A BROWN MAN'S JOURNEY

It started when I was working in WHO and saw some of my office buds playing. It was around 1998 if my memory still serves me right. I was really interested in learning the game and captivated by the beautiful artworks printed on the cards. But my curiosity was cut short because I was too indulged with after-office gimmicks, mountaineering, and scuba-diving at that time.

Then one day after a few years, my nephews visited our house with their decks and started playing in our living room. It captured my curiosity again. So they taught me and my wife the basics of the game and we had some really great fun. Later on, we found ourselves looking for the nearest hobby shops in our place to buy our own starter decks. And from then on, I never stopped trading, buying, selling, and playing these collectible card game. My interest shifted to what we refer to as Vintage format where we collect, trade, and play with the oldest sets. Circa 1993 when it was introduced by it's creator Richard Garfield and released by the company Wizards of the Coast.

There were a couple of times before that our friends will come-over the weekend and we would play overnight in our dining room. Complete with pizza, drinks, and round-the-clock snacks. We had some really great fun!

Every now and then I also play competitively in tournaments being held in Manila or Singapore. But not as often as I want to. Since I cannot play much when I started working here in Singapore, I tend to trade more online. At some point I thought that being able to acquire the Power 9, a collection of the most powerful 9 cards ever printed, would definitely satisfy my addiction to this hobby. But NO, when I completed them, the trading didn't stop. It then moved to the next level, of power trading. Ended up with multiple copies of these power cards and selling them back in the Philippines, since most of them are in the US and Europe. Now, I have one of the most expensive legal card there is:

Black Lotus ALPHA

And since I managed to get my hands on some graded cards as well, the "mission" to collect also changed again. Here's the prime of my collections:

PSA-graded Power 9 cards

The good thing about this card game is that, if you know where to put your money, then you won't lose any. Sometimes, you will even gain because some of these cards usually appreciate their value over time. Much like Baseball and NBA cards in the US.

Recently, I've been selling a lot of the odds and rarities that I've collected due to the very first property that we bought. Some considerable funds are still locked in my collections though, but I'm intending it to be that way. At least for the time being.

Anyway, I'm guilty as charged. This is my hobby which I am addicted to, and I don't see myself quitting anytime soon.