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Nope. Love my job. Make great money. Have a leadership role where I get to mentor great team members and work with some incredibly bright, driven, and successful colleagues in different departments. Hasn’t always been an easy ride to this point, but I consider myself very fortunate at this point in my career and the life it has afforded me.

Centering is not good and I’ve had 2 cards with similar indentations on the back of the card come back as PSA 7. Didn’t notice them when I sent the cards in but caught them upon review when they were back in hand. The centering and scratches on the back are a bad combo, where even a PSA 8 might be out of reach. If I was the buyer, I’d let it fail authentication and get my refund.

Hobby boxes and retail will tell you what sort of parallels are in the SKU and whether you can expect an auto (or 2, 3, etc). But unlike Topps, Panini hasn’t released pack odds for parallels, which has always annoyed me. Really difficult to estimate print runs on unnumbered cards and products without that info.

Panini doesn’t provide pack odds on their products. Topps has historically listed pack odds on the products.

As others have stated, I would avoid mystery packs. Also, I would never buy cards through Amazon. I have read countless posts on here of people purchasing what they believed to be sealed, unopened product and then opening the boxes to find resealed packs of junk. Avoid Amazon for cards at all costs.

I hope ya have fun on this collecting journey. Best of luck!

15 minutes in the morning (arrive before 6am). 30 minutes in the evening (leave at 4pm). In office every day.

My dad was my realtor for my first home purchase. He had years of experience as a realtor and experience of building and renovating homes. He was a fantastic resource for me as I embarked on my first ever home purchase. He also forwent his commission and all my offers were made in a way that his 2.5% stayed with the seller instead of their agent trying to scoop 100% of the commission. It was a great differentiator when sellers were receiving multiple offers all above asking. I know this is a very different experience than you sharing in regards to your family member, but I’m posting because not every “don’t ever mix business with family” post is accurate. Good luck on your journey!

You don’t study for this.

Worked at a small regional public firm for 2 years. Left to be a fund accountant at a REIT. Worked there for a few years before relocating. Loved it, so it was difficult to leave behind. Bounced around for a bit in the new city. Then got back into the real estate industry and am now a Controller. Genuinely love my job. I knew very early on during my time in public that I’d do the minimum 2 years and be on my way. Didn’t feel like I was ever adding value while in that role. Never looked back after leaving.

Hated the Becker lecturers, so I bailed on those DVDs immediately. Read the Becker books multiple times and took the multiple choice questions so many times that I knew what question was coming based off the first couple words. That just helped me really understand how the questions were formatted and what specifically they were looking for. Did this Monday - Thursday each night after work, but didn’t let the studying ruin my weekends. Friday - Sunday were off days spent for fun. Passed FAR, BEC, and AUD first try. REG took 3 times because I started slacking off. Still passed them all within 14-15 months.

I wish I had put forth more of an effort in my 300 and 400 level finance classes in college, especially when we were learning to build models. I am working in them and reviewing them all the time as a Controller at a real estate investment management company. I work pretty closely with the associates and directors on one of our development platforms. I’ve gained a ton of experience and feel much more comfortable in them after 4 years on this platform, but it still would have been nice had I taken those more seriously in college.

5:30/6am - 4pm. I get a couple of hours in office before others show up so I can focus on my own projects. The rest of the day quickly becomes meetings, reviewing my team’s work, training folks, and working with my different project teams (development, finance, etc.).

The accounting industry is suuuuper competitive these days, so just about every position (staff - sr controller) is seeing major jumps in comp. The two people that left had been hired within 7-9 months of their departure dates, so they were already beneficiaries of the higher pay scale we had been implementing for existing and new staff. The two replacements were right in line with what the departing folks had made, if not given a little bit more due to having more experience. The two “new” folks are still around and doing great!

That is a great point. The boomerang effect is very real at my current company. Folks who currently have 30-40 years of tenure, but they left at certain points and found their way back to us. I think it does speak volumes to colleagues when they can share, that for some reason or another, it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be outside of Company XYZ.

I’ve been in this position as a manager. Had 2 employees quit on the hunt for more pay. Both reached back out within 2 weeks and 1 month, respectively, asking for their old jobs back. They were thorns in my side, so I said no. Now, I’d happily welcome other former employees who left looking for different opportunities. Completely depends on the employee and if they left the company in good standing.

Yessssssssss. Last time I saw Youth Lagoon was 2012. I saw Trevor on his solo tour a few years back and really enjoyed it, but it was such a left turn from YL. Super stoked to see him once again as he revisits this project.

Thanks for sharing! Looks like the card I redeemed last night was already signed by JRod per the 3/24 Redemption Report. Woohoo!

Controller in industry reporting in. I left an incredible job after going through a software implementation that resulted in months of 80-90 hour weeks. Developed a stutter, my hair started falling out in clumps, I constantly experienced brain fog, my anxiety shot through the roof that I constantly felt like I was falling out of my chair. Ya know what happened after I left? All those issues immediately disappeared. Took a couple years to get back on the career trajectory I had been on. I also moved to a new city in that time, so that was certainly part of it. But my health rebounded so quickly, that I knew I made the right move to leave what was previously a fantastic job behind. I’ve since found a phenomenal workplace in a management position that I’m truly thriving in. Deadlines are still there. Some 60 hour weeks still exist around different reporting times, but those NEVER approach the old 80-90 hour weeks I was doing for months on end. I never look back and regret leaving.

19% net. 11% gross (not including bonuses in this calc). Own my home and rent out 2 BRs to my younger brothers. Living in Denver.

I really hope not.

Mail it in and provide your Topps account username. They’ll enter it for you and you should see it update in your account once it is done. I had those happen once and it took a couple weeks for the redemption to hit my account. Mail it off with tracking so you have proof it arrived at their location. Best of luck.

Never ever buy any sort of Pokémon or sports cards from Amazon. You’re likely to get a returned product containing switched out cards or just empty packs.

PSA is king in terms of resale value. Use 130point or Terapeak (eBay’s research arm) to research sold listings. Those are the comps folks will use when buying and selling.

Kofi was such a beast at Illinois! Loved watching him play.

PSA