: $822
• (5% Pre-Tax) 401k: $256
• (10% Post-Tax) ESPP: $514

Side Gig Monthly Take Home:
No side gigs at the moment, but I am thinking of signing up on Upwork.com and doing Excel/data entry projects to help pay the mortgage.
Other Income: TJ’s friend will be staying with us for a month in January, who will pay rent of $800 including utilities. Depending on how that goes, we may take on a roommate in the spare bedroom long-term.
​
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage - when I bought the house, the plan was that I would charge TJ a portion of the mortgage costs as “rent”, but since his unemployment I am now covering it all myself.
Regular Monthly Payment: $1677.57

• Principal: $501.31
• Interest: $849.74
• Taxes & Home Insurance: $326.52

HOA: $30/year
Retirement contribution: Nothing additional than what's been mentioned.
Savings contribution: I used to do $50-100/month, but since COVID I’ve stopped contributing to my savings account.
Investment contribution: None at this time.
Debt payments: $100/month towards TJ's credit card balance of $2,307.
Donations: $10-20/month, usually towards Omaze or Planned Parenthood.
Utilities:

• Electric: $45-65/month
• Water: $60-90/month
• Sewer: $30/month
• Garbage: $26/month
• Natural Gas: $30-80/month
• Xfinity internet: $60/month

Cellphone: On my parents plan.
Subscriptions:

• LinkedIn: $29.99/month for TJ’s job search - he’s found it very useful.
• Amazon/Netflix/Hulu: We piggyback off family and friends’ accounts.
• Nintendo Switch Online: 19.99/year
• Costco: $60/year

Gym membership: Pre-COVID I did Orangetheory for a year. I started to pick up free exercise equipment from Craigslist this year, so we have a small garage gym now and utilize YouTube exercise videos instead.
Pet expenses: $10/month. TJ has stockpiled some Costco canned dog food before unemployment, but once that runs out I will likely cover the costs. We also started to make homemade dog food to help supplement.
Car insurance: $460 every 6 months. Car is paid off.
Regular therapy: I will start in the new year. Not sure what the costs are yet, but I will use my HSA to pay.
Vitamins/Medications: $20/month
Groceries & household items: $75/month
Miscellaneous (eating out, house purchases, gifts, etc): $100/month
​
Section Four: Money Diary
Monday
6:30am Neighbor starts up their truck. We joke that it's our natural alarm clock. They idle for about 15 minutes before heading off. I go back to bed.
9am My real alarm goes off. I put the electric kettle on for some morning tea. While it's boiling, I do my morning routine: drink glass of water, take synthroid, use bathroom, brush teeth, quick shower. I then make tea - Jasmine Pearl English Breakfast with dark forest mix. I started ordering loose leaf tea in large amounts back in March instead of small bags or single serving packets. Seems more economical since I drink it daily. I let the dog out into the backyard so he can do his morning routine.
9:30am I go through my daily tasks for work. They entail checking processes and reports to make sure they ran successfully overnight. I then answer some emails and catch-up on Slack channels.
12pm Lunch is leftover roast chicken and quinoa from Saturday. I heat it up in the instant pot. Love that thing! Almost every meal of ours involves the instant pot. We hardly use the stovetop. We then walk the dog to the business park across from our neighborhood. There's a very short trail that runs along a drainage creek by the business park. It's quite muddy, but has a nice woodsy feeling. Over the summer, we saw sumac trees there as well. Free sumac spice!
1:30pm Department meeting on Zoom. Our director announces his resignation on the call. Everyone is shocked! Layoffs were announced for next year but this was not a part of it. I think it's a good move for him and he doesn't have to have this worry of layoffs over his head.
3pm I meet with an engineer from another team and talk about a data source they are in charge of. He helps me out in understanding it and we identify most of the fields that I need for a project I’m starting.
5:30pm I check in with my partner. He's been watching LinkedIn tutorials on internal recruiting, job coaching and general computeoffice skills. It's a career change that he wants to make - something where he can talk to and help people. He doesn't have a bachelor's, only an associates, and hopes these tutorials will get him a leg up in the job search. I sent him some entry level HR admin roles the other day and remind him to apply. I then heat up leftovers: homemade chana masala and rice. I add some butter and coconut milk to thin it out, so there's enough for both of us.
10:30pm I take some magnesium, vitamin D and Airborne. I say goodnight to the dog who sleeps in the office. Then I say goodnight to TJ. He sleeps in the spare bedroom on weeknights due to his snoring keeping me up. I'm a light sleeper while he is a pretty deep sleeper.
Daily total: $0
Tuesday
9am I check Reddit Secret Santa. My match seems like a really good person. Not sure what to get, but most likely will purchase something off their wishlist. I wish I was more creative with my gift giving.
11am Meeting with business stakeholder. She submitted a few changes to an existing data process about a month ago. I make the change while on the call and have her test. Success! Marking it off the todo list. I love when we can finish things directly on a call.
12:30pm I come out of my office to make lunch. I notice my partner is not home. I check my messages and see that he's stepped out to pick up a few things. I ask for celery, carrots, and kombucha. $17. I make a quick charcuterie board for lunch: Costco salami, cheese, homemade hummus and Triscuits. It's a simple, fast meal that’s always in our rotation.
2pm My partner is back and we take the dog out for a walk and quick round of disc golf at a nearby park. We mask up and play only a few holes. Disc golf is a pretty frugal activity, you only need 2-3 discs to get started. TJ remarks that my throws are getting better, but then again they weren't great to start with. We talk about Christmas/Birthday gifts on the way back home since he was born on New Years Day. He mentioned snowshoeing but asked to not spend that much. I'll do some research!
5pm I think about personal career projects. Should I put up a portfolio of projects somewhere? I decide to try and pull some Yelp data. There’s not a lot of data points that I was interested in. Regardless, I tinker with it for an hour. TJ asks if I'm hungry. I said not so much, but felt thirsty. Maybe some ginger soup tonight?
7:30pm Dinner is served - ginger carrot soup made in the instant pot. We eat some rice crackers with it. Lately I feel like we've been eating more vegetarian dinners. It definitely helps stretch our food budget. We end the evening by finishing Fargo season 3 on Hulu.
Daily total: $17
Wednesday
1:30am I'm woken up by the dog. He's been sneezing a lot and wheezes at random intervals. TJ doesn't have the money for a vet visit but I've offered to pay as long as he calls to make the appointment. I give the dog some coconut oil, rub his belly until he seems better and go back to bed.
7am Garbage day. We usually put it out the night before but I forgot. I get up to go, but TJ handles it. I think, at least. I'm too sleepy to pay attention and go back to bed.
9am I wake up and rinse some dishes that have piled up and put them into the dishwasher. We both grew up in households that had a home dishwasher, but forbade from using it. It was drilled into us that hand washing saves more water, unless you had a restaurant/industrial dishwasher. I think with modern home dishwashers, that's changed, so I wanted to try it out with our dishwasher and monitor the water bill. Don't have any dishwashing pods or powder, so I put some OxiClean in it.
12:30pm I overhear TJ on a call with a recruiting agency. It seems to be going well, lots of laughing. I heat up some taco lasagna that I freezer meal-prepped last month.
2pm Collaborate on a project at work with an engineer. My manager put me on this project since I was asking for an assignment on a more technical team. I'm learning tidbits here and there, but I don't feel like it's structured enough.
5pm I do an Orangetheory-At-Home workout and try to break a sweat. It's not the same as going to their studio.
6pm Charcuterie for dinner. Our fridge is full of store-bought and homemade pickles that go super well on a charcuterie board.
Daily total: $0
Thursday
7am I wake up tired. The house has been feeling more cold, which woke me up a few times. We keep the temp at 72F during the day, at night around 68F since we thought the bedrooms keep the heat in pretty well. My mistake!
9am I do my usual morning routine and login to work. My team mostly spends the morning sending each other emojis.
11:30am Lunch today is mini quiche, frozen chicken and veggie entree, and hot dogs. Not the most cohesive meal, but it fills the belly.
12:30pm TJ heads out to his mailbox that's 30 minutes away. He is still waiting on his tax return and a 401k withdrawal. His taxes had to be filed by mail for some reason, then the IRS office shut down due to COVID. So he wanted to see if it arrived yet at the mailbox. He also takes the dog to the vet's urgent care on his way. They didn't have any regular openings available until the end of the year, and the dog seemed to be getting worse. I give TJ $40 to mail a gift package to a friend in France and also reiterate that I'll cover the vet bill when he gets it.
4:30pm I pay some bills, my favorite activity (not)! Sewer bill: $59.44 (billed every 2 months). Geico bill: $459.60 billed every 6 months. Then I follow up with my mortgage officer over email. I had sent her some documents for a refinance quote last week, but haven't heard back. Rates keep dropping, so I'm told, but what does that really mean? I do some research on realestate.
5pm TJ messages me and says he'll be back for dinner. I ask him to pick up some Popeyes via drive thru since we both don't feel like cooking today. Popeyes is currently our fancy “going out to eat” food. $24.17 for a 4pc dinner meal and a 2pc dinner meal.
Daily total: $583.21
Friday
8:30am Busy morning at work. My phone is buzzing with emails and Slack messages. I try to answer them while I make tea.
10am Zoom Department happy hour. We reminisce about our director and then play those Jackbox party games. Some of them are hard!
11am TJ asks if he can make me anything for lunch. He suggests savory oatmeal, quick and easy. I tell him that I really appreciate him making meals/doing chores/etc without me prompting. We've been having conversations about "house project management" and mental load because I did most of the chores or I had to continually remind/tell him to do it. I'm really happy to see us progress on this front. I decide to work through my lunch break so I can end the day early. I don't often do that, but I'm ready to get the weekend started.
2pm I check on TJ in the spare bedroom and ask if the dog has been fed yet, since he was nipping at my feet. I notice something off about TJ and ask how he is doing. TJ is depressed about his personal life, career, finances. He doesn't know what to do, spends half the day meditating and reflecting on past trauma. I've been prodding him to get a therapist but he is confused about his insurance. He makes an appointment with a primary care doctor first. I feed the dog some homemade dog-friendly beef stew.
4pm My mom swings by the house (but doesn't enter). She currently works at a school who distributes free USDA food boxes since March. There's often many boxes leftover that would go to waste, so she will grab a box for us. Onions, potatoes, beets, turnips, eggs, cheese, butter, frozen veggies and frozen chicken. She also brought her vintage pasta maker. I asked last week if she ever used it these days and her reply was “no, feel free to have it”. I love pasta and noodles and figure it would be great to make it ourselves as a frugal hobby.
8pm We catch up on Mandalorian and watch silly Youtube videos before heading off to bed.
Daily total: $0
Saturday
9am I open up my web browser and look at Craigslist and NextDoor for free stuff. I've been scouring for free landscape rocks, pegboards, and wood for house projects. I had this grand ambition to redesign our backyard. It faces our neighbor and currently the fence is pretty low. They can see into our kitchen and bedroom and we can see them. But y'know, COVID and going from dual income house to single income means it all has to be put on hold. So I've been looking for free items in the meantime. Over the past months, I've gotten planter pots, plant cuttings, a raised bed, stepping stones, all from free listings. I don't see anything worthwhile so I go and make some tea.
11am I look at Amazon and make some purchases for Reddit Secret Santa. A foodie kit, DVD of their favorite movie, and some cute pens for their writing hobby. $54. I hope they like it!
12pm TJ heats up leftover stir-fry for lunch for us. I put on some Binging with Babish and we watch how to make pasta. We have a plan - TJ makes the pasta, I make the sauce. Perfect date night activity at home. We watch some more videos on pasta and noodles to educate ourselves.
4pm I start prepping veggies. Big batch of onions, canned tomatoes, ground beef and butter in the instant pot. Meanwhile, TJ works on the pasta by following Babish's instructions.
7pm We gorge on fresh made pasta and bolognese sauce. It's so good! We end up watching Fargo.
11pm Usually I'll be in bed by now, but it's a Saturday and not tired yet (probably because of all that pasta). We play some Kirby's Dream Course on the Switch.
Daily total: $54
Sunday
10am Quick walk around the neighborhood with the dog. He's on a new routine now with the medicine he's taking. It seems to be helping his breathing issues.
11am The pasta maker and flour is still out since we didn't clean up yesterday. There's some old pie crust in the fridge so I roll it out with the pasta machine for mini quiches. (Sally's Baking Addiction blog is my go-to place for her all-butter crust and quiche recipes btw). TJ helps by mixing up the eggs.
3pm I play some Genshin Impact (GI) on my phone while TJ plays Starcraft in the office. I don't usually play gacha games, but the Zelda BotW-style of GI appealed to me. A gacha game is a game with randomized characteitem boxes that you use real-money to purchase a “pull” or to spin the wheel. I know the gacha parts of the game can be a real money sink if you get addicted to them, it’s almost like gambling. My main team is Fischl, Bennett, Barbara and Noelle. I level up to AR 22 and look up free-to-play tutorials for the game.
6pm There's some leftover pasta from yesterday, enough for both of us. I throw in some roasted beets to round out the meal. We watch more Fargo while eating. Almost done with Season 3!
10pm I find a tour operator who offers a small, socially-distant snowshoeing tour up on the mountain. I reserve for two people - this will be TJ's Christmas/birthday gift. $75. Off to bed for another workday.
Daily total: $75
Weekly Total: $689.79

• Food + Drink: $41.17
• Fun / Entertainment: $75
• Home + Health: $59.44
• Clothes + Beauty: $0
• Transport: $459.60
• Other: $54.00

Section Five: Reflections
Aside from the car insurance bill, this was a typical week for me, COVID or not. We make the majority of our meals at home and usually splurge on drive-thru/delivery once every other week. I may have overspent on the Secret Santa gift, but I don't often give gifts out to friends. It's not something our family does either. For TJ’s Christmas/birthday gift, we usually talk upfront about costs. I’ve gifted him fancy restaurant experiences the past 2 years, since we can share that experience, but obviously can’t do that now. Snowshoeing is a nice change of pace.
The conversations with TJ this week have given me thought on how to approach him differently about finances and working together in a relationship. I’m still unsure about the future financially, particularly as my parents near retirement age and that TJ has pulled out his 401k to pay his debts. I don't know if I can support both my parents and TJ together, so I am finding ways to upskill and/or side hustles without becoming a workaholic or bogged down by stress.
Writing this money diary was also the first time where I really paid attention to my past income and current income. I might be contributing too much into ESPP that could go towards the 401k or mortgage instead? I also seem to have been underpaid for what I did in past jobs, even in a LCOL area.

With the conclusion of the 2020 elections and the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on the horizon, it's time to take a look at what things as investors to watch for in the coming year. We are now beginning to get a picture of the balance of power in Washington and how that is going to affect the markets and investing. Let's analyze what is likely to happen and what you need to watch for.

1. Stimulus: For several weeks now, the folks in Washington have been debating back and forth about another round of stimulus money for the economy as a response to the COVID pandemic and its effect on American businesses, workers and investors. Many politicians have been calling for a $2000 stimulus check for American families. Less than a week before the inauguration, we are likely to find out what President-Elect Biden's plan is going to look like in a speech scheduled for this evening. Biden is expected to unveil a stimulus package that he describes as being "in the trillions" of dollars of federal stimulus money. We are likely to see a return to the return of a $600 weekly unemployment benefit and a third stimulus check. Biden has tweeted that he will push for a $2000 stimulus check, something the Democrats in the House and Senate have been pushing for for more than a month. Depending on how it works its way through Congress and what Biden and congressional members of his party come up with, we could end up with a plan that includes two more stimulus checks; one right away and one more down the road. Republicans may try to stand in the way of more stimulus money, but Democrats are likely to have enough votes to get more stimulus checks through congress.
2. Investments: With the Dow and the S&P at or near all-time highs, one would think that the stock market has recovered even if the economy has not. Stocks seem completely separated from the harsh realities of other areas of the economy: business revenues, bankruptcies, unemployment and decreased travel and vacation spending. However, as the vaccine rollouts continue and as the pandemic begins to subside (which is likely to happen by the 2nd quarter of the year), there will likely be some pent-up demand on many sectors of the economy, including the aforementioned travel sector. Restaurants, hotels, casinos, airlines, theme parks and other businesses that have been hurt the most from the pandemic may see a boom in the summer and fall months. But, most sectors of the economy are likely to do better in 2021 than they did in 2020, with the possible exception of online retailing. (And even then, I'm not expecting that sector to experience a significant slow-down). We may see indexes reach all-time highs multiple times throughout the year, assuming we don't have something else unexpected come along to tank the economy once again.
3. Taxes: The balance of power should prevent a major change in Federal Income Tax rates and deductions for at least the next 2 years. While President-Elect Biden has a tax plan that would increase taxes significantly on higher wage earners, and would raise Capital Gains taxes and payroll taxes, those plans would have to be approved by Congress. It's unlikely that Biden will get everything he wants through the divided Congress. However, even if he gets some things through congress, it could have a significant impact on some investors. Investors would be wise to keep an eye on tax changes that find their way into law and adjust their investment strategies accordingly.
4. Retirement Planning: There were a lot of changes to retirement planning in 2020, mostly because of the Secure Act, which passed with bipartisan support. There were also provisions in recent pandemic relief bills that temporarily altered rules for retirement withdrawals. With the new balance of power in Congress, a retirement bill with further enhancements could emerge in 2021. Provisions could include such things as raising the age for required minimum distributions to 75, indexing catch-up contributions for inflation, and adding additional catch-up options for those over 60.
5. Health care: Joe Biden ran a big part of his campaign on improving the Affordable Care Act, but the future of that law depends heavily on what happens with the case currently before the Supreme Court, and that may not be decided until the summer. “I’d put the odds of the court overturning the whole law pretty low. From that point, it’s then a matter of what the government can do administratively through the Health and Human Services Department and through current law,” says Febeo. For instance, the Biden administration may undo many recent actions taken, some as simple as widening the open enrollment period that Trump narrowed. In the meantime, at least for the first part of 2021, health care policy will ostensibly be about fighting COVID-19, rolling out the vaccine distribution, and gett

https://www.vhinny.com/p/moneywatch-2021-nw1ghz8u64

Special Acquisition Companies may be attracting a bevy of investors, but there is one kind that they would love to turn away – short sellers. It seems SPACs are the target for short-sellers who are peering through the company’s fundamentals for cracks. Last year, a total number of 6 SPACs were targeted by short-sellers.
Earlier this week, Hindenburg Research released a publication. It accused Clover Health, the health-tech startup backed by prominent venture capitalist and so-called King of SPACs, Chamath Palihapitiya.
Hindenburg alleged that Clover Health “and its Wall Street celebrity promoter misled investors about critical aspects of Clover’s business in the run-up to the company’s SPAC go-public transaction last month.”
The report accuses the Nasdaq-listed Clover Health of failing to disclose “that its business model and its software offering, called the Clover Assistant, are under active investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which is investigating at least 12 issues ranging from kickbacks to marketing practices to undisclosed third-party deals,
This is not the first SPAC that would be the target of Hindenburg research. Last year, EV maker Nikola was the subject of a blistering report that accused ousted CEO Trevor Milton of exaggerating the EV truck's technology. This lead to Milton’s removal as chairman and CEO of Nikola.
Andrew Left’s Citron Research poked at Luminar Technologies, saying it is “not even a casino stock. You can actually win at a casino. It is more of a ‘sucker’s game.’ Before that, Kerrisdale Capital Management took on Tattooed Chef, a $1.2 billion packaged food company that also went public via a SPAC. Other SPAC backed companies such as Akazoo and Triterras Fintech Quintessential Capital were also targets of short-sellers.
One reason which has been given for the flurry of attacks has to do with the nature of the SPACs themselves. The SPAC structure incentives — which typically include free shares for their founders — can lead to bad deals. Also, companies going public through SPACs do not undergo the same rigor as they would have been subjected to thorough traditional IPOs. This has lead to investment firms buying unprofitable companies at overvalued quotations.
Though they may be picking up speed, SPAC shorts have paled compared to the number of SPAC deals out there. Last year was a record year for SPACs, and the trend is expected to continue this year. However, investors should conduct due diligence and not depend on one narrative to make investment decisions.
Thanks for reading!
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Hammerhead is Vinny Guadagnino! Let's discuss how the clue packages related to him.

• First clue package:
  • Laugh = his Jersey Shore castmate Ronnie Magro laughed in the Jersey Shore opening credits.
  • Burger = he guest-starred in an episode of the MTV series The Hard Times of RJ Berger.
  • Alphabet soup with 'TALK' in it = he had a talk show, The Show with Vinny, where he interviewed celebrities while his mom treated them to a home-cooked Italian meal.
  • Cup of 'JOE' = he appeared as Joe Conte in 2012 film Jersey Shore Shark Attack / his middle name is Joseph.
  • Butter going into coffee (bulletproof coffee) = he was nicknamed the 'Keto Guido' when he took on the Keto diet.
  • "I became famous too quickly." = he rose to fame as a starting member of the cast of Jersey Shore, which became a pop culture phenomenon.
  • "I had departed from who I was, and shifted into who I thought everyone wanted me to be." = he has publicly talked about this, including when he left the Jersey Shore house in season 5 due to his anxiety and depression.
  • Shark attacking the woman = he appeared as Joe Conte in 2012 film Jersey Shore Shark Attack.
  • Painting = he enjoys painting in his free time.
  • "I pumped the brakes...." = Jersey Shore popularized the 'fist pump' dance move.
  • "...staying hungry for learning, for love...." = after Jersey Shore, he took classes for acting and stand-up / he and Jersey Shore castmate Pauly D have their own dating game show on MTV called Double Shot at Love.
• Second clue package:
  • "I really wanted to show I could be the life of the party, but people already know that side of me...." = he rose to fame as a starting member of the cast of Jersey Shore, which followed the lives of the young adults as they worked and, more famously, partied at clubs every night.
  • "...I had one shot...." = he and Jersey Shore castmate Pauly D have their own dating game show on MTV called Double Shot at Love
  • Eye chart = he had a clothing brand called I Have a Vision.
  • Stand up = he took classes and briefly tried his hand at stand-up comedy.
  • "I gave up my dream of being lawyer." = he was a political science major and was studying or the LSAT before he was cast on Jersey Shore.
  • "I was depressed; like I was locked in a cage." = he left the Jersey Shore house in season 5 due to his anxiety and depression.
  • Navigating the Shores of Life book = he rose to fame as a starting member of the cast of Jersey Shore.
  • Jersey with 1 on it = he rose to fame as a starting member of the cast of Jersey Shore / his birthday is November 11th (11/11).
  • "Fear is no longer a factor...." = his Jersey Shore castmates appeared on a 2018 episode of Celebrity Fear Factor.
  • Wedding cake with two grooms on it = he and Jersey Shore castmate Pauly D have their own dating game show on MTV called Double Shot at Love / he and Pauly D had a 'bro-mitment ceremony' on an episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.
  • "...in my situation." = his Jersey Shore castmate Mike Sorrentino was nicknamed "The Situation."
• Third clue package:
  • Heart symbol with hands = he and Jersey Shore castmate Pauly D have their own dating game show on MTV called Double Shot at Love.
  • Las Vegas = in 2019 he had a month-long residency performing as guest host in Chippendales at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
  • Staten Island/New Jersey circled on a map = he was born and raised in Staten Island, New York / he rose to fame as a starting member of the cast of Jersey Shore.
  • Super clue Hammertone suntan oil; SPF 24/7 = Jersey Shore popularized the term "GTL" (Gym, tan, laundry), and the cast famously had fake-tans.
• Dance clues:
  • First dance:
    • Beachball = he rose to fame as a starting member of the cast of Jersey Shore.
    • Chippendales moves / stripper pole = in 2019 he had a month-long residency performing as guest host in Chippendales at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
    • Fist pumping = Jersey Shore popularized the 'fist pump' dance "move."
  • Second dance:
    • Giving rose away = he and Jersey Shore castmate Pauly D have their own dating game show on MTV called Double Shot at Love.
    • TikTok dance moves = he shares TikTok challenges with his 2.1 million followers.
    • Chippendales moves = in 2019 he had a month-long residency performing as guest host in Chippendales at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
• "Word Up" clues:
  • "Dramatic" = Jersey Shore was known for its drama
  • "Heart-breaker" = he and Jersey Shore castmate Pauly D have their own dating game show on MTV called Double Shot at Love.
• Special clues:
  • Instagram advent calendar clue "I bought someone I love a car for Christmas and it Jingle Bell ROCKed!" = for Christmas 2019, he gifted his mom a brand new Jeep.
  • Costume:
    • Jersey = he rose to fame as a starting member of the cast of Jersey Shore.
    • Gold and silver teeth = his Jersey Shore castmate Pauly D has a song called "Silver and Gold."
    • Scorpio tattoo on right bicep = he is a Scorpio / he has a Scorpio tattoo.
• Rapid fire questions:
  • Brian: "Are you known for having a sense of humor?"
    • "I think so."
  • Whitney: "Do you have stage fright?"
    • "No."
  • Ken: "Are you strictly a solo act?"
    • "Nope." = he rose to fame as a starting member of the cast of Jersey Shore.
  • Paula: "Have you ever had a relationship in the public eye?"
    • "Yes." = he and Jersey Shore castmate Pauly D have their own dating game show on MTV called Double Shot at Love.
• Final questions:
  • Brian: "Are you a fan of working out?"
    • "Yes, for sure." = Jersey Shore popularized the term "GTL" (Gym, tan, laundry.
  • Ashley: "Are you taller than Ken?"
    • "Yes." = according to Google, he is 5'7", while Ken is 5'5".
  • Whitney: "Have you ever done stand-up comedy?"
    • "A little." = he took classes and briefly tried his hand at stand-up comedy.
  • Ken: "Have you ever been to New Jersey?"
    • "Yes." = he rose to fame as a starting member of the cast of Jersey Shore.
  • Paula: "Are you a lover of social media?"
    • "Yes." = he has nearly three million followers on Twitter, nearly four million on Instagram, and over two million followers on TikTok.

Overview: This is my second installment of my memories of cruising. I am doing this for my own sanity and to remind everyone of our positive times in the past and what the future might bring. During these troubling times with politics and a global pandemic, focusing on something we all consider to be positive is good therapy. Add in your comments of how or what you would do on your day-two when cruising. Lets have some fun with this and leave our negativity out. Try just to have fun in our thoughts.
Disclaimer: I am retired 63, a stroke victim yet healthy now, gone on 24 cruises, and spoiled to the core. My reference to the NCL Haven™ is not meant to show what I can afford or I am better than anyone else. It is just my personal favorite experiences. Truth be told, my best cruise was my first. That was 40 years ago, in the cheapest inside cabin on the SS Norway. It was my honeymoon and it was magical. My next cruise in the end of May 2021, will be my 41st wedding anniversary on the same cruise line, now called NCL with my Adult Children. A full circle over 40 + Years.
Day 2: Cruise Memories
06:45 AM: I just can’t sleep in today, just can’t. Shower and in-suite coffee on the balcony. All you can see and hear are lovely waves. This is what I have been waiting for all year.
07:30 AM: First Breakfast in the Haven Restaurant. We start with French Press Coffee, of course. Appetizer of smoked salmon from the side fresh buffet, those danishes are calling my name though. With a huge smile, I order my favorite Breakfast, Steak & Over Easy Eggs skip the potato’s. Whole wheat toast with grape jelly. At the end, I always get one single danish. I am trying to not gain my normal 10+ lbs. from this cruise. I am quite clear in my own mind, I will fail.
09:00 AM: Explore the ship. Even after 24 cruises, going deck to deck is so much fun for me. People are just getting up. Still easy to get an elevator and no real crowds in the main walkways. Important to me to find the cigar bar for later enjoyment and there it is next to the Mojito Bar. Also, where is the slot tournament to be held at 01:00 PM, priorities folks. Where is the gym and finally where all the hot tubs on board.
10:30 AM: Gym. 30-minutes on the treadmill. Attempt to allow a bit of those food calories to get used. I know by day three, the exercise will be doomed. All I can think about is going down those huge water slides and driving the electric go carts. My hope is the lines are not to long. On my way back to my suite, I hear that wonderful sound of metal drums by the main pool. The smile begins to become a part of my day, as it always does on past cruises. Entering my suite, my family asks where I have been. I tell them and they are disappointed I did not take them with me. What I see is none of them have even gotten out of bed yet.
12:00 PM: Lunch by the Haven Pool another favorite pastime. Time for the best cheese burger on any cruise ship. No bun, of course. Really, no bun. French Fries YES, bun no? My wife orders a bottle of wine and takes half of it goes back to the room. God love that upgrade to the Premium Plus Drink Package. My wife loves ordering a bottle vs. a glass. It is a vacation isn’t it. This was her plan and I support it. She loves wine in the suite for night time balcony viewing.
01:00 PM: Slot Tournament, my entire family is entered, it is a tradition. We learned to have a few drinks first, because it is so stressful. We always play and never win. This year, my wife whom never gambles makes it to round two. We are so proud of her and consider that a victory. Since I am in the casino anyway, where is that “Buffalo Gold” machine. I feel the cash leaving my wallet forever. Why do I watch those YouTube Slot Guru’s. They are not good for my pocketbook.
02:30 PM: A littler poorer yet still happy, I get ready for my first water slide experience. Every cruise I do the same thing. I find someone whom is a afraid to do the water slide, and talk them into doing it with me. My record for number of consecutive slides is 10. The issue are those darn stairs, I am no spring chicken anymore. All the kids think I am funny because I am as excited as they are to slide. My last victim was my wife who became a huge fan.
04:00 PM: Did I hear “BINGO” or was it “Deal or No Deal”. It is like a magnet for me. The crowds, the joy of watching someone WIN. I debate myself. Do I start drinking NOW or hold off until right before dinner. Hold off today, smart move. I go back to the suite through the casino watching a older woman (that is saying a lot, I am 63) get a jackpot on the machine that took all my money earlier. Happy for her though, kind of.
05:30 PM: There are some ship snacks waiting on the table in the suite, which is always different every day. Today it is those world famous chocolate covered strawberries. Time to clean up and dress for dinner and the show. My wife as usually, is looking at the sun burn she got sitting on the deck and saying, “I think I over did it a bit.” I notice she is in a very happy mood and the bottle of wine in the room is out. I ask her when she started drinking? She smiles and tells me, 12:00 PM, at lunch. Stupid question on my part. I am the light weight in my family on drinking. However, when I get serious, I am serious. Pre-Dinner drinks on the balcony, it is so lovely.
07:00 PM: Dinner tonight is a specialty restaurant. My habit is to go to the steak place the first night. Martini shaken not stirred, slightly dirty with two blue cheese stuffed olives. Shrimp cocktail, Fresh Bread with really good butter, Blue Cheese Wedge and a Rib Eye Medium Rare Plus. I am so full, I simply can’t eat all the fully loaded potato. Maybe a few bits. I have to sit for a while and have some Coffee with Baileys. I am feeling no pain and starting to relax a bit. New York Cheese cake is the finale. “There is cheating and then there is Cheese Cake!”
09:30 PM: I know I am tired because I would usually be in bed by now. The food, drink and excitement of the day is telling my body, pass on the show. I used to listen to myself, not anymore. I will get my second wind shortly and so will you. The show which on the first night is usually a production. We always sit in the last row on the end by the door. We have seen some fantastic and not so fantastic shows. We are not expecting much. Then the music starts and it is all Latin dancing. 90-minutes has never go so quick. This show was incredible. My wife for the first time was on her feet doing a standing ovation.
11:00 PM: This is when my wife and I start to argue. She wants to party some more, I want to chill in the room. Translation, go to sleep. I know her, the moment she hits the pillow, with the sun she got that day, add the food and drink, that is all she wrote. We get to the suite, on the desk are the passes for the excursion we are taking in the morning, I love that. Never gets old. I, just want to dream again about my next day’s breakfast of Steak and Eggs. Tomorrow I add a waffle I thing. We attempt to look at the agenda for the next day however never make it more then 10-minutes before the waves put us to sleep.
Perfect second day in my book.

i'm trying not to make too much of a big deal about it but today i am 365 days sober from alcohol. i would've never thought i would get to this day because it honestly felt like the longest year ever because of the PAWS and the debilitating stomach issues i've gone through because of it. But i vouched to myself a life of sobriety and by god i'm gonna do it. but here's my story if you care to hear it:
i hit my rock bottom when i found myself banging at the package store door at 8am every single goddamn day hoping to get a few shots/beers in me so i can get out the nightmarish hangover i was going through day in and day out. i never thought i'd be that person. i would stumble my hungover ass down there every morning with one thought on my mind, alcohol. i would cycle numerous different package stores around town multiple times a day just so they wouldn't think i had a problem, but they're not stupid, they knew.
one day i found a bar in my town (one i NEVER went to because it's scummy af in a scummy part of town) that opens at 6am (for breakfast because of the 3rd shifters that work at the factory next door) but the bartenders served alcohol because 90% of the people in my town are alcoholics. that dug me into the worst downward spiral i've ever been in. i'd usually only get 3 hours of sleep a night if i was lucky and i'd wake up at 5am with a nasty hangover and dread having to wait 3 hours for the packy to open, so this bar would be my home for the next 4 months or so, i'd be the first one in the bar at 5:58am and the bartender would have a beer cracked open for me. a beer (bud/bud light) was $1.50 and a shot of well alcohol was $3, so it was pretty easy to get plastered for cheap. i ran down my bank account going barhopping every single day so i would run up tabs and walk out on them, not purposely..(eventually getting sober and going back to settle all of them with complete and utter embarassment) thank god they didn't care too much because i was a local but it made me feel like a horrible human being. the people i'd meet at this place were complete and utter lowlifes...i'd have to hear their stories of how they used to be hot shit, how they were in the mob, (because i live in an italian infused town) how they're high rollers at the local casinos, and i'd be so fucked up, i'd entertain their stories and become buddies with them..they bought me shots/beers and i had no problem at all being buddy buddy with them. i used to bang one of the new bartenders they just hired and she would hook me up on the regular..and i'd have to hear all the guys talk about how hott she was when she walked away, and they'd do anything to get with her. one night me and her went out and got really drunk together and she slept over, we were both naked and about to eff the living shit out of eachother, but i couldn't get hard so i passed out, the next day she decided to fill me in that her recent ex boyfriend gave her a life changing STD, and that right there could've ruined my fucking life if i went through with that sex.
i was just living a sad ass existence.
eventually something started happening with my body that i was becoming concerned with. not only was i shitting out yellow oily substances 2 minutes after i ate (if and when i ate), but i started feeling very unwell all the time. i just wasn't myself. the alcohol wasn't getting me drunk anymore, it was basically just accumulating in my system and i'd just get extremely messed up hours later. i'd get horrible brain fog and i felt like i was living in an alternate reality where things were just fake as all hell. i felt SO depersonalized. i would drive to the casino and get extremely messed up for free because i'd pretend i was gambling. i was passing out in my car in different parking lots of different casinos and bars. i'd wake up at 3am in my backseat and just be SOOOOO out of it that i'd piss myself and go back to sleep. i would drink my alcohol and throw it up in the bathroom an hour later just so i can keep drinking
it took me 4 detox rehab stints in a 4 month span to realize what i was doing to myself. there is nothing worse than waking up with a group of 50+ strangers going through the same nightmare you are in a place where you're literally locked in, being woken up every 2 hours throughout the night, even though you're going through alcoholic insomnia and aren't getting any sleep anyways
i left rehab and immediately relapsed each time. i saw this girl at the bar that i used to chill with one night and i went back to her place just to chill and drink more. i spent 7 days at her apartment, she bought 30 racks and i drank at her place while she went to work everyday and when she got out, we'd hit the bars..then go back to her house, and we'd drink some more. and that went on for a week. i didn't change my clothes, i didn't shower, i felt fucking disgusting.
one night me and her went to a local bar and got shitfaced. these complete losers came in and sat with us and i got real bad vibes from them. they saw i was feeling down and out so they offered me a bump of cocaine, and i am one of those people who have NEVER touched a hard drug in my life, but i said fuck it and they set me up a line, i ended up denying it in the end because i'm a giant pussy..they all proceeded to do some shrooms and decided we're gonna go to a party. and this party was a banger, and it was 20 miles away in the middle of the woods, they had a live band, and if i wasn't as messed up as i was, it would've been fun af, but it wasnt and i wanted to leave. i spent 4 hours looking for a ride because they were all too tripped out to even function. it was fucking freezing and i walked over 20 miles to her house and it took me a long ass time, literally frozen and drunk, and it was HORRIBLE. that was the night i took my final drink. my last drink.
i developed extreme PTSD because of all this shit. that PTSD is what got me to stop. every single damn time i get the urge to drink, i think of what i went through everyday. every time the thought of beer crosses my mind, i get sick to my stomach thinking about that life i was living. i never want to go through that ever again. i'd rather be sober, depressed and miserable than drunk, numb and SICK all the fucking time. i sometimes drive past these bars i would frequent just to watch the regulars sitting outside drinking their $1.50 can of bud looking miserable af.
i'm just happy to be this far into my sobriety. 365 fucking days bro.
if you read all of this..i appreciate you taking the time to read my story. i know it went on and on but that's how i got from where i was to where i am now. i got a nice built up bank account, i got a beautiful puppy that i love to death, my mother told me yesterday that she's proud of me and i proved her wrong, those words were enough to make it all worth it, because i put her through hell and back
i've finally decided it's time i start dating again..i took that year for myself but i think i'm ready to find 'the one'
but i appreciate all of you. we're all in this together. one sober community. and i hope all of you get to where you wanna be at. thanks for listening

Looking to trade! I have over 100 confirmed trades :) Right now I am mostly looking for the wants I have listed below, especially the high priority stuff, but I may be open to offers. Just please do not be offended if I say no!
p.s. "CIB" means complete, as in including all the booklets and such that were supposed to come in there, otherwise I will clarify what is included. "NIB" means New In Box, aka sealed, "brand new," in the shrink, etc.
p.p.s. If we are going to trade, all I ask is please be honest about the condition of your items. I can provide pictures for anything I have, please be willing to do the same! Thanks!

HAVE

Mini Consoles

• Famicom Mini (JP) - NIB hard trade

GameCube games, accessories and packaging

• Animal Crossing memory card
• 007 Agent Under Fire - box and disc only, box has wear
• Army Men Air Combat The Elite Missions - disc and manual only
• NFL Blitz 2003 - CIB
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - manual only
• Zoids Battle Legends - game in rental case with authentic (but damaged) cover art
• Action Replay - manual only

N64 booklets

• 1080 Snowboarding - manual, operations card
• Army Men Air Combat - manual
• Banjo Tooie - manual
• Battletanx Global Assault - manual with wear
• Bomberman 64 - manual
• Donkey Kong 64 - manual
• Kirby 64 the Crystal Shards - manual
• Mario Kart 64 - manual, operations card and player's guide offer booklet
• Mario Tennis - manual
• Rugrats Scavenger Hunt - manual
• Star Fox 64 - manual
• Star Wars Episode 1 Battle for Naboo - manual in poor condition
• Super Mario 64 - manual
• The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time - manual with wear

Switch

• Aggelos - NIB
• Battle Chef Brigade - NIB Best Buy version
• Blasphemous - NIB hard trade
• Dandara CE - NIB
• Danmaku Unlimited 3 - NIB
• Darius Cozmic Collection CE - NIB
• Darkwood - NIB
• Death Squared - NIB
• Divinity Original Sin 2 - NIB hard trade
• Downwell with Flip Grip - NIB, slight box damage
• Dragon Quest 1 2 3 Asia version (not English cover) - NIB
• Fairy Tail - CIB hard trade
• Fire Emblem 30th Anniversary - NIB
• Flashback - NIB
• Freedom Finger - NIB
• Gekido Kintaro’s Revenge big box - CIB and like new
• Graceful Explosion Machine - NIB
• Grip Combat Racing Airblades vs Rollers Ultimate Edition - CIB, DLC code used
• Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Pack EU - CIB
• Ittle Dew - NIB
• Jumanji CE - NIB
• Kero Blaster - NIB
• Korg Gadget JP - NIB, would love to trade for North America release
• Little Inferno - NIB
• Lode Runner Legacy - NIB
• Neurovoider - NIB
• Old Man's Journey - NIB
• Old School Musical - NIB
• Ori CE - NIB
• Pawarumi - NIB
• Pode Artist's Edition EU - NIB but has some box damage
• River City Girls - NIB hard trade
• Robotics / Notes Double Pack - Have day one edition and standard, both are NIB
• Sayonara Wild Hearts - Have 3 NIB, two have exclusive iron-on patch the other does not
• Shakedown Hawaii CE - CIB but contents are sealed, outer box has very minor wear
• Shantae and the Seven Sirens CE - NIB with card
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore - NIB
• Splasher - NIB
• Steamworld Heist / Dig Double Pack - NIB
• SuperEpic badge edition - NIB
• The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa - NIB
• Thumper - NIB (small nick on spine)
• Tricky Towers - NIB
• Ultracore - CIB
• WRC 8 - CIB

3DS consoles, games, accessories

• Art Academy - CIB
• Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars - NIB
• Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward - CIB, has a hole in front of case/cover art
• Nyko Game Boost power attachment for launch model 3DS - NIB, some box damage

3DS boxes and manuals (no games)

• Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World EU region big box only (can hold both game and Poochy amiibo from any region, really nice display piece)
• Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright MANUAL ONLY
• Tomodachi Life MANUAL ONLY
• Operations manual and other inserts (no AR cards) for launch model 3DS in bag
• 2DS XL quick start guide
• Outer box only (no tray) for NSMB2 2DS console (white/red)
• Nintendo 2DS manual only

DS console, games and accessories

• Jewel Time Deluxe - loose
• Korg DS10+ Limited Edition JP - CIB except missing the styrofoam tray
• Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble - CIB, has a hole in front of case / art
• EMS NDS Adapter - CIB (Not the newest version, works best with Windows XP)

DS boxes and manuals (no games)

• DK Jungle Climber - box and manual
• Okami Den - manual only
• Scribblenauts Unlimited - manual only
• Operations manual and other inserts for black DSi in bag

GBA games and videos

• Boktai - game only
• Dragonball Z Supersonic Warriors - CIB
• GT Advance 2 - CIB
• Muppets Pinball Mayhem - game only
• Nickelodeon Rugrats All Grown Up! Volume 1 GBA Video - NIB
• Sonic Advance / Sonic Pinball Party combo cart - game only
• Sonic Advance 2 - game only
• Tales of Phantasia - loose

GBC games and more

• Dragonball Z Legendary Super Warriors - CIB
• Hole in one Golf - CIB
• M and M's Minis Madness - CIB
• Pokemon Gold Version - Trainer's Guide only
• Worms Armageddon - CIB-ish
• GameShark Pro - box, manual (no tray or gameshark)

GB games and more

• 4 in 1 Funpak Volume II - game only
• Alleyway - CIB-ish
• Barbie Game Girl - game only
• Battletoads - CIB
• Bo Jackson Hit and Run - game and manual
• Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 - game only with worn label
• Casino Fun Pak - game and manual
• Dr. Mario - CIB-ish
• Face Ball 2000 - game only
• High Stakes Gambling - CIB-ish
• Kwirk - game only
• Ms. Pac Man - game only
• Nemesis - game only
• Pinball Dreams - CIB-ish
• Pinball Fantasies - box, tray, game
• Super Mario Land - game only
• The Amazing Spiderman - game only
• Zoop - game only
• Nuby Worm Light safety instructions - booklet only

GB manuals (no games)

• 4 in 1 Funpak
• Aladdin
• Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2
• Centipede Millipede (creased front)
• Ducktales
• Galaga Galaxian (creased front)
• Game and Watch Gallery
• Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues
• Kirby's Dream Land
• Kirby's Pinball Land (stained front)
• Paperboy
• Tetris Attack
• Solomon's Club

Wii U games

• Assassin's Creed III - CIB
• Madden NFL 13 - CIB
• Splatoon - CIB

Wii games and accessories

• 30 Great Games Winter Fun - CIB
• ABC Wipeout 2 - CIB
• AMBL Alien Monster Bowling League - CIB
• Cooking Mama Cook Off - Box and disc
• Despicable Me The Game - CIB
• Ford Racing Off Roads - CIB
• Gallop and Ride! - CIB
• Game Party - CIB
• House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return - Box and disc
• LEGO Harry Potter - CIB
• Kart Racer - CIB
• M. Knight Shamalayan's The Last Airbender Toys R Us Exclusive - CIB
• Mario Kart Wii - CIB
• Mario Party 8 - CIB
• Metroid Prime 3 - promo inserts only
• MLB Power Pros 2008 - CIB
• Monster Hunter 3 Tri - CIB
• Nascar Kart Racing - CIB
• New Super Mario Bros Wii - CIB
• NCIS - CIB
• Okami - CIB
• Pac Man Party - CIB, some wear to case
• Petz Horse Club - CIB
• Petz Sports - CIB
• Press Your Luck 2010 Edition - CIB
• Shaun White Snowboarding Road Trip - CIB
• Sonic and the Secret Rings - CIB
• The House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return - Box and game
• The Island of Dr. Frankenstein - CIB
• Transformers Cybertron Adventures - Box and disc, box and cover art are damaged
• Vegas Party - CIB
• Victorious Boxers Revolution - CIB
• Wii Fit - CIB
• Wii Play - CIB
• Zhu Zhu Pets Featuring the Wild Bunch - CIB
• Manual and other booklets for original Wii console

NES games and accessories

• Original game pad - loose
• Hogan's Alley - loose
• Tiger Heli - loose
• 4 cart sleeves

PS3

• Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness - box and manual only
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 Walmart exclusive poster bundle - NIB

PS2

• Broken PS2 console (heatsink issue) with cords
• 007 Agent Under Fire - CIB
• Ace Combat 04 greatest hits - CIB
• Alter Echo - CIB
• Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance - loose
• Call of Duty Finest Hour - CIB
• Champions Return to Arms - CIB
• Crash and Burn - CIB
• FIFA Soccer 2003 - CIB
• Gadget Racers - CIB
• Grand Theft Auto Vice City Greatest Hits - CIB
• Grand Theft Auto San Andreas - CIB
• IndyCar Series - CIB
• Madden 2003 - CIB
• Maximo - CIB
• Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks - CIB
• Need for Speed Underground greatest hits - loose
• Onimusha Warlords - CIB
• Onimusha 2 - CIB
• Onimusha 3 - CIB
• Psychonauts - CIB
• River King A Wonderful Journey - box and game only
• Romancing Saga - CIB
• Rumble Racing - CIB
• Shadow Hearts - loose
• Sky Odyssey - CIB
• SpyHunter - CIB
• WWE Crush Hour - box only

PSX

• Classic controller
• Memory card (authentic original)
• 2 Xtreme - CIB
• Blast Lacrosse - CIB
• Blood Omen Legacy of Kain Collector's Edition - CIB
• Bloody Roar 2 - loose, have both discs
• Cool Boarders 2 greatest hits - CIB
• Crash Bandicoot 2 Cortex Strikes Back - Case, back cover art, disc (missing manual)
• FIFA 99 - CIB
• Final Fantasy VII - loose, have discs 1-3
• G-Police - CIB
• Gex - CIB, also have loose
• Gex: Enter the Gecko - CIB
• Heart of Darkness - loose
• Einhander - CIB hard trade
• Jeopardy! (case is cracked) - CIB
• MDK - CIB
• Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions - CIB
• Medal of Honor (case is cracked) - CIB
• MLB 99 - CIB
• Moto Racer 2 (case is cracked) - CIB
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit greatest hits green label - CIB
• NFL Blitz greatest hits green label (case is in poor shape but could swap) - CIB
• NFL Gameday 2000 - CIB
• NHL 99 - CIB
• Rainbow Six greatest hits - CIB
• Sled Storm - CIB
• Sheep Raider - loose, 2 copies
• Star Wars Rebel Assault II - CIB, case is damaged
• Tetris Plus greatest hits green label - CIB
• Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf - CIB
• Tomb Raider greatest hits green label - CIB
• Tomb Raider 2 - CIB
• Uprising X - CIB
• Wheel of Fortune greatest hits green label - CIB

PSX boxes and manuals (no games)

• 007 Tomorrow Never Dies
• Army Men World War

PC

• Cubix: Robots for Everyone - NIB
• Mighty Switch Force / Shantae Risky's Revenge double pack - NIB
• Oil Tycoon - NIB

Nintendo Power magazines
I have the following issues available, please inquire about condition because none of them are mint: 27, 30, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 42, 46, 49, 50, 51, 86,
Strategy guides

• Advance Wars Dual Strike (NP)
• Conflict Desert Storm II (Prima)
• Mario 64 Unauthorized guide (missing front cover)
• Metroid Prime Official Perfect Guide (Versus)
• Metroid Zero Mission (NP)
• Spyro Season of Ice (BradyGames)
• Super Mario Advance (Prima)
• Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 (NP)
• Super Smash Bros Brawl (Prima)
• Yoshi's Island DS (NP)
• Yoshi's Story (NP)

Books

• NES/Famicom: A Visual Compendium (still in shrinkwrap)

Collectibles and posters

• Ni No Kuni II Figpin "Evan" - CIB
• Hatsune Miku Funko Pop - NIB
• Poster: Monster Hunter 3 Tri 20x27"
• Poster: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 40x14"
• Poster: New Super Mario Bros Wii / Zelda Spirit Tracks 12x17"
• Poster set: Bravoman and Bravoman x Wonder-Momo 11x15"
• Poster: Superman Shadow of Apokolips (from Nintendo Power)
• Puma Future Rider NES sneakers in size 10.5 (brand new)

Comic Books

• Marvel - Original Human Torch #3
• Marvel - Steelgrip Starkey #6
• Marvel - Kickers Inc #1
• Marvel - Justice 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
• Marvel - The 'Nam #14
• Marvel - The Punisher Armory #9
• Marvel - Spider-Man Storm and Power Man Battle Smokescreen!
• Marvel - Spider-Man Battles the Myth Monster
• Marvel - Spider-Man Magazine for Kids - Summer 1996, Fall 1996
• DC - Steel #1
• DC - Batman #509
• DC - Catwoman (93 Series) #4
• DC - The Green Lantern Corps #206
• DC - Hawkman #2
• DC - Tales of the Legion of Super Heroes #5
• Dark Horse - Predator Big Game #1
• Dark Horse - Jonny Quest The Real Adventures 1, 2, 3
• image - The Savage Dragon #11
• Star Wars X-Wing Rogue Squadron The Phantom Affair (book)
• Officer Snook #1

Random Stuff

• White Verizon iPhone 5S with protective case and charger
• Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - Pretty sure this is unlocked, but will not work on Verizon, comes with Cyanogen OS, charging cable and dock
• GameKlip controller mount NIB - Would work great with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, requires a PS3 (aka DS3) controller, learn more here
• Micro Machines Star Wars Tie Starfighter Sealed
• Holy Ghost - Static on the Wire Vinyl Like New
• ABSRDST - Boss Beats CD sealed (An EP of Mega Man remixes)
• Speed Racer: The Movie VHS CIB
• Adventure Time: Jake vs Me-Mow DVD + Finn Hat CIB
• Regular Show: The Best DVD in the Universe
• Avengers: Infinity War Moviebill
• 2x Madonna CDs
• Trial of the Clone - A modern CYOA style book
• Three Word Phrase Volume One
• Little Red Book Complete Street Guide to New York City
• 2 1932 Olympic stamps
• Dolce and Gabanna Intenso leather bag new, open box
• Mark McGwire 62nd Home Run Gold card

WANT

The high priority stuff:

• 3DS: Etrian Odyssey Nexus cart only
• GBA: Sonic Advance 2 poster only or CIB
• Strategy Guides: Fire Emblem, Gotcha Force

Nintendo Power issues - I am close to completing my set, I need the following issues:

• 57
• 58
• 59
• 61
• 62
• 66
• 70
• 71
• 73
• 95
• 104
• 110
• 128
• 151
• 164
• 166
• 192
• 227
• 273

Lower priority:
Limited Print Switch Games (prefer CIB, also fine with Best Buy retail versions when applicable)

• Double Switch
• Evoland
• Kamiko
• Night Trap
• PENDING IN Oceanhorn
• Quartet Fighters
• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse CE
• The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince
• The Messenger cover art and manual or CIB (already have but looking for a nicer copy)
• Tiny Metal

Retail Switch Games

• Alliance Alive HD
• Crayola Scoot
• Elliot Quest
• Hatsune Miku Mega 39's
• PENDING IN Immortals Fenyx Rising
• Korg Gadget
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3
• Okami JP version
• Pikmin 3 Deluxe
• Pretty Princess Party
• Romancing Saga 3 Remastered Asia version
• Scribblenauts Mega Pack
• Scribblenauts Showdown
• Terraria
• Tin and Kuna
• Truberbrook
• Unbox

3DS Games

• 7th Dragon Code VFD CE
• Alien Chaos 3D
• Alliance Alive CE
• Beyblade CE with beyblade
• Disney Big Hero 6 and Frozen Olaf's Quest two-pack
• Final Fantasy Explorers CE
• Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX big box version complete
• pending in Kirby Battle Royale
• Project X Zone 1 and 2 launch editions
• Scribblenauts Unlimited big box with rooster hat case CIB

DS Games

• Big Bang Mini slipcover only or CIB
• Bomberman Land Touch 2
• Bookworm
• Dokapon Journey
• Dragon Quest 4, 5, PENDING IN 6
• PENDING IN Gunpey DS
• Harvest Moon Frantic Farming
• Jewel Time Deluxe box and inserts or CIB
• Mega Man Starforce Series
• Okami Den box and game or CIB
• Sonic Rush Adventure
• Zookeeper
• Zuma's Revenge with slipcover

GBA

• Boktai 2 CIB
• Drill Dozer a girl and her dozer mini comic or CIB
• Klonoa 2 CIB
• Kururin Paradise CIB (JP)
• Sonic Advance CIB
• Sonic Pinball Party CIB
• Top Gear Pocket 2 box and inserts or CIB
• Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 CIB
• Warioland 4 box and inserts or CIB

GBC

• Legend of the River King 2 CIB
• Game and Watch Gallery 2 CIB
• Game and Watch Gallery 3 box and inserts or CIB
• Game Boy Gallery CIB (PAL)
• Happy Hippo (PAL)
• Harvest Moon for GBC CIB
• Konami GB Collection 1-4 (PAL)
• Rhino Rumble cart and manual

Game Boy

• Kirby's Star Stacker CIB
• Ninja Boy 2 CIB
• Pinball Dreams poster and reg card or CIB
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan CIB
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit CIB

Wii U Games

• PENDING IN Bayonetta 2 with 1 disc
• Devil's Third
• Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
• Hello Kitty Kruisers
• PENDING IN Mario Kart 8
• Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2
• Pikmin 3
• Rayman Legends
• Scribblenauts Unmasked Walmart version with Green Lantern DVD
• The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
• The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE Special Edition
• Xenoblade Chronicles X Collector's Edition
• Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013

(lots more games, I have a long list for Wii U, just show me what you have)
Wii Games

• Babysitting Mama with baby
• Castle of Shikigami III
• Cooking Mama 2-Pack
• Dragon Quest Swords
• Fortune Street
• Lost in Shadow
• Mario Sports Mix manual and other booklets or CIB
• Pandora's Tower
• Pirates Plundarr
• Prince of Persia the Forgotten Sands
• The Sky Crawlers

GameCube games

• 1080 Avalanche with bonus DVD
• Baten Kaitos Origins manual and booklets or CIB
• Cubix Robots for Everyone Showdown
• Medabots Infinity
• Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2 with trading card
• Pokemon XD manual and booklets or CIB
• Pro Rally
• SEGA Soccer Slam
• Timesplitters Future Perfect
• Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 1, 2
• XGRA

PS2 Games

• Dark Cloud
• Monster Rancher 4

PS3 Games

• Boku No Natsuyasumi 3 (JP exclusive)
• Earth Defense Force 2025
• Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
• PixelJunk 3 in 1 Pack (Asia or KR exclusive)
• Wipeout HD Fury (PAL UK exclusive)

Strategy Guides

• Animal Crossing New Horizons
• Final Fantasy VII and other FF games
• Game Boy Camera Funtography
• Minecraft Dungeons
• Pokemon Black/White Version 2
• Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
• Super Mario RPG
• The World Ends With You
• Xenogears and Xenosaga 1, 2, 3

Also if you've read this far, I recently started an Instagram dedicated to video game collecting and would love to connect with others! My username is chillcollector.