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How to Spend Your Tax Refund...On Board Games! · Operation Game Night

• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: This is a friendly reminder that if you are in the U.S.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: and have not done your taxes, you should probably get on that sooner rather than later.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Tax day is coming up upon us, and for the first time, we will tell you how to spend your tax refund.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: If you live in the US, you pay your taxes, you know, the average tax refund this year is looking like$3,500.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe not everyone's getting that.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: I get it.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: But we're gonna tell you how to use that.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's plenty of sales out there.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Come buy a mattress with your tax refund.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Come buy a car with your tax refund.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna tell you how to blow that entire tax refund, that$3,500 on board games.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a wish list in April.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Join me, as always, the uncertified tax expert, Clayton Gable.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Clay, how are you doing?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm definitely uncertified.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: I am the laziest tax doer ever.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Standard deduction all the way for me.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, itemized nothing here.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: Did you uh get a refund this year?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: I did, you know.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I yeah, do you want to get that personal?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: I did get a refund.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I think it might have been just below what the uh 3500 here is, but this this podcast was a problem for me, Travis, because I found out that for$3,500 I can make some pretty sensible board game decisions.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, that I don't know that I want to relegate to Fantasyland.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I want to I think maybe there is room for this in my emergency fund.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: My you know, I can dip into that pot of money, okay, and you know, make this happen because I'm pretty into what I picked out for my$3,500.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited about it, and I don't want it just to be an exercise in budgeting.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Such a tease to go out and do all this research and find things to add to our wish lists, our ever-growing wish list for board game stuff, and then to just add it to the cart and never think about it again.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe we can ring a little bit out of that, out of that savings, out of that uh emergency fund.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: But real quick, speaking of emergency funds, the podcast needs to build up our emergency funds a little bit.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: We are on the verge of potentially offering ads for the podcast.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: And many of you out there might be screaming, no, no, no ads.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: You've been no ads for almost two years.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, guess what?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: Clay and I have also been footing the bill for this podcast for two years, and our wallets are we need to build that trust fund up a little bit more to make room for board games.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're listening to the podcast on Spotify or Apple or iHeartRadio or whatever, there's a chance that you might see a 30 to 45 second ad in the middle of the run of the podcast.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Please be patient with us.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: If you are absolutely hating it and you know can't deal with these ads, you can you're welcome to watch it on YouTube and probably get ads there too.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're listening to the audio version, you might hear an ad.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: It supports us, so we appreciate your patience.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: If it's really bothering you that much, please reach out to us at Operation Game Night on Instagram.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you can leave us a comment, leave us a note, and we are happy to veto all of the ads that we are getting pitched, but it helps us out a little bit.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: Also, if you're like, hey, why the heck are they doing ads?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: Why can't why can't they just continue to go ad-free and flip foot this bill?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: We do have a way to support us that is not listening to ads, and that is to build up our little war chest.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: And if you go to our Buzz Sprout account, just go ahead and Google Operation Game Night Podcast, Buzz Sprout.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Up in the top corner is a little money symbol, and that money symbol is a way to support us.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: You can do one time, you can do recurring.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: We currently have one backer, one backer.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: My mom.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's your mom.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's your mom.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's my mom.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you, Miss Amy, for helping to flip the bill for the podcast.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: We appreciate you.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: But if you are out there listening and you would like to support the podcast, you can go and click on that little money symbol and you know, show us some love, pitch us some some clams, and we can put that towards our war chest and help make this podcast a little better.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to start begging for money all the time.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: This is like, I'm gonna try and make this a one-time thing, hopefully.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: But podcasting is expensive, and Clay and I have been doing it grassroots.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: We've been pulling our bootstraps up and you know, not getting our eight dollar coffee every day.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: And look at us, we're almost millionaires.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and just paying for streaming services.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's right.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: We do it for you guys.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: We do it for crystal clear audio comes at a cost.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: This podcast brought to you by anyways.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Enough with saving money and earning money.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about how to spend some money, Clay.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: You did some research, you looked into your wish list, you have things that you want to buy with your tax refund.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Let me hear about them.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I approach this list like any sensible person.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: I am going to always be buying board games on the regular.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I there's not many games on this list.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's some things, but I made it things that you would only think about buying if you somehow came into$3,500 and you're like, now's my chance to buy the things that on a monthly basis you just don't justify for yourself.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, no, that's too much.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: I put that off.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'll do that later.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of how I approach this list.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's not going to be a lot of just one-off board games on here.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to be some high-ticket items that I've been having my eye on for some time.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: So the first thing, if we can share my screen, chairs.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: I have a nice gaming setup in my basement.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: I have a table, it's large.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty satisfied with the table situation.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: I roll out my you know, board game tables.com, which is now all play, playmat, and it's a it's a nice play space.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: But the chairs that came with this table, this IKEA table, just are not cutting it.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Half, you know, half the side is a bench, which nobody ever it's always a fight about who's gonna have to sit on the bench.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other ones are just stinky little, you know, wooden cheap IKEA chairs.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like as gamers, we need better from our uh gaming seating because you do spend a lot of time doing it.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's part of it's part of the job is sitting there playing your game.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I found a pretty reasonable, you know, like office chairs, they're they're meant to be comfortable.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I'm looking looking at here.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: I just found some that you know, they're like$120 each.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think six isn't a reasonable amount for a game table, the size that I have.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: So you get three on each side.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: This puts me at a, you know, well, let me do the math here quick seven hundred and eight dollars spent okay to upgrade my seating at my game table.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so that's my first expenditure.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: Can I tell you a hack, life hack?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, hack me.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I am always on the lookout for new office chairs because I bought this chair off of Amazon once upon a time, and it is terrible.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I would like to be comfortable when I'm here podcasting or playing games or you know, doing whatever it is that I do on my computer or at my desk.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: If you go on Facebook Marketplace and you look up office chairs, people get rid of some crazy expensive office chairs that like they might be moving out of the building or they might be like relocating or downsizing or whatever it is.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: People get rid of some crazy expensive office chairs on Facebook Marketplace for cheap because they don't actually know what they're getting rid of.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: And andor they don't care that their company is losing out on this, you know, money that they could be making back.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: So that's my life hack to you.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's better than any sort of gaming chair that you can buy.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: You'll get some nice ones.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm to to be fair, I have tried that.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: I've tried to piecemeal, I've pitched this to Mary.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: I said, we can just start buying some as I find them on Facebook Marketplace.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that got shot down pretty hard.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, we are not having as if she spends any time down there.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, we're not having mismatched chairs down here at this game table.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I lost that battle.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean it would have to be a bulk set, but it might be possible to find one on there.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I I see where your head's at.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's definitely a way to go if you have maybe a partner or no partner to veto such, you know, patchwork chair, chair, chairsmanship.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, so here's my first.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: What do you got?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I also kind of leaning against buying more games.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: The games will always be there.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: There will always be a plethora of games to play.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to get to more of the games that I have on my shelf and get them to the table more often.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I am going to try and create an atmosphere that is conducive to people saying, like, I want to sit here, sit around and play games.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: I want to sit down and relax, create a nice environment.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: So the first thing that I am going to buy is some, I want to do some built-in shelves for my games.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: Calix has been doing okay for me past couple years, but they are very full, as you can see.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it would be nice to have some nice built-in ones that like fit everything.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: I can lay them out nicely, I can arrange them how I want.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm thinking like, even if it's just long open panels, doesn't have to be the cubes.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: I want something like nice and built-in that looks professional, that I can like organize my games on.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I quoted myself at$500 for that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: And that's just saying, like, I'm going to buy the materials and I'm just going to put these in myself.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: I've seen it done.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: I know how it's done.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: I can do this.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: I believe in myself.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: I saved a little bit of money.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: $500 built-in shelves.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Final answer.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: It must be nice to be you because I can't do things myself.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: You can do that.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that leads me to the next item on my list, which I'm just paying for my folks there at All Play.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: And we're going to go ahead and take a look at the old jasper shelves that they got.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: I am trying to remember how to add this up here to the screen.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I've got the the collector version five by five.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm spending a little more than Travis and his materials and hammer, but it's$1,410 to get the five by five Jasper shelf.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now I suspect that this is not going to hold all my games, even as large as it is and as expensive as it is.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: But right now in my game room, I have a hodgepodge of like different weird shelves that don't match.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: I literally like decomposed an entertainment center from the previous owners that lived here and have just been using that as shelving for my games.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: It works, it works.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, if I got$3,500, I'm going to go ahead and get some of these nice Jasper shelves because they look good.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: They got different size holes there, so you can kind of put boxes where they might belong.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so yeah, I'm I'm not as handy as Travis, so I'm gonna have to pay the man to make me my shelves.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure there's other ones out there, but this is the one I've had my eye on for some time.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: I have always wondered about these ones, and this kind of brings me to another point that board game paraphernalia, stuff surrounding the board games, like the storage, like where you play it, like the mats, like that stuff is crazy expensive.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like$1,400 for some shelves that are not that much bigger than Calic shelves.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: I imagine that it's probably pretty similar to my five by five that I have behind me.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: I would four by four.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: They're four by four by fours.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: I would be really curious to know if anybody out there has bought these or had experience with them and whether or not they are like quality and worth it.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: Because if I am investing$1,400 in a shelf that doesn't fit all my games, this thing better be primo and like of very high construction quality and material.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Travis, look at it's a walnut finish.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: I you don't know if you saw that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: There's a walnut finish, a walnut finish, which maybe means like press board with some wrapper on it that looks like walnut.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it strikes me as pretty expensive, but okay, this is how you know you give clay a fat stack of cash, and I'm not penny pinching here.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: I like it, I like it.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: Mr.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: Moneybags, Mr.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Money Bags.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: You are like Scrooge McDuck, and you go and you dive into your giant vault full of golden coins, and then you come up and you buy a Jasper shelf.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: I like it.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what else are you gonna buy?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I I between my two things so far, I'm at like$2,100 of my and these these those I think are my biggest items.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: So okay, we knocked those off the list early.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: So on top of game storage, I also also have a problem with card storage.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not a huge like Magic the Gathering guy, I'm not a huge like I don't know, Pokemon guy or whatever, but I am a fantasy flight guy.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a fanboy, okay?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: I have so much Marvel Champions and Arkham Horror and Lord of the Rings living card game.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: I have all these card games that I don't know how to store properly, and I continue to buy these cheap boxes off of Amazon that fit like you know 3,200 cards, and I stuff them to the brim full of cards, and they sit there and it's hard to get in and out and manage.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: I've seen some people online that go and they find like the old Dewey Decimal system in libraries, like the old card filing system that you'd have to rifle through.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: They find old ones of those and they repurpose them for some card storage.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's great.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: They have like the little placard up front where you can like find exactly what you're looking for.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: You can have it organized by game, by character, by whatever you want.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's really smart.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to have one of those.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm quoting myself$450 for one of those.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna try and find one on like Facebook Marketplace or something, which brings me up to let's see,$500,$950, Clay.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you are you're definitely getting by with some of the frugal options here.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm trying.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is why you win in life because you you know, you take a little time, willing to do things yourself, you're willing to shop around.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm just out here, you know, finding the biggest company I can pay the most amount of money to.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: All right, make it rain.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Let me hear it.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let's make it rain some more.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: So the next one.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going with something I've wanted for a long, long time.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: A crokinole board.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I mean, these things are pricey when you get a nice one.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I did a little research.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: Tracy boards are popular.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard of them.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: They're like the standard, right?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Travis will probably tell you he's going to buy some wood and make his own for$25.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: But me, I'm paying Tracy boards, and approximately it's in Canadian, so I did some conversions.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: I played it a couple times.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Ton of fun.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely tops, like I don't know, having a pool table or something, because one, they're massive, and two, it's kind of hard to play pool.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: You can teach people how to play crokinole pretty quick, and everybody's having a good time.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's a fun little team game.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I am stoked about this tax refund giving me a chance to finally pull the trigger on getting a crokinole board.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Now, for the$320, can you get like a custom one, or is that just like bare bones, blank, walnut finish crokinole boards?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's see.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this is this is it right here.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is the recommended package, which is the black Tracy board, four sets of buttons, a button baggie, some playing wax, and a set of holders.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I see nothing custom about that except for the button colors.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you wanted an operation game night custom crokinole board, I think you're probably gonna be paying a little more for that, unless you have the skills to do it yourself.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: I maybe, maybe we'll think about it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, I'm I'm glad you brought this one up.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: I also had a crokinole board on my list.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: I just guessed you did the research.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: I quoted myself$300.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm pretty proud of that.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna sit at twelve hundred dollars right now.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: Crokinole board goes up on the wall, nice kind of like centerpiece on the wall for a game room.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm going a step further.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get some like board game art from some of my favorite games.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: They have some really cool stylized ones out there, like Root and you know, Wonderland's war, Western Legends.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: I might even get some scythe.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: I like you know, I'm gonna get some art that really ties the room together.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's unique, it gets people talking about like, oh, hey, I've played that game before, or maybe that art gets them interested to play that game or check it out.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna get some nice art, get it nice and framed.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I quoted myself$300.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: I know you can get the prints for about$50 each.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna spend$300 on art, whatever that gets me.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's three prints, put them on the wall around the crokinole board.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: I am now at$1,500 art final answer.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's$1,500 with the Crokinole board and the art.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: $1,500 for Crokinole board, art, and the built-in shelves and the card storage.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so just to recap mine, I am at Jasper Shelves$1410, six chairs$700.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that is$2,100 crokinel board about$2,400.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Is where I'm sitting right now.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: You're burning through this money.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm burning through it.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: Or I covered myself way too low.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Mary always says I I've got money burning holes in my wallet all the time, and this this game was no different.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: I spent it swiftly.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: The next thing I wanted, and it's board game adjacent, but I imagine I'll be using it quite a bit for board gaming, is a 3D printer race.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I have, you know, this has been something that has been like a siren song to me for a long time.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Is seeing people print out little board game inserts and board game doodads upgraded components with their 3D printers.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I've just, you know, I can I justify spending, I don't know how much they are.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I've quoted kind of a middle of the road one here.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think I don't know, it's like 600 bucks, maybe.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe does that sound reasonable?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that for a middle of the road 3D printer, it's not like hobby quality, you're not gonna let your kids play with this thing, but it is functional enough that you can get some nice prints out of it.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's what I'm going with.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think but it could be a mistake because I could it's like a hobby, it's like a sub-hobby of a hobby, and I already have a hard enough time engaging with my main hobby, so this could be a bridge too far.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: But five thirty five hundred dollars.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm willing to take the gamble that I'm gonna get some hot little upgrades printed out of this thing.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, 3D printer is gonna put me right up close to the$3,000 mark.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, you're right at 3,000.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm at so first, I I like this, I think it's a great idea.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: Tons of people are getting into 3D printing.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it could be its own unique hobby, and you could spend years of your life perfecting how to 3D print stuff.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're just doing dividers and storage and maybe a mini here and there where there are like free STLs out there, that's like enough to get your value out of it, I think.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: I do too.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: Plus, what if you had a hobby that you could just like hit print and then leave it alone and then you come back and you enjoy the thing after it's done?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds like a nice hobby.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that's not at all what 3D printing is, but oh I guarantee in theory that's what it is, but like you have to babysit those things so much, especially when you're new and like don't know what you're doing, they're bound to go haywire.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And you're bound to screw up a thousand different prints, but that's what's fun about it.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like tinkering to figure out what works.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I won't be too happy if I have to babysit it, but we'll see.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: If you have experience with 3D printing uh board game pieces, let Clay know what he should consider because he's uh got some money in his pocket and he's ready.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm at 1500 bucks.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: We have the art, we've got the shelves, we've got some card storage, we've got a nice croconole board on the wall.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think I'm gonna do some like accent lights for the shelves.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: I want these shelves to pop and be the center point of the room.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna, you know, those like LED strips, they're pretty inexpensive.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: You can get them for like a hundred bucks.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna take the time to set up some nice LED strips in the in the shelves, showcase the hobby that I love, showcase the games that I work so hard to collect.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: I want something that is going to draw the eye when you walk into the game room.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: Boom, you got nice shelves with lights on the games ready to play.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: $100.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: That puts me to$1,600.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, we're gonna be here all night till you spend all your money.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: I guess.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Next thing you're gonna do, you're gonna be like, all right, I'm gonna buy a bag of dum-dums because I always make dum-dums.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Let me go, let me go one more time.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Go again, go again.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: I have a board game table with all the bells and whistles and a full set of comfy chairs.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: I've got I I quoted 1500 for this.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm at 3,000 now.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Question mark.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Puts us pretty even.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm going table with all the bells and whistles, the cup holders, the dividers, the nice little trays that pop out that you can like put your player boards and stuff on, the nice neoprene mat on the middle.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I'll even run some LED lights around the inside of my table to really make it pop.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: Some nice like overlays in case you want to actually use it as a table.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: $1,500 table with all the bells and whistles, maybe a set of chairs.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Final answer:$3,000.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm at it.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: All right, all right.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: There we go.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's a big leap.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: J can you just walk me through what your current game do you have a game area or are you just playing in your kitchen?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Which is fine.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I just don't I haven't seen your new place.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Your behind you looks pretty pretty sexy, but I don't know.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: You don't play games in your podcast studio.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: Very rarely do I play games in this room.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: If I do their solo and they're on the mat in front of me, I got like a nice desk mat that's kind of like the as Jared would call it, the mouse pad.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: This one has all sorts of like Excel shortcuts and stuff on it, which I really like.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: Not really conducive to gaming here in the studio slash office.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I like to roll out my all-play board game tables mat on the kitchen table or dining room table.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: Dining room is for big games, kitchen table is like a small circle one.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: So we play like stuff like Iliad and Icar, and like that size of game is great for the kitchen table.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I they don't feel like they're conducive to gaming, and there's lots of distractions around while we're playing games there.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'd like to have like a nice dedicated space that is like just for board gaming, plus maybe a couple extra friends to like come over and play games.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, those are always good.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: You deserve that, Travis.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: I deserve some friends.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: You deserve friends and maybe a space to play with them.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Give me the last one.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Last one.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: I got a I got three left, but I can I can rattle through the last three right now.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna number one.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: I want to get one game that just felt like a little bit okay of a Gucci game that I might hesitate.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: I don't usually hesitate to treat myself if there's a game I really want, but this one was you know, I let it pass me by and I regret it.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh Lord of the Rings, the confrontation went through game found.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not talking obviously the collect ultimate collectors one's like 2,000 bucks by itself.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I would just want to you know spend the 120 on the premium deluxe version of that game.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's Kenitsia, it's Lord of the Rings, it's a simple, like two-player strategy game.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, I think it's timeless, probably.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, I've never played it, but I'm willing to take a flyer on it with my remaining$500.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that's$120.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: My last real thing is I think it's about time.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Dune Imperium's been in my top three games of all time for ever since I first played it.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm getting the deluxe upgrade for that, which is another 60 bucks.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Don't know if on a normal month I would, you know, eat into my board game budget by just buying the deluxe upgrade pack for Dune Imperium, but you know, tax refund money, I'm doing it.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's another one.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: What comes in that like upgrade pack?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like minis and fancy stuff.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, instead of your wooden whatever so you can all the plastic resource tokens and stuff.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I got it, I got it up here.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just look at it real quick.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just look at that.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it's pretty nice minis, got a nice metal coin, it looks like.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay, I can get behind that.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm there, I'm there with it.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that so that's another 60 bucks, and then you know, I I was gonna say I like to support small business.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm taking my last 250 dollars and I'm going to the local board game store like a king, and I'm just putting that 250 aside to just support small business and go shopping basically.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing feels better to me than walking into a board game store with a pocket full of cash to spend money.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: I always like to walk around, see what's there, and just buy a few games with the last 250.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how I'm spending my whole tax return.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: I got the chairs for$708, 3D printer for$600, Jasper Shelves,$1410.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm starting to regret that because you seem to have had a lot of success with other things a lot cheaper.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm standing by it.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm standing by it.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm getting Lord of the Rings, the Confrontation, the Premium Edition, getting my Dune Imperium deluxe upgrades, and a Crokinole board.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm shopping.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: Clayton B shopping.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: I like it.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so my last and final thing, I'm at$3,000 right now.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: I have been kind of wringing my hands about this, buying even without a tax refund.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: But once upon a time, when we were still young, you know, we were still young, energetic podcast hosts, just coming on the scene.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: We got quotes for some nice like LED slash neon signs of the Operation Game Night logo, as seen over here above Clayton's head in the corner.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: Is it it's over there for me, anyways?
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: So we got a quote for these, and they were like, I don't know,$450 or something crazy like that.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: I want to get one of those still.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: I we're like two years in.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's time.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: I we deserve it, and I think you know, if you're listening to this show and you want to go ahead and buy us some nice uh LED neon signs that look like the Operation Game Night logo, then we would happily accept those gifts.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what I'm spending the rest of my money on.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: I think it would really, really make the space feel primo to sit down and play games.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't have to be super bright and in your face, not like the you know St.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: Polly's girl from the office.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: But if it's nice and lit up, it gives a nice glow.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: You got the crokinole board, the nice art, the lights with the shelves, primo table, nice comfy chairs.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: You're telling me that you won't sit there and play games all day, all night, forever.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm there.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: I would live in that space.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: I would live in that space.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: I just fantasized about it, and it was you and me and Jared.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, and maybe even some friends from the pod, and you know, we're all glowing under the light of that operation game night sign, and we're sitting in those comfy chairs.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, and your shelves that you built with your own hands are just lording over us, falling apart, they're all uneven.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm there, Travis.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Or better yet, if I have a nice long like gaming table, what if you got like one of those pool table hanging lights with the big like shade that kind of hangs off that it's all stylized, and you put an operation game game night logo on that?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's bad.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: That would be incredible.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, dang.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe someday, maybe someday, maybe someday.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: But if you are out there and you're like, wow, these guys are terrible at spending money, and you have an idea on how you would spend your tax refund.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't even have to be a real refund.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's just a hypothetical one like we have.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us how you would spend that refund.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: Again, thank you for continuing to support the podcast.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for supporting by listening to ads.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to support us, you can go to the Buzz Sprout website, just Google search it, you'll find it.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: And let us know what we can do better.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: Leave us a comment, leave us a rating, let us know how we can improve the podcast to make this show as best as possible, even if that involves spending some of our tax refund on you, the listener.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: Please let us know.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: For Operation Game Night, I have been Travis, he has been Clay.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: This has been how to inappropriately spend all your tax refund on board games, and we are out.