• This is the second draft of my collection, because for the past ten years you have all had to put up with amateur level images of my items. An uninspiring and boring black background was no way to present such quality, and my own skills left my collection badly cropped, poorly screenshotted, low resolution, and without artistic merit. Thankfully, my prayers to the God of Collection Presentation were answered, and now I can give my collections a 4K presentation to match the quality of the items.

    But first a little about me:


    I caught the collecting bug in around 2009 when I was a speedclearer and had been meeting people who were already collecting items so rare I could only dream of owning. I farmed 92e and took a step into trading items to generate funds. I didn’t know what I wanted to collect, but I knew I wanted to collect the rarest of the rare, and to do that I would need a very large bank balance. As I was trading I was watching. Learning who was who, who could teach and help me, and who would accompany me as I began my journey into collecting. One friend in particular helped me more than anyone at that time, an existing collector, Enchanted Krystal. He took me under his wing and showed me the ropes, and he is the reason I collect the items I do, because he gave me my first collection piece, a r8 dual reduction skeleton shield. And that was it. I knew what I would collect. I set out to gather as many dual reduction shields as I could. Gotta catch ‘em all, right? For years I relentlessly chased them down and bought as many as I could find and afford, all the time trading other items to generate the funds to pay for my next acquisition. I joined pPp soon after meeting EK, one of the collectors’ and traders’ guilds, at that time under the leadership of Sir Popel A Lot, and grew my network of contacts, friends and reputation. I saw the work being done in PhD and resolved to track down its elusive leaders, the brothers Kromp and Kabong, with a view to one day joining those hallowed halls. I knew what I wanted and where I wanted to be. It didn’t take long once I’d made contact, and shortly afterwards I was invited to join PhD on the 14th of November 2011, where I now reside as an Officer. I steadily built a collection of just about 80 dual reduction shields, but about four years ago I decided to sell off my duplicates, and honed my collection into something finer by aspiring to own one of each requirement per skin in dual reduction mods. I still have a long way to go as you can see with my current inventory standing at 61, but this poster has been ten years in the making. My magnum opus:

    As a side effect of my desire for collecting the rarest of the rare, I noticed that while I had some very serious shields, I lacked the appropriate weaponry to accompany them so I began to collect Pre-Nerf swords too. Longswords at first, then Crystalline swords. Consequently, these are my accidental collections that I didn't intend to turn into something quite so serious:


    "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" - Oscar Wilde

  • Dang that q9 15^50 300g OS Crystaline is a real beauty 8| :love::thumbup:

  • Truly an all-time great -- as a collector, a guildie, and a leader in the community. You are 3-in-1. A Tyrian Trinity. Let's just take a second to savor The Mystery of The Borken.

    As a collector, you have assembled, preserved, and protected some of the game's rarest and most spectacular relics. What you have built is simply impossible for anyone else to ever replicate. It's not that it would take a lot of work or patience to replicate your collection. It is simply impossible. This is It.

    As a member of [PhD], you have risen through the ranks to become the longest-tenured officer in guild history. This is the Guild Wars equivalent of the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge -- a prestigious seat, previously occupied by such legends as Rahl The Outlaw, Chaos Kurupter, Stza Erza (RIP), and Jason XII. Long ago, you scratched your name into the armrest and permeated the velvet cushion with your distinctive musk. May it never be dented by other buttocks.

    As a member of the community, you have worked tirelessly to provide all of us with a home and resource through which the game continues to thrive. Literally none of us would be here without you.

    These shots are spectacular (the artist gets all the recognition he wants but not nearly as much as he deserves!) but all they are is one more opportunity to celebrate everything that you've contributed to our little world. A job well done, Max. Time to head back to the hall for your afternoon snooze by the fireplace. I'll microwave you some tea.

    <3[PhD]<3

  • I like how a lot of collectors are intertwined, we sell something to acquire the next thing on our minds, in this case it started with a dual reduction magmas(the req10 -2e/-2s pictured) i had roughly in early 2006 that i sold off for a measly 25ectos(it was huge back then ok), this funded my next project in which i acquired a magmas req8 +30 +1insp/19%, then i had my eyes set on dual reductions, i was on a quest to collect these to preserve them since the advent of inscription items were upon us.

    Dual reductions for me were like the the alien of items from space, they made no sense and it's uses were limited but it was still special to look at.

    But i failed and i ended up offloading half a dozen or so dual reductions off to EK and eventually found their way to you, so it's always nice seeing them in the right and safe hands.

  • I like how a lot of collectors are intertwined, we sell something to acquire the next thing on our minds, in this case it started with a dual reduction magmas(the req10 -2e/-2s pictured) i had roughly in early 2006 that i sold off for a measly 25ectos(it was huge back then ok), this funded my next project in which i acquired a magmas req8 +30 +1insp/19%, then i had my eyes set on dual reductions, i was on a quest to collect these to preserve them since the advent of inscription items were upon us.

    Dual reductions for me were like the the alien of items from space, they made no sense and it's uses were limited but it was still special to look at.

    But i failed and i ended up offloading half a dozen or so dual reductions off to EK and eventually found their way to you, so it's always nice seeing them in the right and safe hands.

    You are so right. It’s not so much about the items we hold, it’s about the journey they take and how their journey is intertwined with our own.

    This guy gets it 👍🏻

  • Emma wow, never thought i'd see it here. It's like seeing an old friend again.

    That shield took me several years to sell off, due to the fact i acquired it in a shameful and most dishonourable way possible back when i was a kid. I never wanted to sell it off for profit for a long time till one of the traders convinced me, cant remember his name. Brave something..

    Edited once, last by zxc (December 8, 2020 at 3:52 PM).

  • With the superior screen shots & artistic yet simple display design showing them off in all there glory is such a pleasure to see.

    Thank you. I just wish the artist responsible for creating these posters would accept public praise for such amazing work ❤️

  • Incredible stuff, Max! Pretty sure I contributed one or two of those dual reduction shields over the years ;). There's just something about pre-nerf stuff that could make a guy go crazy.

    Thanks Rahl! Really great to see you back.

    And yes, you certainly did contribute. But for the love of god don’t ask me what. I’d need to contact RainMan to work that out. I want to say a shadow and an aegis, but I could be entirely wrong.

  • Emma wow, never thought i'd see it here. It's like seeing an old friend again.

    That shield took me several years to sell off, due to the fact i acquired it in a shameful and most dishonourable way possible back when i was a kid. I never wanted to sell it off for profit for a long time till one of the traders convinced me, cant remember his name. Brave something..

    Emma, Brave Kubana had it & gave it to me for free when I first started out collecting Magmas shields. He was my guiding light in the beginning. My most memorable GW achievement will always be assembling all those dual reduction Magmas together into one collection for the 1st time. The hardest one to get was Aris's one as he had a sentimental bond. It took me years to convince him to finally sell me the last missing piece. I could not be more happy to see the set has stayed complete & is with Max. :D

    "Light travels faster than sound, which is why some people appear bright until they speak."