Holo-Pulling with a Pocket Scale:
1. Go to eBay and buy a pocket scale. (I use the MX-200)

2. Go to stores and ask if they allow you to weigh packs. If not, leave
promptly, and if they are rude about it, get your friends to boycott the store.
(The boycotting does not apply to card shops, they either want it to be
completely random for other customers or weigh the packs themselves and don't
want anyone to know.)

Toy stores (Kay-Bee Toys, FuncoLand, GameStop, Electronics Botique) and
convenience stores (Uni-Mart, CoGo's, 7-11, Eckerd) work best. Convenience
stores work especially well because the majority of the employees will not give
a F**k what you do as long as you don't break/steal anything.

Note that blister packs (these are the ones encased in cardboard that will most
likely be hanging on walls) are unwieldy (vary too much) in their weights for
the gram scale to be accurate. Thus, Toys R Us, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. are
ineligible as all their packs are blisters.

3. Weigh each pack out of the set you desire to purchase from. Do not mix sets
-- they weigh differently from each other. If you wish to purchase from multiple
sets, weigh each set seperately. (e.g. do all your Pharanoic Guardian weighing,
then your Legacy of Darkness weights, and so on.)

Note: Once you remove a pack from the scale, it may still say it has 0.1 grams
or -0.1 grams on it. If that doesn't go away after a second or two, put the pack
back on, then take it back off. Do this repeatedly until it says 0.0. Either
that, or turn the scale off and back on. Using the “TARE” function can mess you
up a bit, if EVER so slightly (although it hasn’t hurt me when I did it, it was
still a risk.)

4. Sort the packs into piles based on their weight, in 0.1 gram increments. (For
example, all of your packs that weigh 13.3 grams in one pile, your 13.4 gram
packs in another, then your 13.5, and so on.)

5. Compare the packs and set aside all packs from the TOP TWO TENTHS OF A GRAM.
(For example, if there are packs that weigh 13.3, 13.4, 13.5, 13.6, and 13.7
grams respectively -- note that these are the correct weights for a run of 1st
edition Pharanoic Guardian packs -- set aside the 13.6 and 13.7 gram packs.)

6. DOUBLE-CHECK THE PACKS YOU SET ASIDE. The way you put the pack on the scale,
its position on the scale, etc. could affect the packs by a tenth of a gram or
so. Nothing would be more aggravating than buying a 13.6 gram pack that's
actually a 13.5 gram pack and getting a Normal Rare.

7. Buy all the packs that are still in the top .2 grams. Remember to THANK THE
CASHIER or person who let you weigh the packs. If you're polite about it, and
don't take up too much time/counter space, you'll be more likely to be repeat
the process the next time you go into the store.

8. All packs shall contain Super Rares or higher.

Some extra notes or exceptions:



On Erroneous Packs:

Sometimes a pack will weigh 1.0 or 1.1 grams more than normal. (A 14.6 gram pack
where 13.6 constitutes holographic, for example.) These packs have 10 cards.
I've seen them contain 1 rare and 9 commons...I've seen them contain 2 rares and
8 commons...I've literally watched a guy open a pack and pull TWO RING OF
DESTRUCTIONS out of it. Most often it is 2 rares.

This part is a gamble. The entire point of the scale is to eliminate the factor
of the Normal Rare. (Those of us who have scales are above that) If a pack
weighs 1 gram more, typically you don't want to buy it. (Unless it's like 1.2 or
1.3 grams higher, then it's typically a double or triple holo or something and
thus worth the risk)

On @$$holes:



You may be able to circumvent a place's no-weighing policy by either talking to
or avoiding specific people. For example, the manager of a store may not let you
do it, but typically won't go out of their way to tell the other employees about
it. Just avoid the manager and you'll be fine.

Likewise, if a specific employee knows about the scale tactic they won't let you
do it, just avoid them, or go to the manager and Solemn Judgement that
employee's ass. (I've done this, it's funny as heck)

On Defending your Position and Actions:

Your biggest defense is the most common buyer. Typically at toy stores, little
kids will buy packs more often than experienced players. This is even more true
at convenience stores, where the kid will bug their mom/dad to buy them a pack
on the way out.

These players are usually ripped out of their cards in bad trades -- trading
them a bunch of rares or a super rare for their Ring/Yata/IFL/etc. If someone
had to choose between them getting the cards and losing them in bad trades, or
them never getting the cards in the first place, them never getting the cards is
the lesser of the two evils, by far. (This is why card shops are usually avoided
-- experienced players are the most common buyer there, and you would prevent
someone else who pours money into packs from getting good cards, which may lead
them to take their business elsewhere.)

On Weight Differences:



Pack weights differ between runs. 1st edition LoD differs from Unlimited LoD by
.1 grams. Most 1st editions vary from their Unlimited counterparts. Make sure
not to mix the two or you may error and buy a non-holo.

Pack weights differ between sets. From my personal experiences, PGD weighs
between 13.3 and 13.7 grams...LoD weighs 13.2 to 13.6...LoN about the same as
LoD...but PSV is radically different, ranging from 13.8 to 14.2.

On Non-Weighable Prizes:



Sometimes you may win packs at a tournament -- but since that tournament is held
within a card shop, you won't be able to weigh the packs before you pick them --
or worse -- they may just HAND you your prize and give you no say.

Here's what to do: Take the packs you just won. Weigh them. (They're your
possession now, you can do with them what you wish.) Keep the packs that contain
holos. Go to a place that allows pack weighing, and while weighing packs out of
the particular set your prize was in, do the switcheroo on the packs. (Take the
non-holo packs you won and switch them with holo packs from the store while
buying other packs.) As long as you have X packs of your own when you come in,
and X packs of your own when you leave, the store typically will either not
care, or be none the wiser. Just because your tournament organizer's a d*ckwad
and won't let you weigh the packs doesn't mean you are stuck with bad packs.
(Unless you've been winning TPs, in which case you weigh them, open the
heaviest, and eBay the rest for $15 each.)

Best example:

You win 5 PGD packs at a tournament. 1 has a holo, judging by your scale. Take
the other 4 to a place that sells PGD. When starting to weigh the packs,
assuming you're being watched, show them that you brought 4 packs into the
store. While weighing, casually, shuffle the 4 packs that you know do not
contain holos into the rest of the box. Weigh out 5, 6, or 7 holo packs, set 4
aside where you had yours originally, then buy the rest. That way you're still
making a sale (so it won't look as bad), and you get rid of the nasty non-holos.

On 24 vs. 36 count boxes:

Try to make friends with the owner of AT LEAST ONE card shop that gets in
24-pack boxes. Being able to weigh your way to a Jinzo, Gemini Elf, Yata, or
Ring of Destruction is a very valuable thing. (Those cards ONLY come in 24-count
boxes barring a printing error, so unless you like being stuck with Lava Golem,
Lily, Magic Cylinder, or Imperial Order (actually IO isn’t bad but Jinzo’s
better), then try to get to a 24-pack location.)

Advice from an anonymous pack-weigher:



Don't snack. What I'm saying is don't buy 2 or 3 foils from 4 different
partially filled boxes. If you can find a full box, strip it clean. You'll get 4
SR, 2 UR and maybe a SEC. I've skimmed many a partial box and come away with 12
SR, and crappy ones at that! Which leads me to my next point...

Be choosy about what sets you buy. Pick a set with good SUPERS in it. Get a set
with SR that you need, or that are good trade-bait. In general, I avoid MRL like
the plague. What do I want with ANY toon, toon world, MoP,BotL,Invader or any of
that other junk in the set just to try to pull an AoD? I find LOD or LON a MUCH
better choice. I'm also avoiding PGD because I can't unload ANYTHING but RoD/Don
from this set and the chances of pulling them are small. The only reason I get
any LOB packs at all is because 1 Exodia piece pays for the whole box pull (more
or less). Everything else I pull from this set is dead weight (except Raigeki,
but I have yet to pull one). I have a stack of Mystical Elf and Dark Hole's.

Don't get into a confrontation. If approached by the manager, make sure to smile
and stay calm. Explain that all the packs cost the same, so what's the
difference? But don't argue or cause a scene. One employee saw me weighing packs
in a department store and got on his walky-talky and called the manager. I
packed-up my scale, looked around the store for a few more minutes (the manager
followed me from a distance) and then I left. There's no sense getting kicked
out (banned) from a store I shop frequently. There's always greener pastures.

(Comment on URJustSOL’s idea here: If the manager argues that you’re cheating
customers out of good cards, ask them who gets packs more often. Usually it will
be little kids, or parents of little kids. Young kids typically don’t know how
good a card is, so they don’t even know about what they’re missing. The store
still makes the sale, and that’s where the consideration should stop. If they
tell you that you can’t weigh packs, and they’re NOT a specialty card shop,
you’ll REALLY want to consider telling them you will get all of your YGO playing
friends not to shop there for ANY reason. There is power in numbers.)

Hopefully this knowledge will ensure that none of you ever have to dirty your
hands with a Normal Rare for as long as you continue playing Yu-Gi-Oh!