Tag: Magic: the Gathering

Toys R Us has not fully committed to going out of business

When I go into the Hagerstown Toys R Us, I feel like they aren’t truly committed to going out of business.

Toys R Us has declared bankruptcy and will close all of its retail establishments. Everything still on the shelves has been marked on clearance for easy liquidation. Or has it?

When I go into the Hagerstown Toys R Us, I feel like they aren’t truly committed to going out of business. They haven’t committed to the bit. The signage on the front windows says the entire store is “up to” 30 percent off, but I don’t think that’s true. I’ve gone in and walked around and I haven’t seen anything that was 30 percent off.

The entire line of Lego toys is marked down only five percent. I don’t buy Legos, so I don’t even know if that is any cheaper than what Walmart, Target, or any other retailer sells Lego toys for.

Their entire line of Funko Pops! is marked down ten percent. Even with the discount, they are still charging more than Walmart, Target, and every other brick and mortar retailer. When I buy Funko Pops!, I buy them at Target for $8.99 each or I order them on Amazon for even less.

All their Marvel Comics toys and related paraphernalia is only discounted ten percent. I did want to buy a Diamond Select Gallery Classic Iron Man PVC figure statue. The last time I checked, they have only one left and at ten percent off, it’s going for $35.99. ~~That’s more then what the statue is going for on eBay and Amazon.~~

I’m thinking if I truly want the PVC Iron Man statue, I should just go into Toys R Us and buy it. It’s not like it costs more than it costs anywhere else. It’s the last one and I can make it the last thing I ever buy at a Toys R Us.

One thing I noticed as soon as Toys R Us announced it was going out of business, they removed all of their Magic: The Gathering cards from the shelves.

I don’t know if they were able to return them to their distributor or to Wizards of the Coast, the manufacturer of Magic: The Gathering. I only know the Hagerstown and Frederick stores didn’t have any Magic: The Gathering product. It didn’t really make any difference since Toys R Us actually charged more for Magic: The Gathering product than the standard MSRP (manufacturer suggested retail price). That way they could run gimmick sales such as “buy one, get another at 40 percent off ” and not lose any money.

How did that work for Toys R Us?

Update

I went and bought the Iron Man statue and it cost me $38.15. The receipt says I saved a whopping $4.00.

Boogie2988 and his roommate Chad just hanging out

The above is a screen grab taken of Steven Williams, the man who plays Boogie2988 on YouTube sitting shirtless at his computer with his loyal roommate Chad hovering in the background.

Who is Chad? He’s Steven’s roommate. The two met while playing Magic The Gathering years ago.

Steven has had Chad the roommate for years, even when he was married to now ex-wife Desiree Williams. Chad evidently gave Steven a place to live back when Steven was homeless and had nowhere else to go. Chad then later saved Steven’s life when Chad found him in bed dying from a serious infection. Chad took Steven to the hospital which allowed medical staff to cure Steven’s infection.

Steven has been indebted to Chad ever since.

Now that Steven is rolling in all that YouTube money, he’s repaying Chad by giving him a permanent place to live in his fancy YouTube house.

So why is Steven shirtless? Some on Reddit have asked that same question. My theory is that Steven and Chad just finished playing one-on-one basketball where Chad was shirts and Steven was skins. Before hitting the showers, maybe Steven wanted to check his email to see if he had any new messages from Philip DeFranco, Ethan Klein, or some other top YouTubers Steven is friends with.

What else could it be?

Shoplifting cuffufle takes place at Hagerstown Target

Someone tried to shoplift from Target last night located behind the Valley Mall on Cole Road. The shopping center is actually in Halfway, not Hagerstown.

When a Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputy tried to stop the shoplifter, the suspected wrongdoer tried to ram their vehicle into the deputy’s vehicle.

Over something shoplifted from Target.

The deputy reacted appropriately to the attempted ramming by firing a shot at the suspect. I don’t think they were hit, but there is a lot that’s not public quite yet.

I hate to say this, but I may have to subscribe to the Herald-Mail, the area’s newspaper of record.

I don’t understand shoplifting. Although there are lots of nice things at Target, most of the high-value things come with anti-theft devices. Buy a pack of Magic The Gathering cards for $4.19 and there’s a sticker. What are people shoplifting? Do they not care about the anti-theft devices? So they just allow the security gate to sound the alarm and they’re happy with the notion of ramming a law enforcement vehicle if it gets in their way? That sounds very JV to me.

I don’t get it.

Update – The suspect is Melson S. Perry

Here’s a photo of last night’s shoplifting suspect. Something tells me he wasn’t trying to steal Magic The Gathering booster packs. Maybe he thought since he had the word “BOSS” tattooed on his neck, the Target employees would just let him walk out with his ill-gotten goods.

Plus, he has a dollar sign tattooed at the center of his unibrow. It makes you think he has money.

Evidently, he was trying to return an iPad box without an iPad inside. From the Herald-Mail:

Troopers said the suspect, later identified as Perry, was known to enter Target stores, where he would return a previously purchased iPad for a refund or gift card. Instead of returning an iPad, however, he would return an iPad box with materials inside to simulate the weight of merchandise inside.

Maybe it’s just me, but this caper doesn’t sound very boss to me, especially when your backup plan is to just ram any law enforcement vehicles that get in your way. Did he know that Washington County deputies carry guns?

Boogie2988 doesn’t want you to come to his house

Steven Williams, the man who plays Boogie2988 on YouTube, is making it crystal clear he doesn’t want you coming to his house. He made a video showing all of his Halloween decorations and then showed them set up on his front yard. Evidently he’s now worried people will watch the video and find his house and come see him.

A stranger knocking on the front door? That’s some real scary stuff.

Why anyone would want to go to this man’s house is beyond me. He lives somewhere in Arkansas. I’ve been to Arkansas one time in my life and that was one time too many.

Boogie2988 is not real

I think the problem is that there are some people who don’t realize Boogie2988 is just a bit. It’s a character being played. Boogie2988 is no more real than any of his other characters, Francis or Jessy.

Boogie2988 does not love you

The worst thing Steven does is at the end of every Boogie2988 video, he tells his viewers, I love you very much.

If you don’t want strangers to feel as though it would be cool to come to your home, stop telling them you love them very much. It sends the wrong message.

Boogie2988 loves stuff

Steven doesn’t love his viewers. Not at all. He loves having viewers, but he doesn’t love them as people. If it wasn’t for viewers, he would have to go back on disability and he wouldn’t be able to afford the massive amount of nerd junk he accumulates. The video games, the Magic The Gathering cards, the collectible action figures, etc. Those are things people working for a living cannot afford, at least not to the extent Steven does. If he had to get a real job or go back on disability, he wouldn’t be able to afford any of those things.

Japanese man has cat in campaign posters

Satoshi Shima is running for elected office in Japan and for some fantastic reason, has featured a beautiful white cat in some of his campaign posters.

His posters seem to follow the common-uncommon-rare format found in Magic The Gathering and other collectible card games. The normal, common poster shows Mr. Shimo without a cat. Then, there’s a less than common poster with the cat in the lower right corner, in scale with Mr. Shima. Then, there’s a rare version featuring the cat in place of Mr. Shima, while Mr. Shima is shown in the lower right at a smaller scale than the cat.

I of course am a fan of the rare version.

Too bad I can’t vote for Satoshi Shima. Maybe I’ll write his name in instead of the non-choices have waiting for me this November. I don’t know what Mr. Shima stands for, but I know he’s better than Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. I wish there was a way to get my hands on one of these. Maybe an Etsy artisan will rip off the image and start selling them.

The Game Hub: ‘odors tend to linger’

There has to be a better way of telling nerds not to smell bad.

I was walking past one of Hagerstown’s two game stores, The Game Hub. It’s located in downtown Hagerstown on Franklin street.

They sell Magic The Gathering cards and have a play area in the back of the store. According to the above sign, they have a problem with customers in the play area not practicing good personal hygiene. The problem is so bad, they have to post a sign at the door.

I don’t know anything about the store. Not really. I know it used to be called Mystikal Keep. I stopped in a few times, although not when it was at this specific place. Mystikal Keep was located various places, all in downtown Hagerstown. The last time I stopped in at Mystikal keep was when it was catty corner from the Hagerstown branch of the Washington County Free Library. It could have been a nice shop. The problem was that it reeked of cigarette smoke. The owner chained smoked cigarettes.

When I noticed the name changed from Mystikal Keep to The Game Hub, I assumed there was a change in ownership. I also assumed it wouldn’t smell like a dirty ashtray. That may be true, but they’ve evidently swapped one awful smell for another. Then again, maybe the Mystikal Keep had a problem with customers not showering and wearing deodorant, but the pungent smell of pre-lung cancer masked it.

I can’t imagine having to display a sign telling customers to take a shower and use deodorant. And this sign is displayed to everyone, not just customers. How many prospective customers have read this sign on the door and changed their mind about shopping there? Without stepping foot in this business, you learn they have poor ventilation and their customers have a problem with personal hygiene.

There has to be a better way of telling nerds not to smell bad.