A Trading Cards Story

These things…. are trading cards.

(pics from equestriadaily.com and supernerdland.com)

Rockstar’s been on my back for like, forever, to blog this. Seriously.

Trading cards is a good name for these things. Arguably the most popular ones are the soccer ones, though they also come in Frozen, Minions, Star Wars, Hello Kitty, Avengers, Inside Out and goodness-knows-what-else-series. We love these things. They’re about HKD 5-12 a pack, kids can get up a collection, and they’re oh, so much better than the latest bulky junky lights-and-sounds toy. Instead of another toy or worse candy, there’s HKD 5 Inside Out Sticker Cards! (And btw that Inside Out sticker-album-with-story that you get from 7-11 has one of the best narrations from the movie as well as some awesome activities.)

(And btw – Inside Out – totally over-the-top recommend. Rockstar was first showed this at school – more on that and Thought Coach Homework later on – though it took the Miss a couple tries to understand that most of the show is going on in 11 year old Riley’s head. The way in which the makers of this computer animation express Emotions, Personality as “powered” (well it is also a children’s show) by Memories, Train of Thought, Abstract Thought and even how some of Riley’s memories start to fade is nothing short of amazing. And I have to tell you about Riley’s Imaginary Friend because Rockstar had one too – as Riley grows up, she forgets her imaginary friend forever – and you feel sad, but you know it’s gotta happen, because being a grownup with a pink Imaginary Friend named Bing Bong is just creepy. People will not find you cute, they will find you a padded room.)

So anyway, kids trade these card things, and I find the learning opportunity in the barter trade to be under-rated. It is a whole little kiddie History of Barter Trade/ Currency/ Exchange Rates illustration for you to use. (5 Elsa cards = 2 Pokemon, anyone? And then the Country of Pokemon experiences a Central Bank Rate Cut and so PokeCurrency shalt depreciate against ElsaLand’s and so you’ll now have to do three Pokemon cards, thank you very much. Ok someone’s gonna put me in a padded room.)

Every year/ season/ cycle, various kinds of these cards get banned from school. Some case or other of kids getting upset over misplaced cards/ un-commensurate trades will happen. But they must surely not ban everything entirely because of the learning opportunities in terms of negotiation and erm, debating skills afforded.

So one day Rockstar makes a “bad” trade. He trades his Absolute Best Card in his 2-years-ago Star Wars collection (a.k.a can’t buy the series anymore, regardless of card score) for a less good card because his friend convinces him that when you can’t buy them anymore is when they’re not valuable because there is now a new Star Wars movie out. (See what I mean by negotiation skills? Increasingly we see more method in the madness of anti-kumon-style play-based-learning.)

The parents undid the trade, no harm no foul, though I just had to rub it in that a trade’s a trade and so we offered more cards as a “penalty” for getting out of this one but the other mum wouldn’t let Rockstar’s friend accept the extra. And then they finally made Rockstar’s friend return the card and not get his own card back so we feel kinda badly about that one. Rockstar surely does. And not getting to return his friend’s card but getting his own valuable one back has turned out to be an even bigger penalty for Rockstar than giving his friend more cards. Which is why he’s made me blog it.

And I always have to put a pic of the kids so the Miss shall contribute this one. Yes she is hanging from a rope. But then she is a monkey.