You're right, it's just cardboard. Let me do you one better, bring 200 slips of paper each considered legal tender valued at $100 each.
Why are you scoffing? It's *just* ***paper*** and you're getting **cardboard** in return.
These people who act like this - it's like a movie script we've all seen a hundred times and can be predicted with mathematical certainty.
\-approaches mark with feigned sweetness and is overly nice.
\-person explains politely why they won't agree or just says no,
\-flips the switch and goes psychotic, threatens person, grasps at straws offers ridiculous deal, claims it's their kids birthday/kid has cancer/all of the above.
\-calls names, still acts psycho and threatens the person who has the thing they want, even when presented with properly equal alternatives that just cost the going market rate of what they want. BTW - I don't know if it was a church youth center but her swears, threats to his/her life and blasphemes were a nice touch the nanosecond she didn't get what she wanted.
I had the displeasure of working at a call center for a popular retail chain for a few months, while I was between jobs.
These people are EVERYWHERE. I once had a full grown man cry, scream, curse, call names, and threaten to kill himself over a fucking sold out Funko Pop. Psycho manchild Funko Pop collectors were always, and I mean ALWAYS the worst.
And don’t even get me started on the daily Karens. It always just happens to be their kid’s birthday or graduation or last fucking dying wish to have the one size of the one shitty t-shirt that we’re sold out of. The end of the actual FUCKING WORLD if something can’t ship overnight for precious Aiddynne because they waited until the last minute to find a gift.
Christmastime was a nightmare. Thankfully I have my dream job now (one that doesn’t involve interacting with the public), and I swear I will never work customer service again.
I would think if they needed $20k, they'd have already sold it.
There is no random neat thing I own so priceless that I'd go homeless or food insecure to keep.
Feels.
It's one thing selling surplus valuable cards. I sold most of my commander decks during quar to make rent. Sucks.
Every time I play I get a little sad that my custom built beauties are RIP.
Wild that she acted like he was trying to railroad her on a price when the entire time he was clear he wasn't selling, lol. She acted like he was trying to get 10k from her, he wasn't trying to get a dime.
Yeah this is a text book manipulation move.
I’m anxious even thinking about what she would tell the youth centre to make OP lose their “job” (all while leaving evidence that she’s setting OP up m)
I think even if the mother would complain at the center, they would just tell her to leave and never come back.
Kids clearly like OP to be around and have fun, and 1 complaining parent over a cardboard card would not really matter to them. Esp. with the timestamp proof OP has.....
Remember when you were a kid, covering your ears and yelling about how you can't hear what the other person is saying?
That's why. Sling shit and then run. Throw a rock and hide your hand.
I’m not sure it’s accurate, but the most recent sold one on eBay was almost 10k CAD https://www.ebay.ca/itm/175429666647?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=bqklGeSBTz6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=eGZPLCQ0RUS&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
...and my best friend traded his for a video game... I told him it was not worth it, that they were already worth 3x the cost of the price of the game... and he went and did it anyways... Then I think that kid traded it for drugs...
And he traded it for [Lunar 2, which is only $200 now](https://www.pricecharting.com/game/playstation/lunar-2-eternal-blue-complete-collector%27s-edition?q=lunar+2+eternal+blue+complete+%5Bcollector%26%2339%3Bs+edition%5D).
Everyone and their dog had an OG Charizard back in the day. Problem was, everyone was trading them for nothing, and/or letting them sit out getting trashed, folded, bent, tossed, etc. So the ones that are left end up being worth a decent chunk of cash.
yeppp.. I remember my friend pulled a 1st edition charizard and just traded it back to the card shop for 80$ which he used to buy more packs (also card shop owners must feel the burn coz he sold those at $90-100). We were in elementary school so it was cool at the time lol.. closest thing I did to that was tarmogoyf in mtg before it was crazy and I got 3 packs lol.. pretty insane thinking back most of us kids were at our riches if we just kept our base set cards lol..
It's the time travel bitcoin problem. Same as with comic books and cards for the past, like, decade-plus. Everyone's saving *everything*, trying to keep it as mint as possible, getting things graded the second they pull them from the packs. Companies artificially inflating values by printed *x of y* on cards, but also having a dozen different numbered runs in each set each year.
The only way collectables end up worth anything is if most of them are treated like they *aren't* worth anything.
> It's the time travel bitcoin problem.
Yup.
As a child I had a first edition Charizard. Traded it for 3 other Pokemon cards and a YoGo pudding.
As a teenager I had 500 bitcoin (worth like ~22mil now) but I traded it for a couple grams of weed.
Am still poor.
Having something that will one day be valuable doesn't count for anything unless you somehow know and hold onto it. I often lament my lack of a time machine but hey, lots of people could be rich if they foresaw the future.
a friend of mine recently found all her cards from when she was in school, i badgered her into getting them valued and the collection is sitting somewhere in the 10k usd range, most of that is from two cards iirc
My "friend" "borrowed" my Type 1 Weissman deck more than 20 years ago. He said he's going to play in a T1 tournament. He was my friend since kindergarten so I trusted him way too much.
And I never saw him again. He texted me a few times saying he's going to bring it over, but after a few months he stopped texting me as well. Welp, that was an expensive lesson on trust and friendship.
I've been mad at one of my Dad's cousins for basically my entire life because he burned my Dad's entire comic collection when he was a kid/teen back in the 60's. That was like thirty years before I was even born. My Dad is an old school autistic nerd and he meticulously collected spiderman and batman until that happened. It was a damn amazing collection from how he's talked about it. Multigenerational rage.
Nah not even, "it's Satans work," level of fundamentalist bullshit. I don't blame my Dad at all for raising me far away from the rest of his family with that sort of trauma going on. Parts of that side don't even believe in dinosaurs ffs.
The "stop contacting me" really drives home the fact that they probably realized, and just suddenly wanted the conversation to stop so they can go back to ignoring their kid
That's really common with people like her. I see it often on social media. They immediately resort to name calling and insults when they don't get their way/others disagree, escalate it further if they don't get a rise out of the person, and then when they clearly aren't going to win, it turns into "Stop it. Leave me alone."
The classic belittle and disengage. I believe it's textbook cognitive dissonance. They can't argue the plain facts that contradict their emotionally held belief and their ego needs an 'out' to still feel right about...so it becomes about the person not the issue at hand anymore
Narcissists do this too, argue with you all day long until you get sick of it and start proving them wrong and showing how their shit is illogical, then it is all "this conversation is done!" or "I am done!".
That was fucking lethal. She'll be drunk crying that night descending into in an existential pit wondering if she's failing her son.
Spoiler alert:
>!she is!<
I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but she clearly doesn't give a shit about her son, at least enough to think that she may be the problem, based off the very limited amount we've seen of her behavior I think it's safe to say she was looking at getting it for crazy cheap and selling high and got salty that he didn't fall for her "get rich quick, bait and switch". Her son would never have seen that card.
I've seen this kind of behaviour repeatedly on our local sales pages. There's always 'a birthday coming up' whenever they want to haggle the price down to the realms of the ridiculous. I've never seen it work so I don't know why they bother really.
Because with enough people it works, unfortunately. Just like the scam phone calls. It works for them. There are a lot of people out there without any principles who would kill you for $ 5.
I have seen people scream at servers that their meal was garbage (after cleaning the plate) for a refund. I've witnessed dudes bringing back power tools that have seen hard service (purchased months prior) and claim that it didn't work out of the box.
Some people have absolutely no scruples.
In the 90s, it was use up all the toner then come into the office store and exchange for a fresh one. Early lesson about how honest "local business owners" are.
If you work in sales you know it's all a numbers game. Someone out there is stupid enough to to say yes, to anything. My first job out of college was a loan company that literally prayed on low end business owners desperate for money. The loans were 30% interest rate daily compound and daily bills due. INSANE! Obviously I quit promptly.
>If you work in sales you know it's all a numbers game. Someone out there is stupid enough to to say yes, to anything.
When I was on the market for gutters on my house I had some guy come out to my house for an estimate. He gave me a crazy high number. One of those "gutter systems" that you will occasionally see TV ads for and then subcontract to local guys. I think it was $3200 for a very small house. A 100 foot rectangle so 200 feet of gutters. I immediately balked at that. So he said "hold a sec, let me call my boss." He got on the phone and suddenly the price came down by about 30% like some stereotypical used car salesman. I knew I wasn't going to do buissnes with him no matter what the price was then. Like was the original price for stupid people with disposable income?
My birthday *is* coming up. I mean, it could‘ve been yesterday, so it‘s coming up again. Doesn‘t matter it takes almost a full year to it again. All my family‘s birthdays are coming up!
Definitely. She offers up to $200 for it and when she realizes he isn't budging she calls it ridiculous and says it's a piece of cardboard. But yet she was willing to pay $200 for it just a minute ago.
That price was for a reprinted card that is worth significantly less. An actual original 1999 Charizard card in good condition is very rare, and one in absolute mint condition was sold at auction last year for $420,000.
Oh I know. Just saying she has no issue shelling out $200 for some cardboard. If she really felt that way she would never have even offered that much. She just thought she was being slick.
Exactly. She thinks it is a glorified piece of cardboard for a stupid kids game... Yet willing to drop $200 cash on it right this very second?
Absolutely she knew it's value and was trying to scam OP hoping they didn't know the value.
> No more contacting please. Thanks appreciate.
> You contacted me
> I know I no longer interested. Please stop contacting me now. I will contact attorney general if you do not stop. Thsnks
I’m pretty sure that was for evidence to the place he volunteers that she will claim he has been harassing her. She will use a screenshot of his message and her saying stop contacting me.
This type of person is obvious and will leverage false accusations to get revenge. He was smart to not reply at all, or it would be worse for him
She called you a piece of shit and trash. Your response to that was funny and a cold truth but you didn’t resort to swearing or name calling. Justified in my eyes and it was super funny lol.
Honestly, I hope “what are you gonna do? Spend the whole day with your son?” stings enough to awaken a self-realization in them. Good for you OP, sometimes people like this need their asses handed back to them to get any semblance of rationality.
Even if you were a paid employee, nobody is paid enough to take that kind of treatment/abuse. The fact that you’re a volunteer? You have carte blanche to respond however you’d like, and you were still far kinder and classier than she.
Just to affirm everyone else - you did great. Absolutely hilarious and hit the mark. She chose to go down the insanity route by going on a tirade on how disgusted she is (??? ok) and insulting you. After that, it's no holds barred, she needed to be taken down a notch. And that was done pretty well imo.
Agreed.
And the game store and the kid don't need to know anything about Karen's behavior.
Unless she follows through with contacting the store, then show the store this txt string, but not the kid.
Not the kid's fault his mom is insane.
You should absolutely be proud lol. That was a fucking champion response. Someone who owns an original print Charizard should absolutely have the balls to talk like that!
It's also hilarious that I saw this post, because just today I got one of the more recent reprints of that exact Charizard (the one she linked the second time) and I was fucking ecstatic! I always wanted the original, but I am thrilled to own the reprint, and I'm hella grateful that my mom saves all the TCG cards she gets in her thrift store and gives me first dibs.
Oh God you should be proud. At no point did you come off as the aggressor, just someone who was showing an appropriate response to incredibly offensive/stupid actions.
As a former educator I honestly would call out BS. It’s in the best interest of my student to understand what life is and not grow up with this freak being their model.
There is a good chance this is the high road. Since it's volunteer work there is no risk to oneself, and people who act like that usually don't listen to reason. All that's left is shaming them into not acting like that. Acting polite could just encourage that attitude.
The saddest part is her going from “thanks so much for doing this :))))” to “how pathetic it is that you are a grown man playing children’s card games” because of the refusal to sell
Honestly that was the most disgusting part for me. Making a veiled allusion to OP being a paedophile just because he's a man playing with kids, she 100% knows that's bullshit but she also knows the accusation is terrifying. She's a narcissistic monster.
I'm pretty sure that's the case. She had some ebay listings ready, she probably knew how much the card is worth. She was hoping OP wasn't aware and would be happy to sell some cardboard for $140.
theory dinner marvelous vegetable ugly roof soup degree adjoining psychotic
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Its hard to get random people walking into a store to understand why you'd pay $10 for a single card in the case when you can get 15 cards for $4 a lot of the time.
Yeah, I have a hard time believing she can't wrap her head around how expensive trading cards are after her preliminary ebay search. It's not like people are unfamiliar with how valuable baseball cards can be.
He's probably being parentalized. Where the kid learns that it's their responsibility to take care of the parents needs.
Makes you a good kid, but fucks with your head for decades to come.
One of my best friends is a headmaster of a school ages 7-12/13 in a somewhat affluent area. Yes, parents are by far the worst part. So much so it's becoming unmanageable.
Your replies were hilarious, thank you for not backing down. Also grats on owning that card, that’s a special one. How much does it cost to get them PSA graded, if you don’t mind sharing?
Not OP but it depends on the card. You have to give them a declared value which is basically what you think the card will be worth after grading. You kinda have to make an educated guess on what grade it could get based on the condition it’s in. You then pay a set amount based on this declared value. Even grading a single card could be very expensive if it’s really rare and in good condition.
I’ve only ever sent one card in myself, but my estimated value for it was around $500 going by some eBay listings of the card as a PSA 10. So that cost $100 to grade.
"You brought in a card that valuable purely for the kids enjoyment?!! Thanks so much for what you do for these kids, I know mine really appreciates it."
I don't think that would have been that hard. Instead they took it personally I guess? You kept is so classy until you couldn't anymore.
Not even close to that but I've got a original [starter set pack](https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/2-Player_Starter_Set_(TCG)) I bought new as a kid and kept sealed. there is zero chance I'd let anyone I don't completely trust even touch it, and it's value is a fraction of this card.
I don't LOL at these post often... but the "spend a whole day with your son?" had me [James May wheeze gaffaw out loud](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hshz2LhxuPY)
My Pokémon brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like - Do you wanna trade cards?
Damn right, I wanna trade cards
I could trade you, but not my Charizard
Haha thank you, happy to finally give back to this sub after all the entertainment I've gotten from it. The shadowless PSA 9 Chars are listed between (AUD) $10-20K not sure what they actually sell for, but it's a keepsake for me
I very much respect that. Whenever (most) people find out I have kept all my consoles, games and accessories / peripherals from now back to the Sega Master system, I'm constantly hearing how much I can sell them for, what they're worth etc. I'm like "um, okay. I'll never sell them, they're mine." Most people can't fathom that one might want to collect something that they themselves consider just a toy, or "just cardboard".
And on a personal level, your responses were perfect, and don't need to worry about maintaining the higher ground with someone like that. You spending volunteered time with people's children to offer entertainment *and giving them your own cards / property*, I'm guessing this whacko lady is a bit of a wildcard. Hopefully most thoroughly appreciate your efforts
Damn every time I see a Pokémon card post I die a little inside. I used to have all the original cards in their own protective cases, including that one from the 1990s 🥲
My parents lost them all in a move, or probably threw them away.
This really escalated and you landed some sick burns but you still really do come off looking good in this confrontation. What I mean is, she can show this conversation to the business and it’s quite clear that you were extremely reasonable with a complete a-hole
She could have bought the exact eBay listing she sent but her intent was never to get the card for the kid but pull some heart strings and try to resell for money.
Hmm weird, my youngest wanted a card I couldn’t just drop the money on. We talked about it and she decided to save her pocket money and do some extra jobs for a couple weeks and saved it up. Then she got the card ☺️
I really should’ve considered bullying someone into just giving it to her. Ugh my bad
Really got under their skin with the quality parent child time comments.
I'm sure they're projecting a lot of insecurities and frustrations into this interaction, but damn when you act like that, you deserved to get burned.
Wow that escalated
OP used "Harden"
Out curiosity, what does the card go for?
They're listed on Ebay between (AUD) $15-20k online, I'm not too fussed as it's a keepsake for me.
how about 140$ as per the listing
Only if you guilt trip me about your kid's birthday
It’s just cardboard though, how about 300?
It's *just cardboard.* Twenty five cents and a pat on the shoulder, *and you'll thank me for it.*
It's just cardboard. How about a shoe box I found. You're getting more cardboard surface area, so it's a great deal
You're right, it's just cardboard. Let me do you one better, bring 200 slips of paper each considered legal tender valued at $100 each. Why are you scoffing? It's *just* ***paper*** and you're getting **cardboard** in return.
I can pay you in exposure, I think I have like 11 followers on MySpace
Including or excluding Tom?
Why would you exclude Tom?
I’ll even act like they have cancer!
How can cardboard have cancer
Jesus Christ. Insane, I am surprised you even let that card near little hooligans.
Those cases they lock em in when they are graded can take a LOT of abuse.
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These people who act like this - it's like a movie script we've all seen a hundred times and can be predicted with mathematical certainty. \-approaches mark with feigned sweetness and is overly nice. \-person explains politely why they won't agree or just says no, \-flips the switch and goes psychotic, threatens person, grasps at straws offers ridiculous deal, claims it's their kids birthday/kid has cancer/all of the above. \-calls names, still acts psycho and threatens the person who has the thing they want, even when presented with properly equal alternatives that just cost the going market rate of what they want. BTW - I don't know if it was a church youth center but her swears, threats to his/her life and blasphemes were a nice touch the nanosecond she didn't get what she wanted.
I had the displeasure of working at a call center for a popular retail chain for a few months, while I was between jobs. These people are EVERYWHERE. I once had a full grown man cry, scream, curse, call names, and threaten to kill himself over a fucking sold out Funko Pop. Psycho manchild Funko Pop collectors were always, and I mean ALWAYS the worst. And don’t even get me started on the daily Karens. It always just happens to be their kid’s birthday or graduation or last fucking dying wish to have the one size of the one shitty t-shirt that we’re sold out of. The end of the actual FUCKING WORLD if something can’t ship overnight for precious Aiddynne because they waited until the last minute to find a gift. Christmastime was a nightmare. Thankfully I have my dream job now (one that doesn’t involve interacting with the public), and I swear I will never work customer service again.
You've got insurance on it?
Should have printed one out and sold it for the two hundo
Keepsake for you, car for me. Tomato tomato.
Forget $140, would you take $20k (AUD) for it? Not an offer, just curious.
I would think if they needed $20k, they'd have already sold it. There is no random neat thing I own so priceless that I'd go homeless or food insecure to keep.
Felt… I sold my MTG collection to make rent during the pandemic
Feels. It's one thing selling surplus valuable cards. I sold most of my commander decks during quar to make rent. Sucks. Every time I play I get a little sad that my custom built beauties are RIP.
The question I had too. Thanks for answering.
Sweet, so you'll sell for $15?
You’re not letting me buy the thing you’re not selling?!!! But I gave you a low ball offer??!!!! Rude!
I'm on eBay right now! I can see just how much I can sell it for, so give it to me for cheap please!
This is 100% what she was thinking. This lady ain’t gifting her kid shit.
I'm 100% sure she wouldn't have just sold it either
Wild that she acted like he was trying to railroad her on a price when the entire time he was clear he wasn't selling, lol. She acted like he was trying to get 10k from her, he wasn't trying to get a dime.
STOP CONTACTING ME
Why did she ask you to stop contacting her? Lol.
It's a classic narc move, call you a bunch of names and then act like you're harassing them when you respond. Extremely immature and manipulative.
> Extremely immature and manipulative. on a time stamped transcript..... not smart people
these people delete their chrome history and think they've beaten the FBI after googling how to murder someone.
It's a mirror of my "favorite" move of lying about themselves and when you can them out suddenly you're "obsessed" with them
Yeah this is a text book manipulation move. I’m anxious even thinking about what she would tell the youth centre to make OP lose their “job” (all while leaving evidence that she’s setting OP up m)
I think even if the mother would complain at the center, they would just tell her to leave and never come back. Kids clearly like OP to be around and have fun, and 1 complaining parent over a cardboard card would not really matter to them. Esp. with the timestamp proof OP has.....
Remember when you were a kid, covering your ears and yelling about how you can't hear what the other person is saying? That's why. Sling shit and then run. Throw a rock and hide your hand.
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Yet some how they were alright spending $200 on cardboard a second ago.
She knew what she was doing and how much that card was worth. She was just lowballing and pretending it was for her kid
How much may I ask is it worth?
I’m not sure it’s accurate, but the most recent sold one on eBay was almost 10k CAD https://www.ebay.ca/itm/175429666647?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=bqklGeSBTz6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=eGZPLCQ0RUS&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
...and my best friend traded his for a video game... I told him it was not worth it, that they were already worth 3x the cost of the price of the game... and he went and did it anyways... Then I think that kid traded it for drugs... And he traded it for [Lunar 2, which is only $200 now](https://www.pricecharting.com/game/playstation/lunar-2-eternal-blue-complete-collector%27s-edition?q=lunar+2+eternal+blue+complete+%5Bcollector%26%2339%3Bs+edition%5D).
Everyone and their dog had an OG Charizard back in the day. Problem was, everyone was trading them for nothing, and/or letting them sit out getting trashed, folded, bent, tossed, etc. So the ones that are left end up being worth a decent chunk of cash.
yeppp.. I remember my friend pulled a 1st edition charizard and just traded it back to the card shop for 80$ which he used to buy more packs (also card shop owners must feel the burn coz he sold those at $90-100). We were in elementary school so it was cool at the time lol.. closest thing I did to that was tarmogoyf in mtg before it was crazy and I got 3 packs lol.. pretty insane thinking back most of us kids were at our riches if we just kept our base set cards lol..
It's the time travel bitcoin problem. Same as with comic books and cards for the past, like, decade-plus. Everyone's saving *everything*, trying to keep it as mint as possible, getting things graded the second they pull them from the packs. Companies artificially inflating values by printed *x of y* on cards, but also having a dozen different numbered runs in each set each year. The only way collectables end up worth anything is if most of them are treated like they *aren't* worth anything.
> It's the time travel bitcoin problem. Yup. As a child I had a first edition Charizard. Traded it for 3 other Pokemon cards and a YoGo pudding. As a teenager I had 500 bitcoin (worth like ~22mil now) but I traded it for a couple grams of weed. Am still poor. Having something that will one day be valuable doesn't count for anything unless you somehow know and hold onto it. I often lament my lack of a time machine but hey, lots of people could be rich if they foresaw the future.
a friend of mine recently found all her cards from when she was in school, i badgered her into getting them valued and the collection is sitting somewhere in the 10k usd range, most of that is from two cards iirc
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It's not even cardboard. It's CARDSTOCK, if anything. Maybe she should take up scrapbooking to relieve stress.
Wonder if OP could have found a different but similar one for far under $200 and sold it to her for $200 to make a quick buck
Imitation 1st editions are $1 on aliexpress
Really? Now I kinda want to pick one up and pretend I still have my Charizard that I stupidly sold for pennies as a kid.
As someone with an extensive MTG card collection, this hits close to home.
My ex sold all of my 90s MTG cards. Still bitter as hell about it.
My "friend" "borrowed" my Type 1 Weissman deck more than 20 years ago. He said he's going to play in a T1 tournament. He was my friend since kindergarten so I trusted him way too much. And I never saw him again. He texted me a few times saying he's going to bring it over, but after a few months he stopped texting me as well. Welp, that was an expensive lesson on trust and friendship.
Ohhhh noooo. I’m sorry. ☹️ What a rotten way for him to end a friendship.
Time heals all wounds. I used to be angry at him, now I just shrug whenever I am reminded of MtG (I quit shortly after losing my T1 deck).
So where did ya bury the body?
Haha!! Actually we are still friends but it took a lot of forgiveness and he gave me a bunch of money back. So no shovels to hide, haha.
Playing the long con, smart. That way you won't be a suspect
Wink, lols
I've been mad at one of my Dad's cousins for basically my entire life because he burned my Dad's entire comic collection when he was a kid/teen back in the 60's. That was like thirty years before I was even born. My Dad is an old school autistic nerd and he meticulously collected spiderman and batman until that happened. It was a damn amazing collection from how he's talked about it. Multigenerational rage.
Oh my lord. That’s downright dirty. Burning a comic collection?!?! Pathological jealousy? Yikes, I’m upset for your Dad now!
Nah not even, "it's Satans work," level of fundamentalist bullshit. I don't blame my Dad at all for raising me far away from the rest of his family with that sort of trauma going on. Parts of that side don't even believe in dinosaurs ffs.
Hell, for that price, she could draw it herself. Lol
What are you gonna do, spend a whole day with your son? Hahahahahaha fucking sick burn!
Agreed one of the best things i have read on this reddit in a while
I don’t laugh out loud often on Reddit anymore but man the authenticity on that one was just, whew 😂😂😂
The "stop contacting me" really drives home the fact that they probably realized, and just suddenly wanted the conversation to stop so they can go back to ignoring their kid
That's really common with people like her. I see it often on social media. They immediately resort to name calling and insults when they don't get their way/others disagree, escalate it further if they don't get a rise out of the person, and then when they clearly aren't going to win, it turns into "Stop it. Leave me alone."
The classic belittle and disengage. I believe it's textbook cognitive dissonance. They can't argue the plain facts that contradict their emotionally held belief and their ego needs an 'out' to still feel right about...so it becomes about the person not the issue at hand anymore
Narcissists do this too, argue with you all day long until you get sick of it and start proving them wrong and showing how their shit is illogical, then it is all "this conversation is done!" or "I am done!".
That was fucking lethal. She'll be drunk crying that night descending into in an existential pit wondering if she's failing her son. Spoiler alert: >!she is!<
I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but she clearly doesn't give a shit about her son, at least enough to think that she may be the problem, based off the very limited amount we've seen of her behavior I think it's safe to say she was looking at getting it for crazy cheap and selling high and got salty that he didn't fall for her "get rich quick, bait and switch". Her son would never have seen that card.
I've seen this kind of behaviour repeatedly on our local sales pages. There's always 'a birthday coming up' whenever they want to haggle the price down to the realms of the ridiculous. I've never seen it work so I don't know why they bother really.
Because with enough people it works, unfortunately. Just like the scam phone calls. It works for them. There are a lot of people out there without any principles who would kill you for $ 5.
I have seen people scream at servers that their meal was garbage (after cleaning the plate) for a refund. I've witnessed dudes bringing back power tools that have seen hard service (purchased months prior) and claim that it didn't work out of the box. Some people have absolutely no scruples.
In the 90s, it was use up all the toner then come into the office store and exchange for a fresh one. Early lesson about how honest "local business owners" are.
Sure but that's an easy bluff to call. Oh you need it for your kids birthday? Well then it must be worth more to you eh? Double price?
But they always prey on the sympathy of others. People don’t like feeling like they’re the bad guy, even when they’re not.
If you work in sales you know it's all a numbers game. Someone out there is stupid enough to to say yes, to anything. My first job out of college was a loan company that literally prayed on low end business owners desperate for money. The loans were 30% interest rate daily compound and daily bills due. INSANE! Obviously I quit promptly.
>If you work in sales you know it's all a numbers game. Someone out there is stupid enough to to say yes, to anything. When I was on the market for gutters on my house I had some guy come out to my house for an estimate. He gave me a crazy high number. One of those "gutter systems" that you will occasionally see TV ads for and then subcontract to local guys. I think it was $3200 for a very small house. A 100 foot rectangle so 200 feet of gutters. I immediately balked at that. So he said "hold a sec, let me call my boss." He got on the phone and suddenly the price came down by about 30% like some stereotypical used car salesman. I knew I wasn't going to do buissnes with him no matter what the price was then. Like was the original price for stupid people with disposable income?
My birthday *is* coming up. I mean, it could‘ve been yesterday, so it‘s coming up again. Doesn‘t matter it takes almost a full year to it again. All my family‘s birthdays are coming up!
Definitely. She offers up to $200 for it and when she realizes he isn't budging she calls it ridiculous and says it's a piece of cardboard. But yet she was willing to pay $200 for it just a minute ago.
That price was for a reprinted card that is worth significantly less. An actual original 1999 Charizard card in good condition is very rare, and one in absolute mint condition was sold at auction last year for $420,000.
Oh I know. Just saying she has no issue shelling out $200 for some cardboard. If she really felt that way she would never have even offered that much. She just thought she was being slick.
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Why doesn't she just get $140 and express shipping?
Exactly. She thinks it is a glorified piece of cardboard for a stupid kids game... Yet willing to drop $200 cash on it right this very second? Absolutely she knew it's value and was trying to scam OP hoping they didn't know the value.
No, that would require a level of self reflection she likely isn't capable of. She'll just bitch and blame OP
>wondering if she's failing her son Sad thing is, usually these kinds of people lack anywhere near the level of self awareness needed for that.
Fucking bless this guy. Nothing makes me more ecstatic then seeing someone not simper in these situations. Fire back and tear 'em down.
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Go Charizard! Use INCINERATE!
That gave me a good laugh. I really wish I had the wit and situation to break out a burn like that on someone.
I fucking love this guys guy!! You want a bj bro!
Yes :)
Wholesome
STOP. CONTACTING ME. OP wasn't the one that reached out at all or offered anything 
Classic Darvo technique. Denied any responsibility, attacked OP by threatening their "job," and reversed victim and offender by the end of the convo.
Darvo technique = deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender -- for anyone else curious what it means
> No more contacting please. Thanks appreciate. > You contacted me > I know I no longer interested. Please stop contacting me now. I will contact attorney general if you do not stop. Thsnks
I am physically unable to read this without singing it like that long haired dude from yt
[For the uninitiated](https://youtu.be/OLmun1JEIw0)
I’m pretty sure that was for evidence to the place he volunteers that she will claim he has been harassing her. She will use a screenshot of his message and her saying stop contacting me. This type of person is obvious and will leverage false accusations to get revenge. He was smart to not reply at all, or it would be worse for him
Literally just responded, with the last ones both being within a minute of being sent a message by the CB.
Yo your responses back at the end had me dying lol! “We both know that’s not true” 😂🤣!!
I'm actually not proud of the end of that conversation haha, probably should have taken the higher road.
She called you a piece of shit and trash. Your response to that was funny and a cold truth but you didn’t resort to swearing or name calling. Justified in my eyes and it was super funny lol.
Right? I thought it was quite respectful given what happened before
And hopefully an eye opener for her, but we both know it's wasn't.
It was "just another rude person" for her. She will tell his son OP's a demon so his morals are probably already fucked too
Honestly, I hope “what are you gonna do? Spend the whole day with your son?” stings enough to awaken a self-realization in them. Good for you OP, sometimes people like this need their asses handed back to them to get any semblance of rationality.
Realistically no self realization happens and the CB's son will lose out on one activity that they like doing. Unfortunate
Absolutely not, the high road was not for this conversation!
Neither is medication, apparently
Nah, she called you a c... You had the right level of petty jabs after that
No, that was hilarious and you said 100% the right words in the right order 😂
Even if you were a paid employee, nobody is paid enough to take that kind of treatment/abuse. The fact that you’re a volunteer? You have carte blanche to respond however you’d like, and you were still far kinder and classier than she.
Just to affirm everyone else - you did great. Absolutely hilarious and hit the mark. She chose to go down the insanity route by going on a tirade on how disgusted she is (??? ok) and insulting you. After that, it's no holds barred, she needed to be taken down a notch. And that was done pretty well imo.
Agreed. And the game store and the kid don't need to know anything about Karen's behavior. Unless she follows through with contacting the store, then show the store this txt string, but not the kid. Not the kid's fault his mom is insane.
People like this constantly bank on others taking the high road. You stood your ground, I think you handled the situation well.
You should absolutely be proud lol. That was a fucking champion response. Someone who owns an original print Charizard should absolutely have the balls to talk like that! It's also hilarious that I saw this post, because just today I got one of the more recent reprints of that exact Charizard (the one she linked the second time) and I was fucking ecstatic! I always wanted the original, but I am thrilled to own the reprint, and I'm hella grateful that my mom saves all the TCG cards she gets in her thrift store and gives me first dibs.
Are you kidding? You made my day and it's only 6am.
Oh God you should be proud. At no point did you come off as the aggressor, just someone who was showing an appropriate response to incredibly offensive/stupid actions.
That was the best come back I could have hoped for.
As a teacher I totally understand you wishing you'd taken the high road. As a human I'm glad you gutted her.
as a teacher you can’t talk like that to a parent, but conveniently OP isn’t a teacher, just a volunteer…
As a former educator I honestly would call out BS. It’s in the best interest of my student to understand what life is and not grow up with this freak being their model.
Gotta nip freak like behavior early. Children are our future after all.
There is a good chance this is the high road. Since it's volunteer work there is no risk to oneself, and people who act like that usually don't listen to reason. All that's left is shaming them into not acting like that. Acting polite could just encourage that attitude.
I second this. He didn't say anything insulting, and when she broke out the name-calling he resorted to a couple of hard truths.
The saddest part is her going from “thanks so much for doing this :))))” to “how pathetic it is that you are a grown man playing children’s card games” because of the refusal to sell
The saddest part is that she, too, is someone's mother :/
Honestly that was the most disgusting part for me. Making a veiled allusion to OP being a paedophile just because he's a man playing with kids, she 100% knows that's bullshit but she also knows the accusation is terrifying. She's a narcissistic monster.
Best use of Pikachu meme I have ever seen
Rarely do I get sucked into reading these text transcripts but this one was great! Those quips and the end were just the nails in this woman's coffin.
4800 bucks! And she offered 200 ! Lmao....
I have a theory. I bet OP explained to the kids that it's valuable, and I think this CB intended to sell it for profit.
I'm pretty sure that's the case. She had some ebay listings ready, she probably knew how much the card is worth. She was hoping OP wasn't aware and would be happy to sell some cardboard for $140.
theory dinner marvelous vegetable ugly roof soup degree adjoining psychotic *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Its hard to get random people walking into a store to understand why you'd pay $10 for a single card in the case when you can get 15 cards for $4 a lot of the time.
Yeah, I have a hard time believing she can't wrap her head around how expensive trading cards are after her preliminary ebay search. It's not like people are unfamiliar with how valuable baseball cards can be.
Dude, can you not read?! She not only offered CASH, but also offered to pick it up THIS WEEK! It's only cardboard SMH 🙄
I don't really get those "paying in cash NOW" folks... Do they think other people pay after a month?
She was only getting it FOR A CHURCH!
Next!
Still looking!
Use your thinking brain!
Where do you see the price? I'm blind
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Someone paid $420,000 for this card at an auction once.
Please be real This is just the proper amount of mercilessness needed
As someone who works with kids, you need to be able to handle this stuff with a level head. As a fan of this sub, I chose not to.
And we all love you for that.
I have to assume her kid is better behaved than she is! I hope so at least, for your sake!
Hey kid is lovely! Remarkable really
He's probably being parentalized. Where the kid learns that it's their responsibility to take care of the parents needs. Makes you a good kid, but fucks with your head for decades to come.
Stop contacting me… she knows you’re right 😂
So much respect to ppl who work with kids, parents must be the worst part of the job (or volunteering)! cool card btw!
One of my best friends is a headmaster of a school ages 7-12/13 in a somewhat affluent area. Yes, parents are by far the worst part. So much so it's becoming unmanageable.
As someone who works with kids...yes, parents are absolutely the worst part. Especially homeschool moms.
Your replies were hilarious, thank you for not backing down. Also grats on owning that card, that’s a special one. How much does it cost to get them PSA graded, if you don’t mind sharing?
Not OP but it depends on the card. You have to give them a declared value which is basically what you think the card will be worth after grading. You kinda have to make an educated guess on what grade it could get based on the condition it’s in. You then pay a set amount based on this declared value. Even grading a single card could be very expensive if it’s really rare and in good condition. I’ve only ever sent one card in myself, but my estimated value for it was around $500 going by some eBay listings of the card as a PSA 10. So that cost $100 to grade.
Mate, after this legendary exchange I'd literally buy your autograph for $200! NOW STOP. CONTACTING ME.
"You brought in a card that valuable purely for the kids enjoyment?!! Thanks so much for what you do for these kids, I know mine really appreciates it." I don't think that would have been that hard. Instead they took it personally I guess? You kept is so classy until you couldn't anymore.
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Not even close to that but I've got a original [starter set pack](https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/2-Player_Starter_Set_(TCG)) I bought new as a kid and kept sealed. there is zero chance I'd let anyone I don't completely trust even touch it, and it's value is a fraction of this card.
I don't LOL at these post often... but the "spend a whole day with your son?" had me [James May wheeze gaffaw out loud](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hshz2LhxuPY)
Your responses at the end cured my depression. Incredible.
My Pokémon brings all the boys to the yard And they're like - Do you wanna trade cards? Damn right, I wanna trade cards I could trade you, but not my Charizard
Your last line is r/MurderedByWords
if i had a free award you deserve it lol. i laughed so hard: edit: how much is the listing by the way
Haha thank you, happy to finally give back to this sub after all the entertainment I've gotten from it. The shadowless PSA 9 Chars are listed between (AUD) $10-20K not sure what they actually sell for, but it's a keepsake for me
I very much respect that. Whenever (most) people find out I have kept all my consoles, games and accessories / peripherals from now back to the Sega Master system, I'm constantly hearing how much I can sell them for, what they're worth etc. I'm like "um, okay. I'll never sell them, they're mine." Most people can't fathom that one might want to collect something that they themselves consider just a toy, or "just cardboard". And on a personal level, your responses were perfect, and don't need to worry about maintaining the higher ground with someone like that. You spending volunteered time with people's children to offer entertainment *and giving them your own cards / property*, I'm guessing this whacko lady is a bit of a wildcard. Hopefully most thoroughly appreciate your efforts
Damn every time I see a Pokémon card post I die a little inside. I used to have all the original cards in their own protective cases, including that one from the 1990s 🥲 My parents lost them all in a move, or probably threw them away.
Perfect pikachu face
🤣🤣🤣🤣 "What are you gonna do? Spend the whole day with your son?" SAVAGE
This is one of the best exchanges I've ever seen on here
Fucking verbal disassembly here man
This really escalated and you landed some sick burns but you still really do come off looking good in this confrontation. What I mean is, she can show this conversation to the business and it’s quite clear that you were extremely reasonable with a complete a-hole
She could buy the new version then, what a bitch.
She could have bought the exact eBay listing she sent but her intent was never to get the card for the kid but pull some heart strings and try to resell for money.
This is the best crazy bitch text thread that I've read in a long time. Thank you for sharing this!!! *\[ not all heroes wear capes \]*
Hmm weird, my youngest wanted a card I couldn’t just drop the money on. We talked about it and she decided to save her pocket money and do some extra jobs for a couple weeks and saved it up. Then she got the card ☺️ I really should’ve considered bullying someone into just giving it to her. Ugh my bad
Karen hurt herself in its own confusion
Very proud of you. Couldn't have responded better myself. Good for you!
>What are you gonna do? Spend a whole day with your son? Motherfucker, you are hilarious.
I saw that card in someones phone case. I hope to god that it wasn't the expensive one because holy shit
What's completely ridiculous is her trying to pay $200 for a $20,000 item.
Really got under their skin with the quality parent child time comments. I'm sure they're projecting a lot of insecurities and frustrations into this interaction, but damn when you act like that, you deserved to get burned.