Hoarding, Gorging, and Prospecting

In this exciting episode we discuss:

The loss of a first attempt at the episode this week.

How Lifetime Network's Christmas movie Comfort and Joy starring The Facts of Life's Nancy McKeon stacks up against It's a Wonderful Life.

That the Meditation Chamber card seems to be part of the Pack Insert set...good luck to those completing it.

A possible "Life and Times of Qui Gon Jinn" set as a series of scenes depicting events in his life set in idyllic 1950's Americana, painted in the style of Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post covers.

The people shipping Yoda and Yaddle...or as they would refer to the couple, "Yodel".

Topps survey about about potential digital and physical Star Wars integration.

The need to distinguish among people acquiring quantities of white base cards for one or more characters:

• Hoarding - Passion and devotion to one character, amassing as many cards as possible
• Prospecting - Seeking to acquire enough white base to meld a gold should the opportunity arise, for (usually) many characters
• Gorging - Amassing a large quantity of white base for (what some would say) is too many characters, for an attempt at multiple monument awards.

Marathons-for-Money, and...White base-for-Money?!

If you enjoy listening, and you're reading this on or before Feb. 16, consider nominating us at starwarspodcastawards.com: direct link to nomination form here!

Big thanks to those who sent Jan Dodonna and info on why a card may not show up in your collection even if you trade for it. We also discuss the opposite problem, where a card does seem to be in the collection, but is not actually there, and has cost people awards cards. Frustrating to say the least...it's one thing to hem and haw about how a marathon for a few dollars devalues if not demoralizes the fun of chasing for an amount of credits that's much greater (and we spend plenty of time doing that in this episode), but it's a whole other level when you can't trust that the cards that appear to be in your collection may not be there! Also we discover the new-to-us phenomenon of people selling and buying white base, Rey in particular, for real actual money. Who knew?! Not us!

Marathon Awards, Fashion, and Cards You Have But Can't See

Another week in SWCT-land and we have a couple of new sets to talk about for the first time in a while. There's also a couple of new base variants, but only one costs money outright; the gold Qui Gon shows up for those who've gotten a decent start on hoarding. Also, we explore the "can't see them but they're there" phenomenon of cards you don't appear to have (in my case, a couple of series 1 white base cards), even when accepting trades for them and observing that the total collection card count appears as though you do in fact have them. We give a shout out to the rainbow-barfing cats, and in the post-roll dig into the minutiae of dying from a gut would vs. surviving being cut in half. Enjoy!

The Fur Flies: Ewok Relics, Kittens, New Pinks, and more

When the cat's away, the Ewok's will play. Or maybe the opposite. No new SWCT sets this week, but we do have a new kind of card, and they started with a fun one; no digital piece of cloth here, we get real, actual digital fur. I'd like to see Kitten Cards do that! No really, I think that would be great if there were digital kitten fur relics. And be reassured that the fur was obtained in ethically humane ways. Some one collecting little digital fur balls, no doubt. Otherwise, we have a new variant; the pink has lost some of its elite status this go around; you may have to hoard 70 oranges at some point, but you won't be trading for a pink...at least not this one. It's nice to have an award card, though, although it is a shame they are so expensive to pull compared to paying a dollar apiece. And a burning question that only I seemed to have...did Fan's Choice sell out within an hour of release to voters or what?

And for those who missed the Perry Como sketch that Rhett mentioned last week, it's worth a watch. Thanks to BOBAJERK for the heads up on it.

Kitten Cards, Silver Variants, Safety Warning

In this ground-breaking episode we touch on:

• Hypoallergenic kitten breeds (both Russian)
• More appreciation for the community #OneInThePackTurnYoBack efforts
• Monuments
• Silver variants
• ParmThePom's essay on improving pay-to-play in the app
• What's notable about General Madine
• Marathons in the 5K pack
• Important public safety announcement: After two reports of near-accidents from listeners while driving (due to either laughter, sleep, or abhorrence; circumstances not clear), we must recommend not listening to our podcast while operating heavy machinery
• Kitten Cards
• A Perry Como reference

As always, @CT_Illuminerdy on Twitter, or find us in the app, to let us know what you think!

Topps Razor, The Most Limited Variant of 2016, Q and A

"The dumbest, most awful thing possible is the most likely scenario."
- Topps Razor

Well this is a packed episode. We cover, and not necessarily in this order:

- Pulling a faction card vs. winning the lottery (as we recorded there was only one reported winner)
- The brilliant community work in spreading the "1 in the pack? Turn yo' back!" message
- How will Series 3/TFA Series 1 be rolled out?
- Rhett coins "Topps Razor"
- Teals: The "most limited variant of 2016"!
- Pink chases, monument chases
- The most special Q&A session of 2016! Michael gives an emotional recount of how he came to hoard Poggle
- Posters: you can pull 'em (with credits even!), but you can't trade for 'em! ...at least at first...is this a harbinger of things to come?
- New parallels: Green and orange instead of yellow and gold: for easier color recognition in trades? To make room for an even more-most-limited-499-count-gold-variant?

As this is posting, a whole lot of monument cards are appearing under "Coming Soon" in the app. Here's hoping that the 5500 count holds...and Topps Razor is proven wrong in this case!

Michael's Poggle Rainbow and: One in the Pack? Turn Yo' Back.

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon...I mean, in SWCT...although even as I type this there are new things percolating. The bold made prediction in this episode for seeing some actual base series 3 already may be coming true. In the meantime, enjoy this episode where Michael opens up about the risks he took to complete his rainbow of Poggle the Lesser cards, and Tommy steps up on the soap box to decry marathons selling out shortly before the next one drops. Look, people, let's work together here. If you didn't pull it when it first dropped, let's all agree to wait until there's two in the pack to pull so we can all get more value for our credits. We're not animals.