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As an example: Magic the gathering cards. US site: http://sales.starcitygames.com... AU site:http://shop.goodgames.com.au/trading-card-games/magic-the-gathering/boosters-and-boxes/magic-2014-core-set-booster-box.html So with a $65 difference I'll happily take that $30 shipping hit. Note: Good games is one of the biggest games store franchise in the country and their prices are about the lowest you'll get.

It was doubly funny (pardon the pun) for me, because it brought to mind another site I used to visit, that shut down last year.

Someone posted asking for ideas about science experiments, and the rest was epic. Especially since that sub-forum only had about a dozen regulars. So we all knew each other, and made personal responses to others' posts all the time.

http://forums.starcitygames.com/showthread.php?39077-Science-experiment

Aye!

Then, in case one needs to know about male geeks being rude (maybe without wanting to, actually), read this:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/22786_To_My_Someday_Daughter.html

That's a pretty long read, though. Maybe just watch "How to not be a Dick", by Matthew Garreth at Lugradio live 2008:

http://blip.tv/flamekebab/lrluk-2008-the-gong-a-thong-lightbulb-talk-extravaganza-matthew-garrett-1109597

Your nerd "technical reasons" leave us no room for endless inflammatory arguments and trite gender sterotyping! How will we fill the empty silence now?

We could have general discussions about the treatment and oppression or lack thereof of men women and hermaphrodites in different settings, like for example among geeks, the free software community or in general.

The piece linked in my sig could be a conversation starter. ( http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/22786_To_My_Someday_Daughter.html )

It's about players of Magic the gathering, also a nerdy mostly male community. We could discuss the merits of that piece and how much of it would apply to the slashdot community. I think we could get some flames and stereotypes flying.

You can't understand how hard it is, growing up as a manbot pretending to be a manputer in a fembot's femputer's world!

Maybe I'm missing some references in my head or maybe your being a bit nonsensical. Either way, it amuses me.

What is the relationship between a bot and a puter? It seems a puter is the way to be, but then the whole world is a bots world... I get confused.

In the real world man is of course generally the norm and woman is the deviation, as with robots/fembots, for example. One doesn't often hear about manbots and manputers and mens hockey and so on.

The relevancy of my sig to your comment compelled me to reply. It's a great read about the geeky mans world of gaming and how it would be for a woman to fit in there: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/22786_To_My_Someday_Daughter.html

It's based on this M:tG card.

Which actually makes it worse than what you thought.

First pic of the collider...

Nevinyrral's Disk.

Coincidence?

The goblin word for "flying" is more accurately translated as "falling slowly."

FYI, Starcity Games (a relatively reputable store that sells Magic: The Gathering and similar cards) is selling the Hippogryph pet for $40 here. $200 sounds completely out of line.

This afternoon, I played some Magic: The Gathering for the first time in two years or so. Some of my college aged friends and I sat around, doing nothing but playing with our decks, fiddling, trading, remembering old favorites, checking to see about old rules, and making plans to go get our old decks from our parents houses and, more importantly, make new ones using sweet cards.

Then I realized what I massively pathetic dork I was. Then I went to "read a book" for five pages or so in order to make myself feel better. I pick an old favorite: M. Mitchell Waldrop's Complexity. [How is the ol' emerging science at the edge of order and chaos doing?]

Then, thoroughly flabbergasted, I came back to the safest place I can imagine visiting at 4:30 in the morning: slashdot. And I find an article about what a scientist from the Santa Fe Institute is doing: building toys. For geeks to play with. Geeks who also play with Magic cards.

I guess I'll go buy an expensive toy robot that I don't need. . .or something. I'm in a pretty vulnerable place right now, and if buying shit will make me feel less geeky, gosh-darnit but I'll do it!

I remember that happening. I spent like $20 to get a Clone and then it got released again. At least I got another one in a foil pack.

And while kids still play, the market for cards is not nearly what it once was.

There's still quite a market. Chase rares from recent sets such as Chrome Mox and Arcbound Ravager sell for > $20, and a very large number of non-chase rares have casual value and are thus still expensive.

Although I didn't play "back in the day", and thus can't comment on the market at that time in relation to today's, the current market does seem healthy to me.

And while kids still play, the market for cards is not nearly what it once was.

There's still quite a market. Chase rares from recent sets such as Chrome Mox and Arcbound Ravager sell for > $20, and a very large number of non-chase rares have casual value and are thus still expensive.

Although I didn't play "back in the day", and thus can't comment on the market at that time in relation to today's, the current market does seem healthy to me.

Starcitygames has an article that has links and discusses some of the options on playing magic online. It actually ignores the official WotC product which, big shock, is called Magic Online.

I believe you can get that if you go to the download section of the WotC site.

The earth will be gone in just a few minutes. It obstructs my view of venus.

Now, where the $@#& is the Illudium Q-38 Explosive Space Modulator?

Wizards has been around for quite a while now producing excellent games, and single handedly saving a well loved industry. Without Wizards, a lot of the local comic book and game stores would be out of business. Let's face it, a store owner can't make a lot of money selling $1.99 comics, especially with the dirth of crap that gets published today. These types of stores are getting increasingly reliant on CCGs (Collectable Card Games) which Wizards pioneered. Magic and Pokemon provide a steady source of income for store owners, since every three months, and sometimes more frequently, a new set gets released. The players have to purchase loads of packs, at $3.29 each, to get the best cards to play.

Then comes the tournament level of play. Wizards of the Coast gives away over over 3 million dollars a year through its Pro Tour and Gran Prix system for Magic. To get invited to a Pro Tour, a player must compete and win a Pro Tour Qualifier. Usually these qualifiers are usually held in local comic book/game stores. Depending on locale, these qualifiers can attract anywhere from 30-200 people at $20-25 a head. Add this to the various side events at $10-15 a head, and the day ends up being a profitable one for the organizer, and for the player. A chance to qualify for the "Big Time" and compete in a single tournamet with a $25,000 prize is enough of a draw for most players to come a spend a few bucks. It is this system that continues to move cards for Wizards and singles dealers.

Pokemon almost destroyed Wizards, at least from my standpoint. When Pokemon hit big in the US, it was decided that the first run of all the sets would be placed in various chain stores before they got to the local game stores. When the supplies ran out, and a lot of stores did not get their ordered shipments...you can guess what happened. Hopefully now that Pokemon is dead, and Wizards shed most of its Pokemon related budget, this will not happen again. At the game store I worked at we had a few incidents of kids and parents getting into fistfights over our very limited supply of Pokemon cards. Pissed off customers tend to not hang around and buy a new copy of Settlers of Cataan, or the latest Heavy Metal issue.

Magic singles are still a pretty hot commodity, so everyone with old collections, you may be able to get quite a little payday for your old cards. Old cards are frequently auctioned on Ebay, and there are a lot of places on the web that buy and sell cards. Try visiting here or here. Both of these sites will pay decent amounts for the more powerful older cards, and will pay a premium for cards in mint or near mint condition. Or you can mail them to me, and I will keep and cherish them forever.

Wizards also produces dozens of other CCGs and board games, some really bad (WWF Raw Deal and BattleTech CCG for example), and some very, very good. Do yourself a favor, and visit your local game store and pick up a copy of RoboRally, or get back into Magic! It's still just as fun as it was when you started playing, only now it's a bit more expensive and tour friends are a little more likely to make fun of you, now that they have seen those dumb !ss commercials.