The Binder Upgrade

Big weekend upgrading Arthur’s binder. Went overboard, ~$340 across three stores and two online orders. Excited and guilty in the same breath, which is the honest version.

The rationalization holds up: a $2 single EX would’ve been buried in a $40 battle deck, so the bulk boxes probably saved money against buying sealed. Twenty battle decks’ worth of good singles, and we’ve got a 10-inch stack now. But the money was never the point, and I know it.

What it was actually about: he reads the cards himself, works the HP math, walks up to adults at the counter and asks his own questions, counts his own change. He lines up the three evolutions and leaves a gap for the one he’s missing, a completist like me. I learn the game by osmosis so he has someone to talk to. I don’t want to play. I want to hang around a game store like I did at 20, buy my son’s cards, and watch him light up. That’s the whole thing.

The one petty thread I’ll own: I want the binder well curated, thoughtful, the kind of thing another kid pages through and says wow. That’s the only part about other kids’ eyes and not his. He already knows I care, he gets that from the change-counting and the Saturday itself.

Watch: don’t let “catch him up” become every weekend. The guardrail’s already in, singles over sealed, boosters only to fill commons.