u/omealoapp

I run PackPing (packping .ca), a restock tracker with 800 members that started out watching Canadian stores. US members kept asking for coverage they could actually order from, so it now watches five US stores for Pokémon sealed: Smoke and Mirrors Hobby, Gamers Guild AZ, Flipside Gaming, Collector Store, and Prodigy Games.

Checks run every 2 minutes, and every ping is verified against the store's actual cart before it goes out, so no alerts for stuff that already sold out. When something does go, the alert says which of the other stores still has it and at what price. You can also watch a specific product (a Phantasmal Flames box, an ETB, whatever) and get a DM the moment it's back at any of them.

It tracks preorder windows too, which honestly is where the newer sets are easiest to actually get before release-day chaos.

The store list is request-driven — these five exist because members named them. If you order from a US store that's missing, tell me and I'll look at adding it.

Curious how the Canadian side of the hobby handles the market here — allocations feel thinner than the US, restocks at our LGSs vanish fast (watched the ST-31–36 wave sell through in minutes at some Ontario stores last week), and US pricing data like TCGplayer doesn't really reflect what things actually cost in CAD.

How do you all track Canadian availability and prices? Store newsletters? Discords? Just refreshing?

Full disclosure: (PackPing .ca — monitors 15 Canadian retailers for sealed restocks/price changes, no affiliate links) because nothing existed, so I'm biased — but I'm genuinely interested in what the Canadian market looks like from other collectors' seats, especially anyone watching sealed as a hold.

Like a lot of you I got tired of finding out about restocks after they sold out — especially in Canada where allocations are thin and the good stuff is gone in under an hour (last week a booster box restock at one of our stores lasted 12 minutes).

So over the past couple months I built PackPing: a bot that polls 14 Canadian retailers (401 Games, Face to Face, Hobbiesville, KanZen, Best Buy Canada + 9 more) and posts an alert the moment something goes buyable, with the price and a direct link. A few things I did differently that collectors here might appreciate:

• Every alert is verified before it sends — the bot confirms with the store's cart API that the item is actually purchasable, so no phantom "in stock" pings for placeholder listings
• Sell-out alerts tell you where it's still in stock — if a box dies at one store but another store we track still has it, the alert points you there with the price
• Price-drop alerts only fire when the item is actually buyable (a "sale" on a sold-out item is noise)
• Personal watchlists — pick a specific product and get a DM the moment it's back anywhere we track
• Free, and no affiliate links ever — the alert links go straight to the store, untouched

Covers One Piece, Pokémon, Riftbound, Union Arena, and Gundam sealed product. Everything's at packping.ca if you want to check it out.

Happy to answer questions about how it works — and if there's a Canadian store you think we should be watching, tell me, that's how half the current list got added.

I feel like everyone has at least one food that shocked them when they finally checked the calories.

For me, it was sauces and dressings. I knew they added calories, but I didn’t realize how quickly they could turn a normal meal into something completely different.

What food surprised you the most when you looked it up?

Could be restaurant food, snacks, drinks, “healthy” foods, anything.

I’ve been trying to find a diet tracking app that actually feels easy to use day to day.

I’m curious what everyone here uses and why.

Do you prefer apps for calorie tracking, macros, meal planning, scanning food labels, restaurant menus, or just general accountability?