House of cards

Jon Daniels, an eighth grader at Pershing Middle School, has about 10,500 Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. He has collected them since age 5.

Ever since I was 5, I have been fascinated by the collectible trading card game Yu-Gi-Oh! Every single weekend I would go out to any store I could find and buy about 10 packs there. I am now 14, and I have about 10,500 cards. Yes, I own more than most stores do. I’ve been called a nerd, as I’m sure you could guess. I’ve had cards stolen, destroyed, and, the simplest of all, lost. There was a running joke at my house that cards were in every single nook and cranny, and seeing as I would find them anywhere from my mattress to inside of a fireplace (I don’t know – don’t ask), I think it was pretty reasonable.

In my picture here, I have most of the cards from the new set, Legacy of the Valiant, one of my four binders, and a duel disk on my arm. A duel disk is what characters from the show would wear to make the summoned monsters “come to life.” They were discontinued soon after they came out, so they are more collectible than the cards! All of my cards are up for sale, and I really wish that I could make some people happy by making them a deck or two. If expensive ink and paper make you happy, I’m the guy for the job.

I remember a time not so long ago when I went to Target with one of my best friends, and we decided to buy some packs. We went into the store, got five packs each, and went on our merry way. On the way back to our tournament, we opened our packs, and we were pretty impressed. My friend got a few $5 cards, and I got the staple for every deck I have built from this point on: Evilswarm Exciton Knight. Here’s some perspective: After spending $20 on packs, we got this Secret Rare (1:256 ratio) $70 card. If you want to get involved in this game, just use the online game Dueling Network to see every card, and try to make your way from there.

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