Anyone Remember Pogs?

I found a bag of pogs at a yard sale for a quarter yesterday. I never collected pogs as a kid but they were everywhere in the early 90s so I think I must have had a few floating around.

In any case, I bought the bag because I love dumb cheap retro stuff. Let's meet the pogs.

The pogs can be divided into a number of different sets, some more obvious than others. Shown above is the biggest set and the only one with an obvious name: Cyberdudes. Cyberdudes is a bunch of pogs with demented mid-90s-style artwork revolving around a bunch of computer puns. There are some obvious ones like Floppy Drive and Mega Byte, but others aren't even really puns, like Terminally Nuts. My favorite is Outdated System, considering these pogs (excuse me, sorry, they're branded on the back as 'Silly Slammers') were made in 1994. It's like watching that one song in The Brave Little Toaster where all the 80s kitsch appliances sing to the main characters about how obsolete they are.

Pog Count: 18 (including 1 duplicate)

FLAVORED. FLAVORED EVERYWHERE.

Oh sweet Elohim above.

I went to the Dollar Tree today and there was "chocolatey" and "chocolate flavored" as far as the eye could see. Those giant, oddly proportioned rabbit bars are back, as are the little boxes that are only heart-shaped from the front. There were yellow hollow duckies, which did a great job of looking intriguing until that terrible "flavored" reared its ugly head. Even the stuff I remember being real chocolate when I was a kid has been remade in flavored form, like those rectangular flat boxes with the six or so little wrapped things shaped like bunnies or snowmen or whatever is appropriate for the season. And in the ultimate insult, I saw chocolate-flavored double crisp. The two things I cannot accept in my chocolate mashed together in an unholy combination of misery and regret.

So many disappointed kids this Easter.

SO MANY.

The horrors of "Flavored".

I said I was gonna make this post! I told you dog! Time to educate y'all about one of the worst traps in the world of food.

It's fairly well-agreed upon that chocolate is delicious. Few people would say they don't care for it. Many enjoy it as an occasional feel-good treat. Some people like to put it on their burritos and swim in it. Whatever. But there are companies who prey on this affection for chocolate, and they are sneaky indeed.

If you happen to see a chocolate bar that is particularly cheap for its size, be wary: Most likely, that ain't chocolate. Rather, it is an alien hunk of revulsion I cannot find adequate names for. This is "chocolate flavored", and it is chocolate in name only. The 1998 American Godzilla has more in common with the Japanese Godzilla than "chocolate flavored" has in common with chocolate. I WENT THERE.

It's possible to avoid this trap if you're vigilant, however. Read the package carefully. If it says "CHOCOLATE" in huge letters and "flavored" underneath that, steer clear. Also beware of anything that looks like a chocolate bar but advertises a "chocolatey" taste. Some packages will provide extra detail, such as "milk chocolate flavored". Avoid those, too. If it says "real milk chocolate" or simply "milk chocolate" or "chocolate" with no extra words, it's safe.

Now, I know people have different tastes, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were some "chocolate flavored" fans out there. Still, I think they're in the minority, considering how all the companies making these things try to hide the "flavored" as much as they can without getting sued for false advertising.

Happy holidays. May all your chocolate be genuine.

Dollar stores are awesome.

You know what's fun on Christmas? Having a truckload of stuff to open.

You know what sucks? It usually costs a lot to make that happen.

Fortunately, Elohim gave us dollar stores. If there is a better place to buy stocking stuffers, I haven't seen it. I've been able to buy a whole mess of cool stuff for my family on the cheap at Dollar Tree. They're great for snacks, too!

Of course, you need to know what's worth buying for more. Some dollar store stuff is so inferior compared to the fancier versions that the price difference isn't enough. For instance, Dollar Tree has 8-packs of AA batteries. That is an absolutely phenomenal deal at first glance, but they run out of juice fast enough that most of the time you're better off springing for the pricey brands. I still like them for little-used devices and emergencies, though.

The Dollar Tree Rubix Cube looks good but is hard to turn. It's fine for people who are just casually dicking around, but "speed cubers" like my brother prefer other versions. Some of their toys are perfectly good, others are very inferior.

The food - there are some name brands in the food department, and some are better than others. In my experiments, I've found that the cookies are generally a safe bet, the popcorn, chips, and pretzels are identical to more expensive brands for the most part, and the chocolate varies (WATCH OUT FOR "FLAVORED!" I'll elaborate on the horrors of "chocolate flavored" in another post.)

Last tip: Don't get Dollar Tree headphones. They are horrible and die on one side almost immediately out of the package.

Ten Things For A Dime: Top 20 Misses

As I mentioned in my post concerning buying ten things for ten cents, I had to lose a lot of auctions before I managed that victory. Here's a quick list of some of the more outlandish things I bid on just because they were one cent with free shipping. Items are selected for their sheer randomness and for how ridiculous it would be to only pay one cent for them.

20: Plush Snivy
19: Namco Museum for the N64
18: A Japanese 5 yen coin
17: A pair of 3D glasses
16: 17 plastic toy tanks
15: Magatama pendant
14: Plush Angry Bird
13: Two card albums containing a total of 74 gold-plated baseball cards
12: Wii Remote and nunchuck set
11: A bootleg Pokemon Emerald cartridge
10: Halo Reach for the Xbox 360
9: An Agent Smith action figure
8: Beyblade Battle Stadium
7: $25 Petco gift card
6: Plush Mr. Krabs
5: Xbox Live card for 4000 Microsoft Points
4: A Hello Kitty comb
3: Dog flea medication
2: A listing called "hotwheels" with the description "hotwheels" and no photo
1: Microsoft Office 2010

Ten Things For A Dime: The Ten Cents Challenge

Last winter I had an eBay gift card. After buying a bunch of stuff with it, I was soon left with a balance of exactly ten cents.

This would not stand.

It was my mission to begin searching eBay for items that started as one cent auctions with free shipping, bid on them, and hope and pray nobody else was interested. It was a long and hard struggle, but eventually I prevailed. The gift card was completely used up. But what exactly can one buy for a penny? Let's find out. My Hedorah and Baltan four-inch figures will be modeling the goods.

1: Digital Camera USB Cable
The most useful of the ten items, this cable was purchased to serve as a backup in case the original, identical one our digital camera uses ever went missing. We go back and forth between having two cables and finding only one, so I'd say this was a great buy.

2: Europe-To-USA Plug Converter
Can you say Crazy Prepared? On the off-chance I ever fly to the UK or France, I can bring along the home electronic of my choosing!

3 and 4: Rubber Fishbone Cable Winders
 The second-most useful item I purchased was the blue fishbone there. I had a pair of headphones with an unusually long cord, and the fishbone saved the day by making the cable shorter! However, those headphones broke a while back, so the fishbones remain in reserve until I once more have a long, thin cable that needs shortening.

5: Online Wi-Fi Pokemon Trade
The user's name was, I believe, "Pokemontrainer2000". The auction name was "Certian Kind of pokemon over wifi" (yes, he misspelled "certain") and boasted of Mewtwo, Dialga, Giratina, and other Pokemon available to trade. I won a trade from him and sent my Friend Code along with a request for a Mewtwo. He never responded, even though I paid, and a week later his account was closed. HOPE YOU CHOKE ON THAT PENNY, PUNK.

6: Butterfly Pins
While that last one was a bust, THIS worked out better than my wildest dreams. I entered a butterfly pin auction and lost, but was given a "Second Chance Offer" to purchase a one-cent pin outright. Hell yeah, bro.

And then when it arrived they gave me a second one. HELL YEAH, BRO!

I don't know what it cost to make these pins, but it was probably more than half a penny. Deal get.

7: Tongue Scraper
Because why not. Its best function is actually as an action figure weapon, as helpfully demonstrated below.

Aw yeah.

8: SD Card Case
Hey, this could come in handy! I saw an SD Card lying around in the open when I ordered this, but by the time it arrived, I couldn't find the card anywhere. Probably it was placed back into the Wii or whatever. If I ever need to hold one, though, I won't be wanting!

9: Drawstring Pouch
This pouch's main function is to hold some of the other items, like the tongue scraper and the plug.

10: A Penny
(Note: Model penny is a different penny than the one I purchased)

Yes, I bought a penny for a penny. But my penny was eBay gift card money. Therefore, I managed to convert gift card money into cash, and everyone has wanted to do that at some point in their lives.

Plus, the penny was a "Lincoln log cabin" penny, talked up big time by the sellers despite them having 600 of the darn things listed simultaneously. My mom took an interest in the penny and bought it from me for a dollar, technically making this one of the biggest scores of them all with a 99-cent profit!

And so, that's the story of how, with a lot of patience and a little luck, you can get ten things for ten cents even with today's prices. Fun Fact: Everything except the penny, the failed Pokemon trade, and the cable is from Hong Kong.