Due to the changes on Twitter and subsequent shift to X, most of my online friends scattered to other platforms, and I’ve found myself without a “main” place to connect with other gamers & collectors with similar interests. After some thought, I’ve decided to establish myself on Instagram & Threads as my primary social media platform. It’s a pretty big shift for me, but since I love sharing my collections and hobby finds, it feels like the right fit for now!
The biggest change I’ve made lately has been moving my free time away from gaming & blogging and more towards building the store side of my hobby & selling on Mercari.
After attending my first local Pokemon TCG convention last month, I fell back in love with physical card collecting. Terastal Festival Sylveon caught my eye and for the first time since PokeKyun in 2016, there was a card I absolutely *needed* to have. I gave myself a challenge: get back into TCG collecting without spending new money, only by trading or selling what I already have. I have bins upon bins of items I’ve needed to sell— old collectibles, extra cards, & unsold stock from my Alluna Japan days, and it’s finally time to let them go and give them new homes.
It’s been a *big* change behind the scenes. Nearly all of my hobby time now goes towards either Mercari or Instagram. I’ve been learning how to take better Mercari listing photos, studying photography for Instagram, experimenting with lighting setups, and spending a lot of time editing pictures. It’s a very different kind of creative work than I’m used to and there’s been a major learning curve. I’ve been spending hours on photos and as a beginner, I rarely like the end result, so I have to get used to posting work that’s imperfect and learn that it’s part of the process. (At the time of writing, it’s been quite some time since I’ve published on Instagram because I’m not happy with anything I’ve drafted, I need to get over this hurdle!)
At the same time, I’m really enjoying reconnecting with my collectibles in a more intentional way. Going through my entire collection and individually deciding whether each item is something that will stay or go has made me fall back in love again with the things that hold a lot of importance to me.
Though I haven’t been gaming as much lately, this hobby shift has felt incredibly meaningful. I thought Alluna Online would be a blog more about gaming than collecting, so this isn’t the update I expected to write, but it’s where I’m at right now— in a way I feel like I’m getting back to my roots, and I’m looking forward towards seeing where this current journey leads ✩