So it has been a pretty busy week for me. I ended up going to a "Monday Night Magic" sort of event, and that ended up being alright. I tried zombies, but that didn't pan out. The trades worked out well, though I don't know if I am buying into Modern or selling right now. In the past week I picked up a bunch of shocks, moved them, got 3 Arcbound Ravagers, another Damnation, and lots of random cards. I think that I will gradually try and pick up shocks and Zendikar fetches, as my supply is rather depleted. I hope that they see a small drop in value so I can try and get some long term profit in them. In terms of trading, I think that I am in a spot where I have a huge collection of smaller cards that I need to use to trade up, and a few of the middle of the road cards that can hopefully be used for big stuff. I moved a lot of standard things for Modern/Legacy, getting a Volcanic Island in the process. For 2 Sword of War and Peace, it seems like it was a good deal for me. I moved them and all of my Geist of Saint Traft, though I ended up getting two more recently. This might be the card that I can use for leverage to pick up for 20 and move for 25. I was able to get some value on my trades, though I am worried that I have a lot of cards that have not been moving lately. Right now I have 9 Ghoulcrawlers (4 foil) 4 Messangers, 4 Obliterators, and lots of other random cards. The purchase of all of the bulk has really filled my binder out, and I have been able to move some of the cards, making it rather profitable so far.
So Canada is hell for trading. There is no universal "We can check Starcity" approach, people really didn't want to trade many of their cards, and they were brutal with their offers. For reference, Foil cryptic > Glimmervoid, Spell Snare > $2, and the Merit Lage Token isn't worth $15. Sorry. People were just impossible to trade with, which was pretty disappointing. Over the past week, I was able to cycle some cards and make some profit, which is all I can hope for. I actually trade 4 Inexorable Tide (1 Foil), so that is just great to get rid of them. I am going to have to work on a longer term solution to my Modern/Legacy binder, and that might involve pulling out the sets of cards and ones I want to keep, and perhaps throwing them in another binder (that I don't bring to trade. It might help deal with the issues of having lots of sweet cards around, and should lower the amount of cards I am carrying. Also focusing on trying to "Trade Up" would be a good goal for the next week, since I have lots of the smaller cards, and I think now is a good time to look for cards that are under valued. I am thinking Stromkirk Noble at $5 is a steal, since it is a cornerstone in RDW and vampires, both of which will be casually played if nothing else. Garruk at $15 will be an easy choice to pick up, and Past In Flames for $3.5 is going to give me huge returns in the long term. I am also imagining that Birds of Paradise at $5 is high, so I will try and move those. I guess that right now I am just trying to fight the apathy, as grinding out a few bucks every week isn't really the most thrilling thing in the world, especially when there is little value in my local store and a trip to Canada really didn't yield anything I was looking for. I guess if I saw more cards move (Like the Tides) I would be more motivated, which is strange, because I have been trading really well lately and picked up some godly cards. Also being able to move random older cards should have helped as well. I don't know, perhaps I just have a headache and am moody and whatnot after the PTQ (23rd place, 5-2-1, mulled to 5 at least 3 times, lost a round to a guy drawing a 1 outer, lost a game to a guy drawing a 3 outer, and ended up drawing a round because my Dark Confidant revealed a 2. I really feel like I was battling my deck and battling my opponents' luck. I was really happy with playing the deck (Jund) and I think that I have the potential to Top 8 another PTQ if I play competitive decks like that in the future. I think my goal for this week is to go through my cards and add more to my .50/$1/$2 binder, and focus on trading up for some higher value stuff, hopefully new Planeswalkers and the cards I am trying to stockpile.
Here's what I got from my prize packs. Smaller sample set, but $3 a pack isn't too bad. Not opening any gravecrawlers and only 1 messenger (I think) and 0 Huntmaster really hurts
Pack 1:
Markov Blademaster ($2)
Pack 2:
Lingering Souls ($2.5)
Ghoultree ($1.5)
Foil Scorch the Fields ($.25)
Pack 3:
Increasing Ambition ($1)
Wolfbitten Captive ($1.5)
Pack 4:
Curse of Echoes ($.50)
Pack 5:
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed ($6)
Pack 6:
Zombie Apocalypse ($1)
Elbrus, the Binding Blade ($3.5)
Pack 7:
Immerwolf ($1)
Feed the Pack ($.50)
Saturday, March 31, 2012
The Incredible Bulk and the End of the Modern PTQ Season
So this week was rather productive. Beyond trading for a Bazaar of Baghdad, I ended up buying $74 worth of bulk rares from someone. For the mere price of .10 each, my collection added around 700 "junk" rares and 20 Foil Junk rares. This is one of the best investment I could have made. Off the bat, at any point, I can take them all to a store and get my money back. Beyond that, any cards in there that really weren't bulk (like 4 Thraben Doomsayers and 3 Helvaults, off the top of my deck). There was at least 50% of the pile that was Innistrad+DA, and another 30% was Scars block. Any card that I can move for .50+ is all profit, and it does give me a lot more ammo for smaller trades. I was able to fill out some gaps in my binder, especially with DA cards, and am gearing up for the next week's PTQ. It will be the end of the Modern season, and it is a good time to take a look at my stock and set some goals for the rest of the year. So this is what I am at.
Top Tier Stuff:
6 Revised Badlands
4 Revised Bayou
1 FBB Bayou (Italian)
7 Revised Plateau (1 HP)
1 Unlimited Plateau
2 Revised Savannah
2 Unlimited Savannah
5 Revised Scrubland
1 FBB Scrubland (French)
6 Revised Taiga
6 Revised Tropical Island
1 Beta Tropical Island
6 Revised Tundra
1 Unlimited Tundra
5 Revised Underground Sea (1 Italian)
6 Revised Volcanic Island
1 FBB Volcanic Island (Italian)
Mox Pearl
Bazaar Of Baghdad
So yeah, bragging aside, by the end of the year, I would love to have a total of 2 playsets of duals. That would mean that I would need 19 more duals Overall, that isn't too bad, as I am only missing 6 blue duals, which are the most expensive. Beyond that, I would like to continue working on my Legacy staples, which would include 4 Wastelands and finishing up a set of all of the fetchlands. Then there are staples that would be rather helpful. I would also like to pick up a second set of Force of Will so that I could either use them to trade up or let someone use them.
In terms of Modern stuff, I don't really know if I should be in a Buy or a Sell mode. It seems like there might not be too much of a reason to move the Ravnica duals, though I am still afraid of a reprinting hurting the investment. Beyond that, there really is no data on how card prices fluctuate as a result of a rotation after the huge jump in card values, so I am sort of acting blindly. In reality, moving the Shocklands for other staples is the safe move, which is what I am going to do. I only have 5 Shocks (I think) so I don't think that it will be too hard to get rid of them. I can't really see a price jump for them, so getting rid of them now seems to be the best move. I will gladly trade for a set when they are reprinted and the price drops significantly. Until then, it is a shaky place to have value. Overall, I have been pretty happy with my progress lately in terms of trading. I have been moving a lot of standard cards for eternal cards. The big thing would be to start working on trading up random EDH/Modern cards to get either top tier stuff or things that are easier to move. Realistically, there are isn't a bigger tournament until June, with a SCG in Columbus. So that seems to really restrict what I am able to trade, as the trading at my local store has sort of dried up some. You can't get blood from a turnip, and for the most part, the good Modern and Legacy cards have been traded for. Beyond that, smart phones seem to be eating up profits as well. I think that I am going to need to try and refrain from trading the really expensive standard cards, because trading down doesn't really do too much at this point. I might need to start storing the expensive standard stuff in the good binder to avoid the "Oh, I want that card" situations where I end up trading down for value. I need to work on getting the top tier standard cards that won't be going anywhere any time soon. Foil Lingering Souls, Foil Delver of Secrets, and Thalia will be my targets for next week (though foil delvers and lingering souls will be rather hard to pick up as there are not too many in the local pool). I really need to work on moving the chaff for the cards that should have long term value, or at least cards that will be easy to move. This would include snapcasters, as I only really have my playset for standard. Trading is essentially taking a bunch of small cards of converting them into a more expensive card, then converting that card into more smaller ones, grinding out a small profit both times. At this point, I don't really have that many of the expensive cards, and I am flooded with the smaller value ones. So my two biggest goals for the next few months are to upgrade the cards I have now, try and eat into the box of extras I have, and work towards identifying and hoarding cards that I feel will jump after rotation. I should also work on coming up with a deck that will do well at FNM so I can have more packs (though I am sitting on a bunch as it is) I have not been performing as well as I would like over the last few weeks, so perhaps it is time to tighten up my play, or at least run a deck that is more resilient. I think that my stumbles this week were just running into some bad draws on my part and great draws on theirs (turn 1 delver, turn 2 delver+delver, turn 3 flip them all). Drafting was a little rough, as I was around some people who really didn't know how to draft and I got partially cut from both sides. On the plus side I left with a Messanger, a Woodland Cemetary, 2 Tragic Slip, and about 6 random rares. Broken drafts happen, but at least I was able to get a lot of value drafting the money rares.
So overall, I guess that I have my goals, have figured out what I want to do, and have obtained the raw materials to get it done. I am going to hope to make about 4 trades a week, and try to reduce the number of cards in my binder by 9 a week (not counting the cards I add by drafting). This should hopefully slow down the growth of my binder, as it is pretty much maxed out, and I might need to consider working out something with 2 binders, as the binder will not be able to hold Avacyn Restored and M13 in it. It is a good thing to have a binder so full, but at the same time, it seems like most of the cards will be in my possession forever (Magnetic Mine and Prototype Portal). I guess that is the life of bulk cards. I guess the same thing would probably be said about so many other cards that I ended up moving recently. It seems like an endless battle trying to convert junk cards into Legacy cards. I am glad that I have been able to get some real tangible results with trading (as my new Big Three have really motivated me into maximizing my collection so that I can trade for big ticket items when they come around).
Short Term Goals, Aiming for these by June 1, 2012. These are the cards I am expecting to jump in value post rotation, so I hope to stock up on them now:
20 Dungeon Geists
24 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
8 of each Innistrad Dual Land
24 Increasing Savagery
12 Bloodline Keeper
12 Garruk Relentless
4 Olivia Voldaren
24 Past in Flames
24 Champion of the Parish
12 Daybreak Ranger
24 Elite Inquisitor
24 Stromkirk Noble
24 Increasing Devotion
24 Thraben Doomsayer
My Want List, Aiming for December 31, 2012. While I don't plan on having all of this, I will at least have something to work for:
2 Badlands
3 Bayou
4 Savannah
2 Scrubland
2 Taiga
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
2 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Progenitus
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Karakas
3 Force of Will
3 Green Sun's Zenith (no idea why I can't pick these up)
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
2 Intuition
24 Snapcaster Mage
Top Tier Stuff:
6 Revised Badlands
4 Revised Bayou
1 FBB Bayou (Italian)
7 Revised Plateau (1 HP)
1 Unlimited Plateau
2 Revised Savannah
2 Unlimited Savannah
5 Revised Scrubland
1 FBB Scrubland (French)
6 Revised Taiga
6 Revised Tropical Island
1 Beta Tropical Island
6 Revised Tundra
1 Unlimited Tundra
5 Revised Underground Sea (1 Italian)
6 Revised Volcanic Island
1 FBB Volcanic Island (Italian)
Mox Pearl
Bazaar Of Baghdad
So yeah, bragging aside, by the end of the year, I would love to have a total of 2 playsets of duals. That would mean that I would need 19 more duals Overall, that isn't too bad, as I am only missing 6 blue duals, which are the most expensive. Beyond that, I would like to continue working on my Legacy staples, which would include 4 Wastelands and finishing up a set of all of the fetchlands. Then there are staples that would be rather helpful. I would also like to pick up a second set of Force of Will so that I could either use them to trade up or let someone use them.
In terms of Modern stuff, I don't really know if I should be in a Buy or a Sell mode. It seems like there might not be too much of a reason to move the Ravnica duals, though I am still afraid of a reprinting hurting the investment. Beyond that, there really is no data on how card prices fluctuate as a result of a rotation after the huge jump in card values, so I am sort of acting blindly. In reality, moving the Shocklands for other staples is the safe move, which is what I am going to do. I only have 5 Shocks (I think) so I don't think that it will be too hard to get rid of them. I can't really see a price jump for them, so getting rid of them now seems to be the best move. I will gladly trade for a set when they are reprinted and the price drops significantly. Until then, it is a shaky place to have value. Overall, I have been pretty happy with my progress lately in terms of trading. I have been moving a lot of standard cards for eternal cards. The big thing would be to start working on trading up random EDH/Modern cards to get either top tier stuff or things that are easier to move. Realistically, there are isn't a bigger tournament until June, with a SCG in Columbus. So that seems to really restrict what I am able to trade, as the trading at my local store has sort of dried up some. You can't get blood from a turnip, and for the most part, the good Modern and Legacy cards have been traded for. Beyond that, smart phones seem to be eating up profits as well. I think that I am going to need to try and refrain from trading the really expensive standard cards, because trading down doesn't really do too much at this point. I might need to start storing the expensive standard stuff in the good binder to avoid the "Oh, I want that card" situations where I end up trading down for value. I need to work on getting the top tier standard cards that won't be going anywhere any time soon. Foil Lingering Souls, Foil Delver of Secrets, and Thalia will be my targets for next week (though foil delvers and lingering souls will be rather hard to pick up as there are not too many in the local pool). I really need to work on moving the chaff for the cards that should have long term value, or at least cards that will be easy to move. This would include snapcasters, as I only really have my playset for standard. Trading is essentially taking a bunch of small cards of converting them into a more expensive card, then converting that card into more smaller ones, grinding out a small profit both times. At this point, I don't really have that many of the expensive cards, and I am flooded with the smaller value ones. So my two biggest goals for the next few months are to upgrade the cards I have now, try and eat into the box of extras I have, and work towards identifying and hoarding cards that I feel will jump after rotation. I should also work on coming up with a deck that will do well at FNM so I can have more packs (though I am sitting on a bunch as it is) I have not been performing as well as I would like over the last few weeks, so perhaps it is time to tighten up my play, or at least run a deck that is more resilient. I think that my stumbles this week were just running into some bad draws on my part and great draws on theirs (turn 1 delver, turn 2 delver+delver, turn 3 flip them all). Drafting was a little rough, as I was around some people who really didn't know how to draft and I got partially cut from both sides. On the plus side I left with a Messanger, a Woodland Cemetary, 2 Tragic Slip, and about 6 random rares. Broken drafts happen, but at least I was able to get a lot of value drafting the money rares.
So overall, I guess that I have my goals, have figured out what I want to do, and have obtained the raw materials to get it done. I am going to hope to make about 4 trades a week, and try to reduce the number of cards in my binder by 9 a week (not counting the cards I add by drafting). This should hopefully slow down the growth of my binder, as it is pretty much maxed out, and I might need to consider working out something with 2 binders, as the binder will not be able to hold Avacyn Restored and M13 in it. It is a good thing to have a binder so full, but at the same time, it seems like most of the cards will be in my possession forever (Magnetic Mine and Prototype Portal). I guess that is the life of bulk cards. I guess the same thing would probably be said about so many other cards that I ended up moving recently. It seems like an endless battle trying to convert junk cards into Legacy cards. I am glad that I have been able to get some real tangible results with trading (as my new Big Three have really motivated me into maximizing my collection so that I can trade for big ticket items when they come around).
Short Term Goals, Aiming for these by June 1, 2012. These are the cards I am expecting to jump in value post rotation, so I hope to stock up on them now:
20 Dungeon Geists
24 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
8 of each Innistrad Dual Land
24 Increasing Savagery
12 Bloodline Keeper
12 Garruk Relentless
4 Olivia Voldaren
24 Past in Flames
24 Champion of the Parish
12 Daybreak Ranger
24 Elite Inquisitor
24 Stromkirk Noble
24 Increasing Devotion
24 Thraben Doomsayer
My Want List, Aiming for December 31, 2012. While I don't plan on having all of this, I will at least have something to work for:
2 Badlands
3 Bayou
4 Savannah
2 Scrubland
2 Taiga
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
2 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Progenitus
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Karakas
3 Force of Will
3 Green Sun's Zenith (no idea why I can't pick these up)
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
2 Intuition
24 Snapcaster Mage
Friday, March 23, 2012
Bazaar Trader
So in the aftermath of GP Nashville, I find myself with a lot of practically complete decks, but nothing fully refined and ready to go. I might work on building some form of Pod deck, but I don't know. I think that I am going to work on updating a Puresteel Paladin deck and see if I can't get that back off the ground. I made a few trades this week, but didn't really bother trying to keep track of them. It is not very easy when you are around a bunch of people you know and are taking notes on everything. I am planning on investing pretty hard in Thalia, as well as Dark Ascension. I have been working on identifying some of the key cards in Innistrad and DA that will jump in value, so I am working on stockpiling them. Thalia, Increasing Savagery, and Dungeon Geists seem to be under the radar, while Vamps like Stromkirk Noble and Zombies with Messanger and Gravecrawler are pretty high right now. I think that if Sorin dips to $25 that I will try and pick a bunch up, and the same with Liliana. While the new set will bring a lot of stuff, there are some cards that are just no loss right now. It seems like Dark Ascension is rather underpriced, and I feel like if I can work towards getting a bunch of Dungeon Geists right now and close my eyes to any drop in price, that I should do well in the long term. This would also mean taking them out of my binder and not trading them.
I ended up moving the Foil Sorin for a Jitte, an Elesh Norn, a Steam Vents, and a Thalia. I am really going to bank on her going up. At $4 right now, I get the feeling that there is profit to be made, which is why I made sure to get two playsets today. I also might be using 4 for a Zoo build for Modern. I feel like my binder is awkward now because I have around 80% of the cards for any given deck I want to run, but don't know what to run so I can't track down the missing cards. I figure that just throwing together a Puresteel brew (Thinking WB) will get me back on track. Lingering souls is really good right now, and being able to have a boatload of sword carrying dudes seems like it is really good. Also, while clunky, going UW/b for Souls might be even better. Not really sure. Gotta figure it out. I am thinking a 1 of Wolfhunter's Quiver might be good as a Trinket Mage target, and that Increasing Devotion seems rather good.
I ended up making a deal to pick up a Bazaar of Baghdad off someone. It was in really good shape, so I was alright paying high for it and also throwing some money in there (I would gladly include cash on a deal like this. It is strange, because at the end last year, my collection was growing, but I didn't feel like it was anything special. In the last few months, I have been picking up some amazing cards, getting 2 FBB duals, a Beta Trop, a Mox Pearl, and now a Bazaar of Baghdad. I am hoping that by the end of the year, I have the best collection in the city (that didn't pay cash for Power). Seems more than reasonable if things continue the way that they have been. I get the feeling that I need to come up with some goals for trading, to figure out what I really want. Might work on that in the next few days, as taking some time to think about it is probably necessary. So here's the big trade.
3 Spawnsire of Ulamog ($4.50)
4 Silence ($8)
Hellion Eruption ($.50)
Gravitational Shift ($.50)
Wrexial, the Deep Risen ($1.50)
2 Training Grounds ($4)
Comet Storm ($1.50)
2 Celestial Mantle ($3)
2 Isochron Scepter ($14)
Promo Memnite ($4)
2 Increasing Confusion ($3)
2 Signal Pest ($2)
Nissa Revane ($6)
Lake of the Dead ($8)
Boom/Bust ($1)
Progenitus ($15)
Etched Champion ($4)
Phyrexian Obliterator ($25)
Jace, Memory Adept ($15)
Curse of Death's Hold ($2.50)
Kessig Cagebreakers ($1.50)
4 Sulfur Falls ($20)
Chandra's Phoenix ($7)
2 Quicksilver Amulet ($4)
Total:$155.50 + $50 cash + $25 Binder Credit
GOT: Bazaar of Baghdad
THOUGHTS: The condition of the Bazaar was really good, which was one of the key factors in the higher price. I was expecting to get it for around $180, but he wanted more, and since we have had a rather good history of trading (the Trop), I felt that while his asking price was a little high, I was alright with it. After going through my binders (he took about $25 out of those .50/1/2/3 binders that I set up for the GP and never pulled out) we were able to get close, so I was happy to clear out a bunch of non-standard stuff, as a lot of it was sitting at home and not really doing anything. Being able to move a bunch of cards to pick up a treasure is the ideal trade. My binder shrunk 38 cards, and the Bazaar is going to stay at home. I am seriously thinking about getting a safe to protect my valuables, and with the recent flow of expensive cards, it might be something worth looking into. It is strange that I now have four cards that are worth over $200 each (Mox Pearl, FBB Volcanic Island, Bazaar, and Trop). I think that I need to go through my collection and figure out what I want to aim for by the end of the year. Stay tuned
I ended up moving the Foil Sorin for a Jitte, an Elesh Norn, a Steam Vents, and a Thalia. I am really going to bank on her going up. At $4 right now, I get the feeling that there is profit to be made, which is why I made sure to get two playsets today. I also might be using 4 for a Zoo build for Modern. I feel like my binder is awkward now because I have around 80% of the cards for any given deck I want to run, but don't know what to run so I can't track down the missing cards. I figure that just throwing together a Puresteel brew (Thinking WB) will get me back on track. Lingering souls is really good right now, and being able to have a boatload of sword carrying dudes seems like it is really good. Also, while clunky, going UW/b for Souls might be even better. Not really sure. Gotta figure it out. I am thinking a 1 of Wolfhunter's Quiver might be good as a Trinket Mage target, and that Increasing Devotion seems rather good.
I ended up making a deal to pick up a Bazaar of Baghdad off someone. It was in really good shape, so I was alright paying high for it and also throwing some money in there (I would gladly include cash on a deal like this. It is strange, because at the end last year, my collection was growing, but I didn't feel like it was anything special. In the last few months, I have been picking up some amazing cards, getting 2 FBB duals, a Beta Trop, a Mox Pearl, and now a Bazaar of Baghdad. I am hoping that by the end of the year, I have the best collection in the city (that didn't pay cash for Power). Seems more than reasonable if things continue the way that they have been. I get the feeling that I need to come up with some goals for trading, to figure out what I really want. Might work on that in the next few days, as taking some time to think about it is probably necessary. So here's the big trade.
3 Spawnsire of Ulamog ($4.50)
4 Silence ($8)
Hellion Eruption ($.50)
Gravitational Shift ($.50)
Wrexial, the Deep Risen ($1.50)
2 Training Grounds ($4)
Comet Storm ($1.50)
2 Celestial Mantle ($3)
2 Isochron Scepter ($14)
Promo Memnite ($4)
2 Increasing Confusion ($3)
2 Signal Pest ($2)
Nissa Revane ($6)
Lake of the Dead ($8)
Boom/Bust ($1)
Progenitus ($15)
Etched Champion ($4)
Phyrexian Obliterator ($25)
Jace, Memory Adept ($15)
Curse of Death's Hold ($2.50)
Kessig Cagebreakers ($1.50)
4 Sulfur Falls ($20)
Chandra's Phoenix ($7)
2 Quicksilver Amulet ($4)
Total:$155.50 + $50 cash + $25 Binder Credit
GOT: Bazaar of Baghdad
THOUGHTS: The condition of the Bazaar was really good, which was one of the key factors in the higher price. I was expecting to get it for around $180, but he wanted more, and since we have had a rather good history of trading (the Trop), I felt that while his asking price was a little high, I was alright with it. After going through my binders (he took about $25 out of those .50/1/2/3 binders that I set up for the GP and never pulled out) we were able to get close, so I was happy to clear out a bunch of non-standard stuff, as a lot of it was sitting at home and not really doing anything. Being able to move a bunch of cards to pick up a treasure is the ideal trade. My binder shrunk 38 cards, and the Bazaar is going to stay at home. I am seriously thinking about getting a safe to protect my valuables, and with the recent flow of expensive cards, it might be something worth looking into. It is strange that I now have four cards that are worth over $200 each (Mox Pearl, FBB Volcanic Island, Bazaar, and Trop). I think that I need to go through my collection and figure out what I want to aim for by the end of the year. Stay tuned
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Spoils of War
So it was a rather interesting GP. Trip aside, it was not as I had expected it. There were only around 1000 people in the actual tournament, which would hurt when it came to the volume of trades I was able to complete. I also realize that actually playing in the tournament prevents from a lot of trading, which is something that I will consider in the future. Beyond that, the trading went well, and I ended up +$307 on the weekend, though there was not really much trading done on Sunday (another thing to keep in mind). So here is what I did.
GAVE: 2 Phyrexian Metamorph ($18), 2 Gideon ($20) Total=$38
GOT: 2 Snapcaster Mage ($50), Vampire Nocturnus Promo, beat to hell($7.5), Shared Fate, Leveler Total=$57.50
PROFIT=$19.50
THOUGHTS: First deal of the day and it was great. Trading for just the Snapcasters would have been solid, but also getting the Promo Vampire Nocturnus was nice, as it was a throw in for him since the bottom right corner was bent and starting to split. I also got him to throw in a Shared Fate (sentimental reasons) and a Leveler.
GAVE: Immerwolf ($1), Stromkirk Captain ($1) Total=$2
GOT: Predator Ooze ($2.50)
PROFIT= $.50
THOUGHTS: The kid really didn't have many good cards that he wanted to part with, so I decided to upgrade some smaller cards for a bigger one, with a little bit of profit. While this isn't a home run like the previous trade, it is important to try and trade with as many people as you can, and try to get some sort of advantage (either some value or upgrading smaller cards for bigger ones).
GAVE: 2 Buy A box Day of Judgment ($16), Foil Day of Judgment ($4), 2 day of Judgment ($6) Total=$26
GOT: Promo Zombie Apocalypse ($8), Garruk Relentless ($15), Gravecrawler ($10) Total=$33
PROFIT=$7
THOUGHTS: Picking up Gravecrawlers and Messangers seemed to be the way this weekend was going to play out, since they were valued in between 6-10, and picking them up at anything less than 10 was going to be a great profit. The guy really just wanted lots of DOJ, which was fine, since I got some profit. I think Garruk Relentless is going to jump when Scars rotates, so picking them up at $15 seems like a good price. I think that I might take them out of my trade binder and horde them until rotation. The promo Apocalypse isn't really listed on any site, but asking $8 for it seems reasonable.
GAVE: Crucible of Worlds ($25), Vendilion Clique ($35), 3 Time Reversal (4.50) Total=$64.50
GOT: marsh Flats ($10), 2 Verdant Catacombs ($20), Flusterstorm ($16), Ancient Tomb ($10), Riptide Labratory ($13) Total=$69
PROFIT=$4.50
THOUGHTS: Not the greatest trade for me, since I gave up two real playables in Crucible and Clique for some Zen Fetches and other stuff. The Flusterstorm was a great pick up, because they are very rare, and the Tomb and Riptide are Legacy fringe playables, so I was alright with it. Honestly, I thought Clique was only $30, not $35, so the trade was a lot better in my head. It happens though. The fact that there was enough profit built up in my mind means that being wrong on a price won't really burn me. Also getting rid of Time Reversals for $1.50 each was great.
GAVE: 2 Gravecrawler ($20), Phyrexian Obliterator ($25) Total=$45
GOT: 3 Foil Go for the Throat ($12), Foil Geralf's Messanger ($15), 2 Game day Memnite ($8), Buy a Box day of Judgment ($7), Foil Diregraf Ghoul ($2.50) Grim Lavamancer ($3.5) Total=$48
PROFIT=$3
THOUGHTS: Again, I was off on some of the values. I thought that the foil Go For the Throats were around $6-8 each, which would have given me another $6-12 in profit. However, I might be able to move them at $8, which would be sweet. Getting the Foil Messanger was nice, since I planned on moving it at $20.
GAVE: Snapcaster Mage ($25), Falkanrath Aristocrat ($7) Total=$32
GOT: 3 Promo Goblin Guide ($45)
PROFIT=$13
THOUGHTS: People really undervalued the Promo Guide since they were all over. I hope to be able to move 4 of them as a set to try and get some really good modern or Legacy playables.
GAVE: 2 Foil Isolated Chapel ($30), 2 Foil Galvanic Blast ($8) Total=$38
GOT: Foil Cryptic Command ($25), Isolated Chapel ($10), Gravecrawler ($10) Total=$45
PROFIT=$7
THOUGHTS: This was a time when I had no real idea what the Foil Cryptic was worth, so I had to guess. I put it at $20 for him, but thought it might have been worth $40. It was only $25, so I didn't get as much profit out of the deal as I wanted. It seems like I was off on a few estimations, but even though that was the case, having high profit built in helps to avoid getting burned.
GAVE: Snapcaster Mage ($25), 2 Elspeth, Knight Errant Promo ($40), 2 Thorn of Amathyst ($5), Akroma's Memorial ($15), 3 Baneslayer Angel ($21), Urborg, Tomb of Urborg ($18) Total=$124
GOT: Underground Sea ($140)
PROFIT=$16
THOUGHTS: This was a great trade for me, since I was able to move a lot of random smaller cards for the best dual. On some sites, duals are priced at around $120, so I was fine putting it at that. I was happy moving the Elspeths and Urborg, since they are modern playables, which should drop some in the next few months. Baneslayers went up in price a little bit (Thought they were $5 each), and Memorial is a real casual/EDH card that is hard to move. This completed my set of Dual Lands, so I was happy about that.
GAVE: 2 Vorinclix, Voice of Hunger ($8), Elspth, Knight Errant ($30) Total=$38
GOT: 3 Geralf's Messanger ($30), Promo Goblin Guide ($15), 2 Birds of Paradise ($8), Champion of the Parish ($6), 2 Time Reversal ($3) Total=$62
PROFIT=$24
THOUGHTS: These are the kind of trades that I strive for. The guy really devalued most of his cards, which means I was really able to get value trading down. This gave me a set of Promo Guides, helped gie me some more birds, and 3 Messangers will help to fuel more trades later on.
GAVE: Drowned Catacombs ($7), 2 Sulfur Falls ($12), 3 Foil Basic Lands ($3) Total=$22
GOT: 4 Goblin Guide ($24), Ratchet Bomb ($10) Total=$34
PROFIT=$12
THOUGHTS: This was like the previous trade where the guy NEEDED something, and was undervaluing cards so he would get the lands he needed. I was happy to get some value and boost my binder.
GAVE: 2 Gravecrawler ($20), 3 Geralf's Messanger ($30), Glissa the Traitor ($3.50), Thalia, Guardian of Thrabin ($4), Gideon Jura ($10), Daybreak Ranger ($2.50) Total=$70
GOT: 4 Sulfur Falls ($24), 3 hinterland Harbor ($15), Batterskull ($15), Karn Liberated ($15), 3 Grim lavamancer ($10.50)= Total=$79.50
PROFIT= $9.50
THOUGHTS: This guy was severely undervaluing the Innistrad lands ($4/$3 respectively) so I was able to move some staples for lands (Lands are a lot easier to trade) and pick up some cards I might actually use, like Karn. I am picking up some lavamancers, since they are low in price, and if red gets 1-2 strong cards in the next set, RDW might be positioned to return.
GAVE: 3 Ratchet Bomb ($30), 2 Geralf's Messanger ($20), Gravecrawler ($10), Huntmaster of the Fells ($30), Geist of Saint Traft ($25), 3 Champion of the Parish ($18) Total=$133
GOT: Steam Vents ($30), Foil Aether Fial (MP)($20), city of Traitors ($25), 3 Lotus Cobra ($18), Tiaga ($70), Melira ($1.50) Total=$164.50
PROFIT=$31.50
THOUGHTS:This trade was nuts because he was really undervaluing his cards. He put Vents at 20, the Vial at 20 (it had a crease in the bottom right corner, but it is a foil and should be able to trade for $25), and put his City of Traitors at $18. While the trade looks really good, taking a deeper analysis shows how much I killed in it. All of the cards I traded were standard, and I picked up mostly Legacy staples. These trades are the ones that really help boosting a binder and protecting the value of your cards from devaluation.
GAVE: 6 Arid Mesa ($60), 3 Scalding Tarn ($45), Scavenging Ooze ($20), Misty Rainforst ($15) Total=$150
GOT: Wooded Foothills ($22), Tundra ($120) Total=$142
PROFIT=$-8
THOUGHTS: I will admit that I thought that Wooded Foothills was $35, which would have given me a $5 profit. While it seems like I was off on a lot of prices this weekend, that will happen a lot when dealing with all Magic cards. I hated getting rid of Ooze, but moving it for a dual was fine, and losing out on a few bucks doesn't bother me when I move 10 Zen fetches for a Tundra. Sometimes trades are losses, and it is important to limit them. Even though this was a loss, converting Modern cards for Legacy stuff has a value to it as well, so I won't lose sleep over it.
GAVE: Foil Geralf's Messanger ($15)
GOT: Geralf's Messanger ($10), 2 Mosswort Bridge ($4), Foil Ad Nauseum ($4) Total=$18
PROFIT=$3
THOUGHTS: I was happy trading a foil card for a regular copy and a lot of value. While Mosswort Bridge isn't really popular, it sees some modern play and I can probably move them. Beyond that, getting a foil Ad Nauseum is cool because I can probably move it at $7 to a Legacy player.
GAVE: 4 Goblin Guide ($24), Foil Slash Panther ($1.50) Total=$25.50
GOT: Garruk Relentless ($15), Thalia, guardian of Thraben ($4), Promo Grim lavamancer ($3.5), Foil Frost Titan ($4) Total=$26.50
PROFIT=$1
THOUGHTS: While I didn't really gain too much on this, I felt that picking up Garruk would be a good longer term investment, and that the Foil Frost Titan might trade for $6 to someone who wanted it for a cube or EDH deck. Also Goblin Guides won't be in demand in a month, so converting them to cards I can move should help my binder generate quicker.
GAVE: 4 Asceticism ($8), Foil black Sun's Zenith ($12), Sunpetal Grove ($3) Total=$23
GOT: Phyrexian Obliterator ($25)
PROFIT=$2
THOUGHTS: The BSZ sees play, but the other cards are really on the sidelines right now. Moving them to get something I can quickly move should help keep the binder fresh, and trading up for a profit is one of the best things you can do in terms of trading.
GAVE: 2 Drogskul Reaver ($10), 2 Sorin Markov ($12), 3 Geralf's Messanger ($30), Dungeon Geists ($6), 4 Endless Ranks of the Dead ($8), 1 Mikeaus the Lunarch ($4), 4 Stromkirk Noble ($32), Bloodline Keeper ($7), Balefire Dragon ($2), Massacre Worm ($5), 2 Etched Champion ($10), Sunpetal Grove ($3) Total=$126
GOT: Foil Qusali Pridemage ($4), 2 Mishra's Factory (Russian) ($12) Foil Chinese Black Sun's Zenith ($15), Underground Sea ($130)= Total=$161
PROFIT=$35
THOUGHTS: I was able to kill on this trade because he was fine putting the Underground Sea at $100, since it had some play on it. I wanted the BSZ and Pridemage, since foils trade well. The Factories were cool, and I wanted them because I want to run them if I ever play Factory in Legacy. The guy only went through my Standard binder, which was nice, because getting rid of standard for Legacy and making a profit is the best way to trade. Having separate binders really helped this weekend with standard to legacy conversion.
GAVE: 2 Jace the Mind sculptor ($110), Death Baron ($10), Serra Ascendent ($4), Life from the Loam ($15), 4 Blinkmoth Nexus ($60) Total=$199
GOT: FBB Scrubland ($145), 4 Vampire Nocturnus ($80), Volrath's Stronghold ($20), Witchbane Orb ($1) Total=$246
PROFIT=$47
THOUGHTS: Initially, the guy was valuing the Scrubland at around $225. I told him that I wanted to trade for it, but that there was no way it was worth that much. He said that he couldn't go any lower, but I was able to reason with him and get him to come to his senses and price it correctly at around $145. I hated giving up Jaces, but in reality, it was the only way I could get the Scrubland, and I really wanted that Scrubland. Foreign Black Border dual lands are very rare, and they are the "Pimp" version of dual lands (since most people are priced out of Beta duals). I figured that since I paid $30 cash for a Jace, and traded a Huntmaster of the Fells and a Mox Opal for the other, I really was getting a great deal on it if I took into account how I got them initially. I was able to make such a huge profit because he severely undervalued the Nocturnus and Stronghold ($12/$10 respectively) and while they might not be the easiest cards to move, I know that I should be able to dump them for something big, or move them for value to someone else who wants to try and get profit from the casual players.
GAVE: 5 Life from the Loam ($75), Noble Hierarch ($20), Watery Grave ($20), 4 Knight of the Reliquary ($44) Total=$149
GOT:3 Steam Vents ($90), 2 Intuition ($70) Total=$160
PROFIT=$11
THOUGHTS: This guy had the second best binder that I have ever seen in my life (Mine is not the best). He had pages and pages of all of the staples and duals and had 1-2 of each piece of power. He had a list of cards he needed (Noble, Grave, Loam) and I was able to get some value on him. He was a really nice guy, and I was shocked that he valued everything very fair and reasonable (he put the Watery Grave at like $25 and the Steam Vents at $22, so I was able to get a little value). We talked a while, and I learned a lot about gaining value on people and boosting my binder. I ended up saving him about $400 later on when he was trying to trade for a beta Scrubland from someone. I was going to trade for it, but I was in the middle of a trade so he got the first chance. I told him to have a dealer check it if was real, and to give a grade on it for pricing purposes. He came back and the Scrubland was split in half. It was apparently a CE card that was glued to a different card back. I was happy that it was discovered. That is why I always get cards valued over $100 authenticated by a dealer before moving them.
GAVE: 2 Huntmaster of the Fells ($60)
GOT:Foil Surgical Extraction ($12), Foil Strangleroot Geist ($6), Garruk Relentless ($15), Geist of Saint traft ($25), Elite Inquisitor ($2) Total=$60
Profit=$0
THOUGHTS: The guy pulled out his phone early and went to StarCity, so I knew I was not going to get any value. However, I was able to use this to my advantage and pick up cards I speculate were going to go up in value. Foil extraction will see Legacy play forever, Foil Strangeleroot should be moved easily, and Garruk is my sleeper for post rotation. I was having a hard time moving the Huntmasters, so I was happy to get rid of them (though I might want to run 1 in a Pod deck for FNM on Friday, so that is annoying)
GAVE: Promo Memnite ($4), 2 Honor of the Pure ($6) Total=$10
GOT: Geth of the Vault ($3.50), Eternal Dragon ($6), Sigil of the Empty Throne ($2), Captain of the Watch ($4), Student of Warfare ($3), Norin the Wary, Total=$18.50
PROFIT= $8.50
THOUGHTS: I got a lot of value off a guy because he didn't know the value of non-standard cards. If I can move them at their price, I make a lot of profit. If not, they sit in my binder and take up space and tie up money. That is the risk of value trading, but I am fine with it. I also picked up a Norin the Wary for sentimental reasons.
GAVE: 4 Scalding Tarn ($60), 2 Flooded Strand ($80), 4 Misty rainforest ($60), Stomping Grounds ($20), Crucible of Worlds ($25) 3 Life From the Loam ($45), Total=$290
GOT: Mox Pearl ($350)
PROFIT $60
THOUGHTS: I figured I would save the biggest trade for last. This trade took a while since I needed to get the Mox authenticated and valued from the SCG booth. It was MP- or HP+ based on what they said, which is close to where I thought it was. He said it was worth $350. When I talked to the guy, he seemed to want to pick up easier to move staples so he could have more inventory to move. I told him I put the Mox at $300, since it was rough on the back, and that it is something that is hard to move. He got a lot of staples out of it, and I was able to clear out a lot of modern cards. I really didn't want to give up the Strands, but sacrifices have to be made. I was really glad I kept my duals out of my binder, since he probably would have went for those.
Overall, I made around 20 something trades (don't feel like going back to count). I made $307 profit, which is pretty much like getting a free Mox Pearl for trading well. Beyond that, I took $350+140+130+120+100+70=$910 dollars out of my trade binder with the duals and Mox, as I don't plan on trading them. taking into account the profit, my binder is around $600 lighter, which is something to remember. I ended up buying some cards from the guys that I went with: Liliana+Grim Monolith for $35 (61% of SCG value), 2 Geist of Saint Traft and a Foil Dungeon Geists for $40 (69% of SCG value) and $75 in random cards I don't remember for $35. While I don't like buying singles, getting them for a very reduced rate is fine by me, as I would imagine that selling duals and whatnot should lead to at least 90% of SCG value. I am glad I finished my set of duals, though I wonder if I want to have a smaller binder (probably a Monster binder) that would hold my extra duals, revised only, that I would only trade if I got a lot of value on them. I need to think about it, but it is something that might allow me to really improve my returns on trading and help it grow.
There was really no trading to be done on Sunday, so I ended up trying to take the judge test. I really bricked the first question the guys asked me in the interview, but nailed the rest of them and was able to shadow a L2 judge for about an hour or so. I made a few rulings (was correct with all of them) and ended up passing the test. For my efforts, the head judge gave me 3 judge foils. they were Bitterblossom, Flusterstorm (worth $60), and ironically...
GAVE: 2 Phyrexian Metamorph ($18), 2 Gideon ($20) Total=$38
GOT: 2 Snapcaster Mage ($50), Vampire Nocturnus Promo, beat to hell($7.5), Shared Fate, Leveler Total=$57.50
PROFIT=$19.50
THOUGHTS: First deal of the day and it was great. Trading for just the Snapcasters would have been solid, but also getting the Promo Vampire Nocturnus was nice, as it was a throw in for him since the bottom right corner was bent and starting to split. I also got him to throw in a Shared Fate (sentimental reasons) and a Leveler.
GAVE: Immerwolf ($1), Stromkirk Captain ($1) Total=$2
GOT: Predator Ooze ($2.50)
PROFIT= $.50
THOUGHTS: The kid really didn't have many good cards that he wanted to part with, so I decided to upgrade some smaller cards for a bigger one, with a little bit of profit. While this isn't a home run like the previous trade, it is important to try and trade with as many people as you can, and try to get some sort of advantage (either some value or upgrading smaller cards for bigger ones).
GAVE: 2 Buy A box Day of Judgment ($16), Foil Day of Judgment ($4), 2 day of Judgment ($6) Total=$26
GOT: Promo Zombie Apocalypse ($8), Garruk Relentless ($15), Gravecrawler ($10) Total=$33
PROFIT=$7
THOUGHTS: Picking up Gravecrawlers and Messangers seemed to be the way this weekend was going to play out, since they were valued in between 6-10, and picking them up at anything less than 10 was going to be a great profit. The guy really just wanted lots of DOJ, which was fine, since I got some profit. I think Garruk Relentless is going to jump when Scars rotates, so picking them up at $15 seems like a good price. I think that I might take them out of my trade binder and horde them until rotation. The promo Apocalypse isn't really listed on any site, but asking $8 for it seems reasonable.
GAVE: Crucible of Worlds ($25), Vendilion Clique ($35), 3 Time Reversal (4.50) Total=$64.50
GOT: marsh Flats ($10), 2 Verdant Catacombs ($20), Flusterstorm ($16), Ancient Tomb ($10), Riptide Labratory ($13) Total=$69
PROFIT=$4.50
THOUGHTS: Not the greatest trade for me, since I gave up two real playables in Crucible and Clique for some Zen Fetches and other stuff. The Flusterstorm was a great pick up, because they are very rare, and the Tomb and Riptide are Legacy fringe playables, so I was alright with it. Honestly, I thought Clique was only $30, not $35, so the trade was a lot better in my head. It happens though. The fact that there was enough profit built up in my mind means that being wrong on a price won't really burn me. Also getting rid of Time Reversals for $1.50 each was great.
GAVE: 2 Gravecrawler ($20), Phyrexian Obliterator ($25) Total=$45
GOT: 3 Foil Go for the Throat ($12), Foil Geralf's Messanger ($15), 2 Game day Memnite ($8), Buy a Box day of Judgment ($7), Foil Diregraf Ghoul ($2.50) Grim Lavamancer ($3.5) Total=$48
PROFIT=$3
THOUGHTS: Again, I was off on some of the values. I thought that the foil Go For the Throats were around $6-8 each, which would have given me another $6-12 in profit. However, I might be able to move them at $8, which would be sweet. Getting the Foil Messanger was nice, since I planned on moving it at $20.
GAVE: Snapcaster Mage ($25), Falkanrath Aristocrat ($7) Total=$32
GOT: 3 Promo Goblin Guide ($45)
PROFIT=$13
THOUGHTS: People really undervalued the Promo Guide since they were all over. I hope to be able to move 4 of them as a set to try and get some really good modern or Legacy playables.
GAVE: 2 Foil Isolated Chapel ($30), 2 Foil Galvanic Blast ($8) Total=$38
GOT: Foil Cryptic Command ($25), Isolated Chapel ($10), Gravecrawler ($10) Total=$45
PROFIT=$7
THOUGHTS: This was a time when I had no real idea what the Foil Cryptic was worth, so I had to guess. I put it at $20 for him, but thought it might have been worth $40. It was only $25, so I didn't get as much profit out of the deal as I wanted. It seems like I was off on a few estimations, but even though that was the case, having high profit built in helps to avoid getting burned.
GAVE: Snapcaster Mage ($25), 2 Elspeth, Knight Errant Promo ($40), 2 Thorn of Amathyst ($5), Akroma's Memorial ($15), 3 Baneslayer Angel ($21), Urborg, Tomb of Urborg ($18) Total=$124
GOT: Underground Sea ($140)
PROFIT=$16
THOUGHTS: This was a great trade for me, since I was able to move a lot of random smaller cards for the best dual. On some sites, duals are priced at around $120, so I was fine putting it at that. I was happy moving the Elspeths and Urborg, since they are modern playables, which should drop some in the next few months. Baneslayers went up in price a little bit (Thought they were $5 each), and Memorial is a real casual/EDH card that is hard to move. This completed my set of Dual Lands, so I was happy about that.
GAVE: 2 Vorinclix, Voice of Hunger ($8), Elspth, Knight Errant ($30) Total=$38
GOT: 3 Geralf's Messanger ($30), Promo Goblin Guide ($15), 2 Birds of Paradise ($8), Champion of the Parish ($6), 2 Time Reversal ($3) Total=$62
PROFIT=$24
THOUGHTS: These are the kind of trades that I strive for. The guy really devalued most of his cards, which means I was really able to get value trading down. This gave me a set of Promo Guides, helped gie me some more birds, and 3 Messangers will help to fuel more trades later on.
GAVE: Drowned Catacombs ($7), 2 Sulfur Falls ($12), 3 Foil Basic Lands ($3) Total=$22
GOT: 4 Goblin Guide ($24), Ratchet Bomb ($10) Total=$34
PROFIT=$12
THOUGHTS: This was like the previous trade where the guy NEEDED something, and was undervaluing cards so he would get the lands he needed. I was happy to get some value and boost my binder.
GAVE: 2 Gravecrawler ($20), 3 Geralf's Messanger ($30), Glissa the Traitor ($3.50), Thalia, Guardian of Thrabin ($4), Gideon Jura ($10), Daybreak Ranger ($2.50) Total=$70
GOT: 4 Sulfur Falls ($24), 3 hinterland Harbor ($15), Batterskull ($15), Karn Liberated ($15), 3 Grim lavamancer ($10.50)= Total=$79.50
PROFIT= $9.50
THOUGHTS: This guy was severely undervaluing the Innistrad lands ($4/$3 respectively) so I was able to move some staples for lands (Lands are a lot easier to trade) and pick up some cards I might actually use, like Karn. I am picking up some lavamancers, since they are low in price, and if red gets 1-2 strong cards in the next set, RDW might be positioned to return.
GAVE: 3 Ratchet Bomb ($30), 2 Geralf's Messanger ($20), Gravecrawler ($10), Huntmaster of the Fells ($30), Geist of Saint Traft ($25), 3 Champion of the Parish ($18) Total=$133
GOT: Steam Vents ($30), Foil Aether Fial (MP)($20), city of Traitors ($25), 3 Lotus Cobra ($18), Tiaga ($70), Melira ($1.50) Total=$164.50
PROFIT=$31.50
THOUGHTS:This trade was nuts because he was really undervaluing his cards. He put Vents at 20, the Vial at 20 (it had a crease in the bottom right corner, but it is a foil and should be able to trade for $25), and put his City of Traitors at $18. While the trade looks really good, taking a deeper analysis shows how much I killed in it. All of the cards I traded were standard, and I picked up mostly Legacy staples. These trades are the ones that really help boosting a binder and protecting the value of your cards from devaluation.
GAVE: 6 Arid Mesa ($60), 3 Scalding Tarn ($45), Scavenging Ooze ($20), Misty Rainforst ($15) Total=$150
GOT: Wooded Foothills ($22), Tundra ($120) Total=$142
PROFIT=$-8
THOUGHTS: I will admit that I thought that Wooded Foothills was $35, which would have given me a $5 profit. While it seems like I was off on a lot of prices this weekend, that will happen a lot when dealing with all Magic cards. I hated getting rid of Ooze, but moving it for a dual was fine, and losing out on a few bucks doesn't bother me when I move 10 Zen fetches for a Tundra. Sometimes trades are losses, and it is important to limit them. Even though this was a loss, converting Modern cards for Legacy stuff has a value to it as well, so I won't lose sleep over it.
GAVE: Foil Geralf's Messanger ($15)
GOT: Geralf's Messanger ($10), 2 Mosswort Bridge ($4), Foil Ad Nauseum ($4) Total=$18
PROFIT=$3
THOUGHTS: I was happy trading a foil card for a regular copy and a lot of value. While Mosswort Bridge isn't really popular, it sees some modern play and I can probably move them. Beyond that, getting a foil Ad Nauseum is cool because I can probably move it at $7 to a Legacy player.
GAVE: 4 Goblin Guide ($24), Foil Slash Panther ($1.50) Total=$25.50
GOT: Garruk Relentless ($15), Thalia, guardian of Thraben ($4), Promo Grim lavamancer ($3.5), Foil Frost Titan ($4) Total=$26.50
PROFIT=$1
THOUGHTS: While I didn't really gain too much on this, I felt that picking up Garruk would be a good longer term investment, and that the Foil Frost Titan might trade for $6 to someone who wanted it for a cube or EDH deck. Also Goblin Guides won't be in demand in a month, so converting them to cards I can move should help my binder generate quicker.
GAVE: 4 Asceticism ($8), Foil black Sun's Zenith ($12), Sunpetal Grove ($3) Total=$23
GOT: Phyrexian Obliterator ($25)
PROFIT=$2
THOUGHTS: The BSZ sees play, but the other cards are really on the sidelines right now. Moving them to get something I can quickly move should help keep the binder fresh, and trading up for a profit is one of the best things you can do in terms of trading.
GAVE: 2 Drogskul Reaver ($10), 2 Sorin Markov ($12), 3 Geralf's Messanger ($30), Dungeon Geists ($6), 4 Endless Ranks of the Dead ($8), 1 Mikeaus the Lunarch ($4), 4 Stromkirk Noble ($32), Bloodline Keeper ($7), Balefire Dragon ($2), Massacre Worm ($5), 2 Etched Champion ($10), Sunpetal Grove ($3) Total=$126
GOT: Foil Qusali Pridemage ($4), 2 Mishra's Factory (Russian) ($12) Foil Chinese Black Sun's Zenith ($15), Underground Sea ($130)= Total=$161
PROFIT=$35
THOUGHTS: I was able to kill on this trade because he was fine putting the Underground Sea at $100, since it had some play on it. I wanted the BSZ and Pridemage, since foils trade well. The Factories were cool, and I wanted them because I want to run them if I ever play Factory in Legacy. The guy only went through my Standard binder, which was nice, because getting rid of standard for Legacy and making a profit is the best way to trade. Having separate binders really helped this weekend with standard to legacy conversion.
GAVE: 2 Jace the Mind sculptor ($110), Death Baron ($10), Serra Ascendent ($4), Life from the Loam ($15), 4 Blinkmoth Nexus ($60) Total=$199
GOT: FBB Scrubland ($145), 4 Vampire Nocturnus ($80), Volrath's Stronghold ($20), Witchbane Orb ($1) Total=$246
PROFIT=$47
THOUGHTS: Initially, the guy was valuing the Scrubland at around $225. I told him that I wanted to trade for it, but that there was no way it was worth that much. He said that he couldn't go any lower, but I was able to reason with him and get him to come to his senses and price it correctly at around $145. I hated giving up Jaces, but in reality, it was the only way I could get the Scrubland, and I really wanted that Scrubland. Foreign Black Border dual lands are very rare, and they are the "Pimp" version of dual lands (since most people are priced out of Beta duals). I figured that since I paid $30 cash for a Jace, and traded a Huntmaster of the Fells and a Mox Opal for the other, I really was getting a great deal on it if I took into account how I got them initially. I was able to make such a huge profit because he severely undervalued the Nocturnus and Stronghold ($12/$10 respectively) and while they might not be the easiest cards to move, I know that I should be able to dump them for something big, or move them for value to someone else who wants to try and get profit from the casual players.
GAVE: 5 Life from the Loam ($75), Noble Hierarch ($20), Watery Grave ($20), 4 Knight of the Reliquary ($44) Total=$149
GOT:3 Steam Vents ($90), 2 Intuition ($70) Total=$160
PROFIT=$11
THOUGHTS: This guy had the second best binder that I have ever seen in my life (Mine is not the best). He had pages and pages of all of the staples and duals and had 1-2 of each piece of power. He had a list of cards he needed (Noble, Grave, Loam) and I was able to get some value on him. He was a really nice guy, and I was shocked that he valued everything very fair and reasonable (he put the Watery Grave at like $25 and the Steam Vents at $22, so I was able to get a little value). We talked a while, and I learned a lot about gaining value on people and boosting my binder. I ended up saving him about $400 later on when he was trying to trade for a beta Scrubland from someone. I was going to trade for it, but I was in the middle of a trade so he got the first chance. I told him to have a dealer check it if was real, and to give a grade on it for pricing purposes. He came back and the Scrubland was split in half. It was apparently a CE card that was glued to a different card back. I was happy that it was discovered. That is why I always get cards valued over $100 authenticated by a dealer before moving them.
GAVE: 2 Huntmaster of the Fells ($60)
GOT:Foil Surgical Extraction ($12), Foil Strangleroot Geist ($6), Garruk Relentless ($15), Geist of Saint traft ($25), Elite Inquisitor ($2) Total=$60
Profit=$0
THOUGHTS: The guy pulled out his phone early and went to StarCity, so I knew I was not going to get any value. However, I was able to use this to my advantage and pick up cards I speculate were going to go up in value. Foil extraction will see Legacy play forever, Foil Strangeleroot should be moved easily, and Garruk is my sleeper for post rotation. I was having a hard time moving the Huntmasters, so I was happy to get rid of them (though I might want to run 1 in a Pod deck for FNM on Friday, so that is annoying)
GAVE: Promo Memnite ($4), 2 Honor of the Pure ($6) Total=$10
GOT: Geth of the Vault ($3.50), Eternal Dragon ($6), Sigil of the Empty Throne ($2), Captain of the Watch ($4), Student of Warfare ($3), Norin the Wary, Total=$18.50
PROFIT= $8.50
THOUGHTS: I got a lot of value off a guy because he didn't know the value of non-standard cards. If I can move them at their price, I make a lot of profit. If not, they sit in my binder and take up space and tie up money. That is the risk of value trading, but I am fine with it. I also picked up a Norin the Wary for sentimental reasons.
GAVE: 4 Scalding Tarn ($60), 2 Flooded Strand ($80), 4 Misty rainforest ($60), Stomping Grounds ($20), Crucible of Worlds ($25) 3 Life From the Loam ($45), Total=$290
GOT: Mox Pearl ($350)
PROFIT $60
THOUGHTS: I figured I would save the biggest trade for last. This trade took a while since I needed to get the Mox authenticated and valued from the SCG booth. It was MP- or HP+ based on what they said, which is close to where I thought it was. He said it was worth $350. When I talked to the guy, he seemed to want to pick up easier to move staples so he could have more inventory to move. I told him I put the Mox at $300, since it was rough on the back, and that it is something that is hard to move. He got a lot of staples out of it, and I was able to clear out a lot of modern cards. I really didn't want to give up the Strands, but sacrifices have to be made. I was really glad I kept my duals out of my binder, since he probably would have went for those.
Overall, I made around 20 something trades (don't feel like going back to count). I made $307 profit, which is pretty much like getting a free Mox Pearl for trading well. Beyond that, I took $350+140+130+120+100+70=$910 dollars out of my trade binder with the duals and Mox, as I don't plan on trading them. taking into account the profit, my binder is around $600 lighter, which is something to remember. I ended up buying some cards from the guys that I went with: Liliana+Grim Monolith for $35 (61% of SCG value), 2 Geist of Saint Traft and a Foil Dungeon Geists for $40 (69% of SCG value) and $75 in random cards I don't remember for $35. While I don't like buying singles, getting them for a very reduced rate is fine by me, as I would imagine that selling duals and whatnot should lead to at least 90% of SCG value. I am glad I finished my set of duals, though I wonder if I want to have a smaller binder (probably a Monster binder) that would hold my extra duals, revised only, that I would only trade if I got a lot of value on them. I need to think about it, but it is something that might allow me to really improve my returns on trading and help it grow.
There was really no trading to be done on Sunday, so I ended up trying to take the judge test. I really bricked the first question the guys asked me in the interview, but nailed the rest of them and was able to shadow a L2 judge for about an hour or so. I made a few rulings (was correct with all of them) and ended up passing the test. For my efforts, the head judge gave me 3 judge foils. they were Bitterblossom, Flusterstorm (worth $60), and ironically...
Friday, March 16, 2012
Going for a GRAND Prix
So I have been having a little bit of trouble sleeping lately, so I figured that I might as well get started on my Grand Prix Nashville post. I will be going to Nashville in a week in hopes of winning the Grand Prix. However, if I don't get a busted sealed pool and play perfect, that probably won't happen. My real goal for the weekend is to try and trade for +$1000 in trades. I think that while it is a rather lofty goal, it seems rather doable if I stick to my guns and make a lot of solid trades. I will be trying out a new style of trading, so hopefully that will add to my profit margin. The other big thing that I need to do is get some Steam Vents, 4 to be exact. I might have borrowed them (2 from 2 different people) and then traded them away. While I know that is a horrible thing to do, the problem is that the people looking for them were willing to overpay so much that I couldn't say no. Looking back at my first post, 2 were involved in a trade where I was +$96 in trade (and also resulted in the acquisition of 4 dual lands and a Force of Will). The other 2 ended up getting packaged with a few Cunning Wish and some other small stuff for a Watery Grave and a Plateau. Again, the deal was so good that I had to take a risk to hopefully cash in. If I can get a playset of Steam Vents in Nashville, that would really help me clear my slate in terms of debt. While I know that it is rather risky to trade away stuff that isn't mine, I thought about the potential negatives that would be involved if I was called out on it. I could easily just say that "I left that deck at home", or worst case scenario just say to the guy that "Someone made me a really big offer on the cards, and I was hoping to replace them, but have not been able to yet", and then just buy them off StarCity or something and have them for the guy next week. So hopefully I can trade for them and then get rid of my outstanding debts.
Debts aside, the Grand Prix should be rather interesting. It is very important to mentally prepare for a large event where you plan on being cut throat in terms of trading. I am going to try and maximize every dollar possible, and pick up as much stuff as I can. I am going to do so using the following idea.
1) Understanding the price fluctuations of a few key cards- It seems like a no brainer right now. I am going to plan on grinding a lot of Snapcaster Mages, picking them up for $20, as they just dropped, and trade them at $28-30 each. There is a lot of room for profit there, and Snapcaster is a card that a lot of people seem to want, and everyone seems to be willing to take them in a trade. This card seems to be the key to my trading. The problem is that it finally saw a dip on StarCity to $25, dropping from $30. This was horrible timing for me, since I was planning leveraging the price difference to my advantage. I hope that it jumps back up to $30 before Friday. Beyond that, there are some other cards that I plan on using to grind out profit. Geist of Saint Traft is at $28, so I would imagine that I can stretch it to the $25-30 range to pick up a few bucks here and there. Phantasmal Image is seeing a spike due to UB Zombies, and I would love to cash in on them, picking the up at $10 and moving them for $16-18 each. I am hoping to get rid of a lot of Modern stuff, since the Modern PTQ season ends April 1st. I get the feeling that Modern will not be a format that sees popularity year round, so now will be the time to move the Modern stuff I have for either Legacy staples or for a lot of value in standard (I would try and get a 25% bonus for all of the Modern stuff I trade into standard) After that, I would imagine that I can wait 2-3 months for the stores to get overstocked on their Modern stuff, then when their prices drop I should begin trading for them again.
2) The "Buylist Approach"- In the spur of the moment, people are generally erratic mentally, and you can get them to agree to a lot of stupid stuff if you do it properly. I have spent some time watching people take their binders to the dealers and watch as they sell their cards for 25% of what they are actually worth. Part of it is because they don't know any better, and part of it is because they are in a situation in which they really don't want to say "no" very often out of a fear of being difficult. The key is to find someone who will verbally express what is looking for. Most of the time, people will give vague answers because they don't want to look desperate. I am torn between going through someone's binder and pulling cards first or having them do it to me. I am going to try and let them go first, then when they are done, total up the value of my cards, then go through their binder and pull things out at around 50-60% of what it is worth. If I can work on assigning the values to cards (or at least give an initial price where they can come up a little) I should be able to get a significant amount of cards valued lower than what they are on StarCity. Picking up Birds of Paradise at $2-2.50 or Day of Judgment at $2 is a very quick way to make a lot of value really quick)
3) Trading for Foils and Textless cards- I have really been ignoring this most of my trading "career". It seems like people wanting to "pimp out" there deck has gone through the roof, and I would think that there is a huge amount of value to be made in it. I am going to try and pick up a lot of foils cheap, get textless cards for .50 each, and then work on flipping them for an inflated price.
4) Trade for the Promo card- Goblin Guide is the GP Promo this year, and right now it is valued at $15. While there, I should try and trade for them at $8 each, since they should be an easy trade to anyone who likes promos or wants to pimp out their RDW in Modern or Legacy, but has not been able to go to a GP. The promo generally trades cheap there, since a lot of people don't really want it, and the market is flooded with them, since everyone has one.
5) Stick to what I do best- It is important to make sure that I don't forget the things I do best in trading. I am really good at spotting undervalued cards, I am really good talking to people and getting them to undervalue things a little, and I am really good at meeting the needs of the people I trade with. I would imagine that I will probably make a little cheap sheet that I can study on the car ride down of all of the current prices so that I will not be caught off guard by the value of something. Preparation is very important. I need to make sure I am vocal on trades, and do not wait 10 minutes for someone who will be hard to trade with. A great way to trade would be to sit down at a table and let people come up to you and trade, and have others walk by and see your stuff while you are in the middle of a trade. I think that if I can be a little more aggressive on picking up smaller stuff from people a little cheaper than it is worth, I should really be able to come out on top. I am also going to look at the top decks form the recent SCG events to know what cards are in demand.
6) Trade with my mind, not with my heart- I know that there are a lot of cards that I really want and would instinctively trade for. However, I am going to focus on the goal at hand and not get sidetracked on things that will not give me value. I will stay away from FNM promos and random stuff, and will focus on getting the most out of my cards. My long term goal is to have a playset of all of the Legacy and Modern Staples, and then continue to grow my collection more and more. I would also want to own all of the dual lands ever printed. While that is an absurd idea, my general belief is that the safest Magic cards to invest in are Dual lands and Force of Will. They are the most important cards in Magic. The dual lands allow decks to function effectively, and FoW is "The Glue that holds the format together". As long as Magic tournaments exist, Force of Will will almost assuredly be in at least 50% of the decks, and dual lands will be in 90%. I have never seen these cards drop (with the one exception being a "price correction" ever since Legacy initially took off and staples exploded. Since that little self correction, duals and FoW (and all Legacy staples for that matter) seem to gradually be going up, and I want to be stockpiling as many of them as I can so that I can really profit when I want to cash my chips in.
7) Remember that sunk costs exist- I still have two Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas in my binder. I was never able to move them when they were $25, and they are now sitting around $12. So I have two options right now. I can either hold on to them and use them if I ever want to play some Tezzeret legecy deck, or I can try and move them at $12 to clear some space out of my binder and get something else that might be easier to trade. The biggest thing to trading is to constantly keep your cards moving. When cards sit in a binder too long they seem to get comfortable and don't want to move.
8) Understand current trends in play and capitalize on them- The Red Deck has been rather quiet lately, which means that people probably do not know the prices of the main cards in that deck. Chandra's Phoenix is at $8, but I would imagine that I should be able to talk them down to $5 each based on the fact that they don't see any play and will cycle out in 6 months. Coming up with some sort of "With Spirits and Elesh Norn in the format, they probably won't see any more play" idea, people will be more willing to get rid of them. The same thing should be true with Stromkirk Noble and Grim Lavamancer. These cards could really be negotiated down a bit. The same is true for hot cards. Being able to move them in groups to make it easier for people to acquire a playset has perks as well. People generally don't like trading when they really need cards, and are willing to overpay to get it over with. With zombies hot, having sets of Gravecrawlers and messangers will allow me to ask for a little extra in terms of value.
9) Trying out a .50 binder and a $1/$2 binder- After the Standard binder and the Modern/EDH/Legacy binder, I have 2 extra binders that were just sort of random rares and foils. I came up with a pretty decent idea earlier today about going through, sorting the cards by set, and then pricing them out. I would use one binder for anything 50 cents or less, and the other for anything in the .75-$1 range and $1.25-$2 range. This would allow me to try and move the random rares that I have lying around without having to go through and price them individually on the spot. After someone goes through the Standard binder and pulled things, I can encourage them to go through the other ones while I let the next guy look at the Standard binder. This doesn't really add any extra time, but will hopefully help me start moving the random lower value rares. I am debating about being upfront and saying that everything in there is .50, but I am not sure. I am at least happy that I have come up with a plan to start moving the random rares, and at the same time figure out that some cards sitting in the junk pile do not belong (Captain of the Watch is apparently $5). I would imagine that having all of the cards sorted like that will help a lot more in dealing with casual players, and will also eliminate the need to memorize the value of all of these lower tier rares while still having the prices handy to move them. If things start moving out of those binders, I will try and be a little more aggressive in picking up bulk rares to try and feed that binder. 10) Do not feel any pressure for the goals I set- It can be pretty easy to try and overextend and try too hard to make trades work, or take unnecessary risks just to try and get a few bucks. While I am aiming for $1000 in trade value, I fully expect to come short as a result of not enough time, not enough people to trade with, or not enough cards that are in demand. That being said, I am going to work on maximizing my profits and continue to upgrade my binders. I would love to clear out a lot of the smaller value cards, but that is one of those things that will gradually happen through time. I think that the most important goals are to pick up 4 Steam Vents, a Underground Sea, and just enjoy my trip.
Debts aside, the Grand Prix should be rather interesting. It is very important to mentally prepare for a large event where you plan on being cut throat in terms of trading. I am going to try and maximize every dollar possible, and pick up as much stuff as I can. I am going to do so using the following idea.
1) Understanding the price fluctuations of a few key cards- It seems like a no brainer right now. I am going to plan on grinding a lot of Snapcaster Mages, picking them up for $20, as they just dropped, and trade them at $28-30 each. There is a lot of room for profit there, and Snapcaster is a card that a lot of people seem to want, and everyone seems to be willing to take them in a trade. This card seems to be the key to my trading. The problem is that it finally saw a dip on StarCity to $25, dropping from $30. This was horrible timing for me, since I was planning leveraging the price difference to my advantage. I hope that it jumps back up to $30 before Friday. Beyond that, there are some other cards that I plan on using to grind out profit. Geist of Saint Traft is at $28, so I would imagine that I can stretch it to the $25-30 range to pick up a few bucks here and there. Phantasmal Image is seeing a spike due to UB Zombies, and I would love to cash in on them, picking the up at $10 and moving them for $16-18 each. I am hoping to get rid of a lot of Modern stuff, since the Modern PTQ season ends April 1st. I get the feeling that Modern will not be a format that sees popularity year round, so now will be the time to move the Modern stuff I have for either Legacy staples or for a lot of value in standard (I would try and get a 25% bonus for all of the Modern stuff I trade into standard) After that, I would imagine that I can wait 2-3 months for the stores to get overstocked on their Modern stuff, then when their prices drop I should begin trading for them again.
2) The "Buylist Approach"- In the spur of the moment, people are generally erratic mentally, and you can get them to agree to a lot of stupid stuff if you do it properly. I have spent some time watching people take their binders to the dealers and watch as they sell their cards for 25% of what they are actually worth. Part of it is because they don't know any better, and part of it is because they are in a situation in which they really don't want to say "no" very often out of a fear of being difficult. The key is to find someone who will verbally express what is looking for. Most of the time, people will give vague answers because they don't want to look desperate. I am torn between going through someone's binder and pulling cards first or having them do it to me. I am going to try and let them go first, then when they are done, total up the value of my cards, then go through their binder and pull things out at around 50-60% of what it is worth. If I can work on assigning the values to cards (or at least give an initial price where they can come up a little) I should be able to get a significant amount of cards valued lower than what they are on StarCity. Picking up Birds of Paradise at $2-2.50 or Day of Judgment at $2 is a very quick way to make a lot of value really quick)
3) Trading for Foils and Textless cards- I have really been ignoring this most of my trading "career". It seems like people wanting to "pimp out" there deck has gone through the roof, and I would think that there is a huge amount of value to be made in it. I am going to try and pick up a lot of foils cheap, get textless cards for .50 each, and then work on flipping them for an inflated price.
4) Trade for the Promo card- Goblin Guide is the GP Promo this year, and right now it is valued at $15. While there, I should try and trade for them at $8 each, since they should be an easy trade to anyone who likes promos or wants to pimp out their RDW in Modern or Legacy, but has not been able to go to a GP. The promo generally trades cheap there, since a lot of people don't really want it, and the market is flooded with them, since everyone has one.
5) Stick to what I do best- It is important to make sure that I don't forget the things I do best in trading. I am really good at spotting undervalued cards, I am really good talking to people and getting them to undervalue things a little, and I am really good at meeting the needs of the people I trade with. I would imagine that I will probably make a little cheap sheet that I can study on the car ride down of all of the current prices so that I will not be caught off guard by the value of something. Preparation is very important. I need to make sure I am vocal on trades, and do not wait 10 minutes for someone who will be hard to trade with. A great way to trade would be to sit down at a table and let people come up to you and trade, and have others walk by and see your stuff while you are in the middle of a trade. I think that if I can be a little more aggressive on picking up smaller stuff from people a little cheaper than it is worth, I should really be able to come out on top. I am also going to look at the top decks form the recent SCG events to know what cards are in demand.
6) Trade with my mind, not with my heart- I know that there are a lot of cards that I really want and would instinctively trade for. However, I am going to focus on the goal at hand and not get sidetracked on things that will not give me value. I will stay away from FNM promos and random stuff, and will focus on getting the most out of my cards. My long term goal is to have a playset of all of the Legacy and Modern Staples, and then continue to grow my collection more and more. I would also want to own all of the dual lands ever printed. While that is an absurd idea, my general belief is that the safest Magic cards to invest in are Dual lands and Force of Will. They are the most important cards in Magic. The dual lands allow decks to function effectively, and FoW is "The Glue that holds the format together". As long as Magic tournaments exist, Force of Will will almost assuredly be in at least 50% of the decks, and dual lands will be in 90%. I have never seen these cards drop (with the one exception being a "price correction" ever since Legacy initially took off and staples exploded. Since that little self correction, duals and FoW (and all Legacy staples for that matter) seem to gradually be going up, and I want to be stockpiling as many of them as I can so that I can really profit when I want to cash my chips in.
7) Remember that sunk costs exist- I still have two Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas in my binder. I was never able to move them when they were $25, and they are now sitting around $12. So I have two options right now. I can either hold on to them and use them if I ever want to play some Tezzeret legecy deck, or I can try and move them at $12 to clear some space out of my binder and get something else that might be easier to trade. The biggest thing to trading is to constantly keep your cards moving. When cards sit in a binder too long they seem to get comfortable and don't want to move.
8) Understand current trends in play and capitalize on them- The Red Deck has been rather quiet lately, which means that people probably do not know the prices of the main cards in that deck. Chandra's Phoenix is at $8, but I would imagine that I should be able to talk them down to $5 each based on the fact that they don't see any play and will cycle out in 6 months. Coming up with some sort of "With Spirits and Elesh Norn in the format, they probably won't see any more play" idea, people will be more willing to get rid of them. The same thing should be true with Stromkirk Noble and Grim Lavamancer. These cards could really be negotiated down a bit. The same is true for hot cards. Being able to move them in groups to make it easier for people to acquire a playset has perks as well. People generally don't like trading when they really need cards, and are willing to overpay to get it over with. With zombies hot, having sets of Gravecrawlers and messangers will allow me to ask for a little extra in terms of value.
9) Trying out a .50 binder and a $1/$2 binder- After the Standard binder and the Modern/EDH/Legacy binder, I have 2 extra binders that were just sort of random rares and foils. I came up with a pretty decent idea earlier today about going through, sorting the cards by set, and then pricing them out. I would use one binder for anything 50 cents or less, and the other for anything in the .75-$1 range and $1.25-$2 range. This would allow me to try and move the random rares that I have lying around without having to go through and price them individually on the spot. After someone goes through the Standard binder and pulled things, I can encourage them to go through the other ones while I let the next guy look at the Standard binder. This doesn't really add any extra time, but will hopefully help me start moving the random lower value rares. I am debating about being upfront and saying that everything in there is .50, but I am not sure. I am at least happy that I have come up with a plan to start moving the random rares, and at the same time figure out that some cards sitting in the junk pile do not belong (Captain of the Watch is apparently $5). I would imagine that having all of the cards sorted like that will help a lot more in dealing with casual players, and will also eliminate the need to memorize the value of all of these lower tier rares while still having the prices handy to move them. If things start moving out of those binders, I will try and be a little more aggressive in picking up bulk rares to try and feed that binder. 10) Do not feel any pressure for the goals I set- It can be pretty easy to try and overextend and try too hard to make trades work, or take unnecessary risks just to try and get a few bucks. While I am aiming for $1000 in trade value, I fully expect to come short as a result of not enough time, not enough people to trade with, or not enough cards that are in demand. That being said, I am going to work on maximizing my profits and continue to upgrade my binders. I would love to clear out a lot of the smaller value cards, but that is one of those things that will gradually happen through time. I think that the most important goals are to pick up 4 Steam Vents, a Underground Sea, and just enjoy my trip.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
More EV on DA
Since the last "Crack some packs" went rather well, it seemed like it was time to do it again. Here are the results
Pack 1:
Diregraf Captain ($1.50)
Lost in the Woods ($.50)
Ravenous Demon ($.50)
Foil Favor of the Woods ($.25)
Pack Value= $2.75
It is rough to open 2 rares, a foil, and a money uncommon and only end up at 2.75. Gotta start somewhere I guess.
Pack 2:
Tragic Slip ($.75)
Geralf's Messanger ($10)
Pack Value= $10.75
Great pack. Getting the Messanger helps a lot, and the Tragic Slip is a bonus.
Pack 3:
Tragic Slip ($.75)
Seance ($.50)
Pack Value=$1.25
Pack 4:
Requiem Angel ($.50)
Foil Stromkirk Captain ($3.50)
Pack Value=$4
Pack 5:
Lingering Souls ($2)
Increasing Savagery ($.75)
Pack Value=$2.75
Pack 6:
Drogskul Captain ($2)
Zombie Apocalypse ($1)
Foil Headless Skaab ($.25)
Pack Value=$3.25
Pack 7:
Helvault ($1.50)
Pack 8:
Drogskul Reaver ($5)
Stromkirk Captain ($1)
Foil Blood Feud ($.50)
Pack Value=$6.50
Pack 9:
Vault of the Archangel ($4)
Foil Stormbound Geist ($.50)
Pack Value=$4.50
Pack 10:
Strangleroot Geist ($2)
Ghoultree ($1.50)
Pack Value=$3.50
Pack 11:
Diregraf Captain ($1.50)
Increasing Confusion ($1.25)
Pack Value=$2.75
Pack 12:
Beguiler of Wills ($1.50)
After opening 3 Mythics in 12 packs, it seems like the odds of getting a Sorin or any other high priced mythic have dropped rather significantly. We decided to stop here, and I will use the rest of the packs for drafting or trading them for different packs.
Totals:
Packs opened= 12
Expected Value= $42
Total Value= $45
Actual Value per pack=$3.75
Overall it was not bad. It was fun cracking the packs, and in reality, it should help with trading. Mythics are generally pretty easy to trade. I think that I am going to hold onto the Stromkirk Captain Foil, as I figure that as soon as the set stops getting drafting, the supply will sink bigtime. If vampires ever see constructed play, the card will jump bigtime, and if not, it will always be a sweet casual card. I was shocked that we ended up over the EV, based on the fact that there were a lot of dud packs.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Grinding out another week
So I ended up losing round 1 of FNM, but battled to go 3-1 and get a couple packs. I would imagine that I will end up cracking them in a future post, so stay tuned. In reality, going to FNMs and trying to make trades is often rather tedious and most of the time doesn't get you much beyond a couple bucks. I ended up making four trades, so here are the results
GAVE: Liliana of the Veil ($35), Sorin, Lord of Innistrad ($30), 2 Heartless Summoning ($6) Total=$71
GOT: 2 Huntmaster of the Fells ($60), Geralf's Messanger ($10) Total= $70
Profit: -$1
Thoughts: While I technically lost $1 on the deal, I was rather happy with the results. With Huntmasters being in demand still, it is easier to trade several of them (2 + the one I opened last weekend) for a dual land, than just a random assortment of rares. With Sorin not seeing play, I could see him dip to $25, and I don't think that the heartless summoning deck will gain any momentum. I would expect them to stay where they are. Overall, I was trading for potential and future trades, and a dollar here and there doesn't matter too much.
GAVE: 3 Day of Judgment ($9), 2 Geist of Saint Traft ($56), 3 Isolated Chapel ($30) 1 Umezawa's Jitte (GP Promo, $20), Marsh Flats ($10) Total= $125
GOT: Tundra ($120), $3 cash
Profit: -$5 in cards, +$3 in cash
Thoughts: This deal further backs up the point I made from the last trade. People are more willing to give up duals and Legacy Staples to get lots of pieces to their decks. In reality, the deal was pretty much a wash in value, though I got $3 for $5 in cards. In reality, I traded Isolated Chapels and Geists of Saint Traft (both of which are probably at their value peak) for a beautiful Tundra in mint condition. The Jitte and the Marsh Flats should maintain their value, but I don't think that either will jump in price, as Jitte is really only a 1-of in decks that play them (only Legacy decks, and not many) and Flats is one of the least popular Zen fetches. I would imagine that the rest of the cards will drop soon. The Tundra will gradually increase in value over time, as there will be 0 reprintings. Being able to make deals like this that convert my standard stuff to Legacy makes the whole trading process so much easier, as it bypasses the need to slowly chain up to EDH/Modern staples and then to Legacy.
GAVE: 2 Slagstorm ($12), 2 Chandra's Phoenix ($16), Foil Stormblood Berserker ($3) Total=$31
GOT: 4 Gravecrawler ($40)
Profit= $9
Thoughts: I am not sure why this guy wanted to make the deal. He must have put the gravecrawlers at $8 each. The deal worked out well. The Red Deck isn't seeing that much play, but Chandra's Phoenix is still at $8. I would imagine that they will drop soon. I am hoping to get rid of the gravecrawlers, but happy that I got some more cards in the $7-15 dollar range, which easily trade for planeswalkers.
GAVE: 2 Foil Forbidden Alchemy ($18), 2 Foil Think Twice ($10), Foil Dissipate ($6) Total= $34
GOT: Liliana of the Veil ($35)
Profit: $1
This deal gets me that $1 back from the first trade (Not that it mattered). I was happy to get rid of some foils for a Liliana. The Liliana was signed, but should trade for $35. I think that I am going to show more attention to foils in the future, since they seem to be something that you can get cheap. They always trade well, and more often than not people are willing to overpay to pimp out their deck.
So that is how trading with a bunch of people you know and play with goes. In reality, most trades are going to involve making $0-2, while sometimes you'll get that guy willing to overpay for something he needs (The deal that gave me gravecrawlers) or someone willing to trade legacy for standard (The deal that got me the Tundra). I know that this is going to sound bad (really bad), but it is important to try and trade with new people, since most of the time they don't have all of the cards for their deck, and probably have a lot of cards they don't know the value on. That is a good way to get a quick boost to your collection. It is even better when they have older cards and are looking for newer stuff. This happened a few weeks back for me, where I got rid of a lot of standard stuff for about $300 in Legacy. While I wish I could spend my time talking about every trade being a huge gain and that I profited so much, that isn't the way that most trades happen. I unsleeved the commons and uncommons from the draft I went to a couple weeks ago, and am thinking about the draft tomorrow. I figure that I will probably leave with at least 6 value cards (rares or money uncommons or foils). Most of the time, I am able to get a solid value card in picks 5-8, which is strange, since normally a pack should be picked clean (I got a 5th pick Foil Lingering Souls 2 weeks ago, for example). Bad rares will commonly wheel, and a lot of the time people will pass an Innistrad dual because they aren't in those colors (despite the $3-10 price tag). That is the easiest way to pay for a draft. Rare drafting is generally frowned upon, but I am able to get away with it because I am able to build a competitive deck even with those throwaway picks, and people who rare draft are perceived as people who build bad decks because they drafted all rares. Beyond that, I usually expect to win some packs, as a couple of the best players in the area have not been drafting lately. As a result, there are a lot of rares passed, and the majority of the people build bad decks that just get outclassed by a better drafter. Hopefully that trend continues tomorrow.
So drafting was pretty successful. I ended up finishing 2-2, which is pretty crappy, but I lost to Undead Alchemist (as I had no answers) and lost in the last round to mana screw. These are teh value cards I drafted:
Increasing Ambition ($1)
Angel of Flight Alabaster ($.50)
Seance ($.50)
Strangleroot Geist ($2)
Grim Backwoods ($1)
Rooftop Storm($.75)
Archangel's Light ($1.50)
Isolated Chapel ($10)
Tragic Slip ($.75)
I was also given the following
Tragic Slip ($.75)
Stromkirk Captain ($1)
Havengul Runebinder ($1)
So my total value drafting was $20.75. Overall, I think that it was an alright draft, though I passed a lot of junk rares (Rooftop Storm was 14th pick, and Seance was probably 12-15th as well. Getting passed an Isolated Chapel really helped. While I only went 2-2, I feel like I drafted a rather solid deck (despite getting cut bigtime on both sides) and still made a deck that was very competitive. Beyond that, I guess that I might have been in the wrong colors (though I went with a strangleroot geist p1p1 and followed it up with a scorned villager). I am alright with that, as I feel like I drafted well, and was just around a few people that were not good drafters. Beyond that, I made a lot of moves today. They include the following:
Buying a Foil Reaper of the Abyss for $2- This was 50% of what the value actually is, so I think that it is a fine purchase. It is only a few bucks, and I would bet that someone is going to want it for EDH or their bad Standard deck. It should be easy to move at $5.
Buying the following cards:
Heretic's Punishment, 2 Curse of Misfortunes, Witchbane Orb, Sudden Disappearance, Jar of Eyeballs, Dearly Departed, and Garruk's Horde for $1- That is around .13 a card, which is pretty good. Trading 1 of them for $1 gives a huge profit.
Beguiler of Wills, Curse of Death's Hold, Sever the Bloodline, Mirror-Mad Phantasm, Skirsdag High Priest, Instigator Gang, Bloodgift Demon, Kruin Outlaw, Charmbreaker Devils, Falkenrath Marauders for $.50 each. It seemed like another solid purchase, as a lot of these cards should be able to trade for around $2 each.
Mikaeus, The Lunarch, Vault of the Archangel, Tree of Redemption, and Bloodline Keeper for $2 each, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Dungeon Geists, Stromkirk Noble, and Champion of the Parish for $3 each, Gerlaf's Messanger for $5, and Archangel's Light, 2 Diregraf captain, and 3 Drogskul Captain for $1 each. I spent a total of $37 and got at around $80 in value. I would imagine that I should be able to trade for them a lot of value, and buying cards at around or less than 50% of what they are worth is a great way to keep your binder strong (especially when I end up pulling cards out of my binder to not trade, such as duals and other Legacy staples)
I ended up buying 2 Stromkirk Noble, an Isolated Chapel, 2 Honor of the Pure, and a Grafdigger's Cage (Value = $38, paid $15) This again should help in keeping my binder stocked and should help generate a lot more value in trading. Being able to move them ffor a few bucks here and there will start the chain of gaining value, and variety is important.
GAVE: Foil Gideon Jura ($20)
GOT: Geist of Saint Traft ($28)
Profit= $8
Thoughts: I was able to get $8 on a trade, since the the wanted a Foil Gideon for his cube. I was happy to move it, as the Gid-Father is not really seeing much play at the moment, and I am not back up to a playset of Geist of Saint Traft, which means I can run the Delver Aggro deck again.
GAVE: Liliand of the Veil ($35), 2 Nevermore ($1.50), 3 Woodland Cemetary ($24), Mikaeus, the Unhallowed ($6), and Runechanter's Pike ($1.50), Total = $68
GOT: Gaea's Cradle ($70)
Profit= $2
Thoughts: I was able to convert a few Innistrand lans, and Liliana, Mikaeus, and a couple junk rares into Gaea's Cradle. Awesome. I now have the most expensive piece to combo elves, can run it in Maverick, or just own a Gaea's Cradle. In reality, I got some value on my Mikeaus (which will probably not see much constructed play beyond a 1-of in Melira Pod in Modern), a Lilana, and the Innistrad lands that are peaking right now. Beyond that, someone traded for 2 Nevermore and a Pike for more than what they are worth. I was able to clear that junk out, along with 1 top tier card (Lily) and some midrange cards (lands + Mikaeus) for a Legacy and EDH and Casual staple. The card will only go down if banned, which it probably never will be, and should be a nice card to have.
It was a productive week in the grand scheme of things. I moved a bunch of cards back and forth, ended up with a Tundra and a Gaea's Cradle, and found out that someone has a Bazaar of Baghdad and would be willing to move it. It is the same kid who took a bunch of random cards for the beta Tropical Island, so I am confident that I should be able to pick it up, as he seems eager to deal with me because I don't rip him off. That is a major lesson that I talked about a few posts ago, and here is the direct benefit. He will move a Bazaar to me at a fair price in Standard stuff. Life is good.
Weekend Profit=$14 and $3 cash (though buying the other cards would factor in somewhere). That seems to be more of a "raw material acquisition" than anything else.
GAVE: Liliana of the Veil ($35), Sorin, Lord of Innistrad ($30), 2 Heartless Summoning ($6) Total=$71
GOT: 2 Huntmaster of the Fells ($60), Geralf's Messanger ($10) Total= $70
Profit: -$1
Thoughts: While I technically lost $1 on the deal, I was rather happy with the results. With Huntmasters being in demand still, it is easier to trade several of them (2 + the one I opened last weekend) for a dual land, than just a random assortment of rares. With Sorin not seeing play, I could see him dip to $25, and I don't think that the heartless summoning deck will gain any momentum. I would expect them to stay where they are. Overall, I was trading for potential and future trades, and a dollar here and there doesn't matter too much.
GAVE: 3 Day of Judgment ($9), 2 Geist of Saint Traft ($56), 3 Isolated Chapel ($30) 1 Umezawa's Jitte (GP Promo, $20), Marsh Flats ($10) Total= $125
GOT: Tundra ($120), $3 cash
Profit: -$5 in cards, +$3 in cash
Thoughts: This deal further backs up the point I made from the last trade. People are more willing to give up duals and Legacy Staples to get lots of pieces to their decks. In reality, the deal was pretty much a wash in value, though I got $3 for $5 in cards. In reality, I traded Isolated Chapels and Geists of Saint Traft (both of which are probably at their value peak) for a beautiful Tundra in mint condition. The Jitte and the Marsh Flats should maintain their value, but I don't think that either will jump in price, as Jitte is really only a 1-of in decks that play them (only Legacy decks, and not many) and Flats is one of the least popular Zen fetches. I would imagine that the rest of the cards will drop soon. The Tundra will gradually increase in value over time, as there will be 0 reprintings. Being able to make deals like this that convert my standard stuff to Legacy makes the whole trading process so much easier, as it bypasses the need to slowly chain up to EDH/Modern staples and then to Legacy.
GAVE: 2 Slagstorm ($12), 2 Chandra's Phoenix ($16), Foil Stormblood Berserker ($3) Total=$31
GOT: 4 Gravecrawler ($40)
Profit= $9
Thoughts: I am not sure why this guy wanted to make the deal. He must have put the gravecrawlers at $8 each. The deal worked out well. The Red Deck isn't seeing that much play, but Chandra's Phoenix is still at $8. I would imagine that they will drop soon. I am hoping to get rid of the gravecrawlers, but happy that I got some more cards in the $7-15 dollar range, which easily trade for planeswalkers.
GAVE: 2 Foil Forbidden Alchemy ($18), 2 Foil Think Twice ($10), Foil Dissipate ($6) Total= $34
GOT: Liliana of the Veil ($35)
Profit: $1
This deal gets me that $1 back from the first trade (Not that it mattered). I was happy to get rid of some foils for a Liliana. The Liliana was signed, but should trade for $35. I think that I am going to show more attention to foils in the future, since they seem to be something that you can get cheap. They always trade well, and more often than not people are willing to overpay to pimp out their deck.
So that is how trading with a bunch of people you know and play with goes. In reality, most trades are going to involve making $0-2, while sometimes you'll get that guy willing to overpay for something he needs (The deal that gave me gravecrawlers) or someone willing to trade legacy for standard (The deal that got me the Tundra). I know that this is going to sound bad (really bad), but it is important to try and trade with new people, since most of the time they don't have all of the cards for their deck, and probably have a lot of cards they don't know the value on. That is a good way to get a quick boost to your collection. It is even better when they have older cards and are looking for newer stuff. This happened a few weeks back for me, where I got rid of a lot of standard stuff for about $300 in Legacy. While I wish I could spend my time talking about every trade being a huge gain and that I profited so much, that isn't the way that most trades happen. I unsleeved the commons and uncommons from the draft I went to a couple weeks ago, and am thinking about the draft tomorrow. I figure that I will probably leave with at least 6 value cards (rares or money uncommons or foils). Most of the time, I am able to get a solid value card in picks 5-8, which is strange, since normally a pack should be picked clean (I got a 5th pick Foil Lingering Souls 2 weeks ago, for example). Bad rares will commonly wheel, and a lot of the time people will pass an Innistrad dual because they aren't in those colors (despite the $3-10 price tag). That is the easiest way to pay for a draft. Rare drafting is generally frowned upon, but I am able to get away with it because I am able to build a competitive deck even with those throwaway picks, and people who rare draft are perceived as people who build bad decks because they drafted all rares. Beyond that, I usually expect to win some packs, as a couple of the best players in the area have not been drafting lately. As a result, there are a lot of rares passed, and the majority of the people build bad decks that just get outclassed by a better drafter. Hopefully that trend continues tomorrow.
So drafting was pretty successful. I ended up finishing 2-2, which is pretty crappy, but I lost to Undead Alchemist (as I had no answers) and lost in the last round to mana screw. These are teh value cards I drafted:
Increasing Ambition ($1)
Angel of Flight Alabaster ($.50)
Seance ($.50)
Strangleroot Geist ($2)
Grim Backwoods ($1)
Rooftop Storm($.75)
Archangel's Light ($1.50)
Isolated Chapel ($10)
Tragic Slip ($.75)
I was also given the following
Tragic Slip ($.75)
Stromkirk Captain ($1)
Havengul Runebinder ($1)
So my total value drafting was $20.75. Overall, I think that it was an alright draft, though I passed a lot of junk rares (Rooftop Storm was 14th pick, and Seance was probably 12-15th as well. Getting passed an Isolated Chapel really helped. While I only went 2-2, I feel like I drafted a rather solid deck (despite getting cut bigtime on both sides) and still made a deck that was very competitive. Beyond that, I guess that I might have been in the wrong colors (though I went with a strangleroot geist p1p1 and followed it up with a scorned villager). I am alright with that, as I feel like I drafted well, and was just around a few people that were not good drafters. Beyond that, I made a lot of moves today. They include the following:
Buying a Foil Reaper of the Abyss for $2- This was 50% of what the value actually is, so I think that it is a fine purchase. It is only a few bucks, and I would bet that someone is going to want it for EDH or their bad Standard deck. It should be easy to move at $5.
Buying the following cards:
Heretic's Punishment, 2 Curse of Misfortunes, Witchbane Orb, Sudden Disappearance, Jar of Eyeballs, Dearly Departed, and Garruk's Horde for $1- That is around .13 a card, which is pretty good. Trading 1 of them for $1 gives a huge profit.
Beguiler of Wills, Curse of Death's Hold, Sever the Bloodline, Mirror-Mad Phantasm, Skirsdag High Priest, Instigator Gang, Bloodgift Demon, Kruin Outlaw, Charmbreaker Devils, Falkenrath Marauders for $.50 each. It seemed like another solid purchase, as a lot of these cards should be able to trade for around $2 each.
Mikaeus, The Lunarch, Vault of the Archangel, Tree of Redemption, and Bloodline Keeper for $2 each, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Dungeon Geists, Stromkirk Noble, and Champion of the Parish for $3 each, Gerlaf's Messanger for $5, and Archangel's Light, 2 Diregraf captain, and 3 Drogskul Captain for $1 each. I spent a total of $37 and got at around $80 in value. I would imagine that I should be able to trade for them a lot of value, and buying cards at around or less than 50% of what they are worth is a great way to keep your binder strong (especially when I end up pulling cards out of my binder to not trade, such as duals and other Legacy staples)
I ended up buying 2 Stromkirk Noble, an Isolated Chapel, 2 Honor of the Pure, and a Grafdigger's Cage (Value = $38, paid $15) This again should help in keeping my binder stocked and should help generate a lot more value in trading. Being able to move them ffor a few bucks here and there will start the chain of gaining value, and variety is important.
GAVE: Foil Gideon Jura ($20)
GOT: Geist of Saint Traft ($28)
Profit= $8
Thoughts: I was able to get $8 on a trade, since the the wanted a Foil Gideon for his cube. I was happy to move it, as the Gid-Father is not really seeing much play at the moment, and I am not back up to a playset of Geist of Saint Traft, which means I can run the Delver Aggro deck again.
GAVE: Liliand of the Veil ($35), 2 Nevermore ($1.50), 3 Woodland Cemetary ($24), Mikaeus, the Unhallowed ($6), and Runechanter's Pike ($1.50), Total = $68
GOT: Gaea's Cradle ($70)
Profit= $2
Thoughts: I was able to convert a few Innistrand lans, and Liliana, Mikaeus, and a couple junk rares into Gaea's Cradle. Awesome. I now have the most expensive piece to combo elves, can run it in Maverick, or just own a Gaea's Cradle. In reality, I got some value on my Mikeaus (which will probably not see much constructed play beyond a 1-of in Melira Pod in Modern), a Lilana, and the Innistrad lands that are peaking right now. Beyond that, someone traded for 2 Nevermore and a Pike for more than what they are worth. I was able to clear that junk out, along with 1 top tier card (Lily) and some midrange cards (lands + Mikaeus) for a Legacy and EDH and Casual staple. The card will only go down if banned, which it probably never will be, and should be a nice card to have.
It was a productive week in the grand scheme of things. I moved a bunch of cards back and forth, ended up with a Tundra and a Gaea's Cradle, and found out that someone has a Bazaar of Baghdad and would be willing to move it. It is the same kid who took a bunch of random cards for the beta Tropical Island, so I am confident that I should be able to pick it up, as he seems eager to deal with me because I don't rip him off. That is a major lesson that I talked about a few posts ago, and here is the direct benefit. He will move a Bazaar to me at a fair price in Standard stuff. Life is good.
Weekend Profit=$14 and $3 cash (though buying the other cards would factor in somewhere). That seems to be more of a "raw material acquisition" than anything else.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Cracking Some Packs, and the EV of DA
After doing some calculations, I have figured that the EV of a pack of Dark Ascension is around $3.44, excluding the value of all commons and uncommons that do not really trade well. I just won half a box, so it is time to open some packs and see how close to the $3.44 average I can get (Foils also were not counted). Here is the summary.
My special pack opener (Elizabeth) will be here to help with the luck factor involved.
Pack One:
Wilfbitten Captive ($2)
Foil Wolfhunter's Quiver ($.50)
Stromkirk Captain ($1)
Feed the Pack ($.50)
Pack Value ($4)
Overall, this was a solid pack in terms of value, though it might be hard to trade the quiver. The Feed the Pack should be a nice throw in for someone (Probably trade it at $2), and the Captive might be able to get $3. The Captain should be an easy trade at $2
Pack Two:
Foil Crushing Vines ($1)
Immerwolf ($1)
Drogskol Captain ($2.5)
Thraben Doomsayer ($2.5)
Pack Value ($7)
This seems to be another solid pack. I think that the Doomsayers could be a good pickup at $1-2 each, since they will always be good in casual and have an effect similar to Emeria Angel, which was a huge part of Caw Blade. Beyond that, 2 Captains in a pack is rather solid, and Crushing Vines seems like a solid card that might be playable in EDH.
Pack Three:
Zombie Apocalypse ($1)
This is one of those packs that you hate to see. No real action in the uncommons, and a rare worth on a dollar. I can hope to trade this for $2, and try to get something going with it.
Pack Four:
Vault of the Archangel ($4)
Can't really complain. It is above the EV, and this card could really see play if WB tokens gets better.
Pack Five:
Drogskol Captain ($2.5)
Foil Markov Blademaster ($4)
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad ($30)
Pack Value ($36.5)
Ching Ching. Despite Sorin dropping, he still has value and will really boost a trade binder. The foil Markov Blademaster is only worth $4, but I could see him trading for $6 since he is powerful and lots of casual people will want it. That shouldn't stay in my binder long.
Switching from the half box I had won to random packs that I have won through FNMs (as the value of the other packs drops significantly with the potential for Sorin gone)
Pack Six:
Lost in the Woods ($.50)
This is the kind of card that might just sit in my binder for a year and end up in my collection forever. Not a good pack to open. You never know though, someone might want it.
Pack Seven:
Flayer of the Hatebound ($.50)
Lingering Souls ($2)
Stromkirk Captain ($1)
Pack Value = ($3.5)
This pack is alright. I can imagine people wanting to build an undying deck, so flayer could probably be traded at $2 to the right person. The lingering souls and captain should not be hard to move.
Pack Eight:
Increasing Confusion ($1.25)
This might be able to trade at $2. I don't think mill will be viable, but that has never stopped people from trying.
Pack Nine:
Thraben Doomsayer ($2.5)
Tragic Slip ($1)
Pack Value ($3.5)
Solid pack. People will need tragic slip, and if they aren't drafting a lot, they will have to trade for them. They could be used to even out a deal, or a set could be used to pick up something in the 4-5 range. Another doomsayer is promising.
Pack Ten:
Call to the Kindred ($.50)
Foil Gavony Ironwright ($.50)
Pack Value ($1)
Another Swing and a miss. It will happen in packs, so all you can do it try and take the good with the bad, and try to move the bad cards for something.
Pack Eleven:
Grim Backwoods ($1)
Nothing great. The problem with DA is that a lot of rares are not really good. I imagine that some will go up in a few months, so it seems like it would be important to figure out which are the most likely to see standard play and to get them when they are really cheap.
Pack Twelve:
Ghoultree ($1.5)
There has been a real drought involving the captains, and that is why the last few packs sort of sucked. It seems like things should be heating up soon.
Pack Thirteen:
Foil Scorned Villager ($1)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben ($4)
Diregraf Captain ($1.5)
Stromkirk Captain ($1)
Pack Value ($7.5)
Great pack. Two captains, a foil that should easily trade at 2.50, and a great rare that will go up and see a lot of play in a humans deck. This should help a lot in trading, and will probably help chain into top tier cards.
Pack Fifteen:
Tragic Slip ($1)
Lingering Souls ($2)
Jar of Eyeballs ($.50)
Foil Crushing Vines ($1)
Pack Value ($4.50)
Alright pack. I am going to hope a lot of the rares can be traded, while it seems like uncommons and commons are going to carry the majority of the weight. Finding someone who needs a set of Lingering Souls or a Captain will really make trading a lot easier, since moving 4 cards at a time really allows for trading up.
Pack Sixteen:
Strangleroot Geist ($2)
Vault of the Archangel ($4)
Pack Value ($6)
Solid pack. I think that I might try and pick up 12+ vaults if I can get them for 2.50 each, since they will always be tradable for casual and EDH. The Geist should easily be traded, especially if I can get a playset.
Pack Seventeen:
Strangleroot Geist ($2)
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed ($6)
Pack Value ($8)
This is great way to finish off opening packs. Geist should trade fine, and Mikaeus does see some Modern play in Pod, so this should easily be tradable.
Totals:
Packs opened= 17
Expected Value= $58.50
Actual Value - Foils= $83.25
Foil Value= $8
Total Value= $91.25
Actual Value per pack=$5.37
Overall, it was a fun process, especially since Elizabeth opened a Sorin early, so the rest felt like a freeroll. After going through this, I would imagine that if I could trade for packs at $3 each, it would be a slight gamble, but at the same time worth it. Though there are a few rares in that priced at $1 that I might never trade, being able to trade other things for value will allow me to make up more money. Without the Sorin, it seemed like a very bad set of packs, and it would have still been over the $3.44 per pack EV. I guess I will have to see what I move and how much value I can gain on things. The Sorin should go a long way in that. Hopefully we open some more packs and can repeat this level of success.
My special pack opener (Elizabeth) will be here to help with the luck factor involved.
Pack One:
Wilfbitten Captive ($2)
Foil Wolfhunter's Quiver ($.50)
Stromkirk Captain ($1)
Feed the Pack ($.50)
Pack Value ($4)
Overall, this was a solid pack in terms of value, though it might be hard to trade the quiver. The Feed the Pack should be a nice throw in for someone (Probably trade it at $2), and the Captive might be able to get $3. The Captain should be an easy trade at $2
Pack Two:
Foil Crushing Vines ($1)
Immerwolf ($1)
Drogskol Captain ($2.5)
Thraben Doomsayer ($2.5)
Pack Value ($7)
This seems to be another solid pack. I think that the Doomsayers could be a good pickup at $1-2 each, since they will always be good in casual and have an effect similar to Emeria Angel, which was a huge part of Caw Blade. Beyond that, 2 Captains in a pack is rather solid, and Crushing Vines seems like a solid card that might be playable in EDH.
Pack Three:
Zombie Apocalypse ($1)
This is one of those packs that you hate to see. No real action in the uncommons, and a rare worth on a dollar. I can hope to trade this for $2, and try to get something going with it.
Pack Four:
Vault of the Archangel ($4)
Can't really complain. It is above the EV, and this card could really see play if WB tokens gets better.
Pack Five:
Drogskol Captain ($2.5)
Foil Markov Blademaster ($4)
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad ($30)
Pack Value ($36.5)
Ching Ching. Despite Sorin dropping, he still has value and will really boost a trade binder. The foil Markov Blademaster is only worth $4, but I could see him trading for $6 since he is powerful and lots of casual people will want it. That shouldn't stay in my binder long.
Switching from the half box I had won to random packs that I have won through FNMs (as the value of the other packs drops significantly with the potential for Sorin gone)
Pack Six:
Lost in the Woods ($.50)
This is the kind of card that might just sit in my binder for a year and end up in my collection forever. Not a good pack to open. You never know though, someone might want it.
Pack Seven:
Flayer of the Hatebound ($.50)
Lingering Souls ($2)
Stromkirk Captain ($1)
Pack Value = ($3.5)
This pack is alright. I can imagine people wanting to build an undying deck, so flayer could probably be traded at $2 to the right person. The lingering souls and captain should not be hard to move.
Pack Eight:
Increasing Confusion ($1.25)
This might be able to trade at $2. I don't think mill will be viable, but that has never stopped people from trying.
Pack Nine:
Thraben Doomsayer ($2.5)
Tragic Slip ($1)
Pack Value ($3.5)
Solid pack. People will need tragic slip, and if they aren't drafting a lot, they will have to trade for them. They could be used to even out a deal, or a set could be used to pick up something in the 4-5 range. Another doomsayer is promising.
Pack Ten:
Call to the Kindred ($.50)
Foil Gavony Ironwright ($.50)
Pack Value ($1)
Another Swing and a miss. It will happen in packs, so all you can do it try and take the good with the bad, and try to move the bad cards for something.
Pack Eleven:
Grim Backwoods ($1)
Nothing great. The problem with DA is that a lot of rares are not really good. I imagine that some will go up in a few months, so it seems like it would be important to figure out which are the most likely to see standard play and to get them when they are really cheap.
Pack Twelve:
Ghoultree ($1.5)
There has been a real drought involving the captains, and that is why the last few packs sort of sucked. It seems like things should be heating up soon.
Pack Thirteen:
Foil Scorned Villager ($1)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben ($4)
Diregraf Captain ($1.5)
Stromkirk Captain ($1)
Pack Value ($7.5)
Great pack. Two captains, a foil that should easily trade at 2.50, and a great rare that will go up and see a lot of play in a humans deck. This should help a lot in trading, and will probably help chain into top tier cards.
Pack Fifteen:
Tragic Slip ($1)
Lingering Souls ($2)
Jar of Eyeballs ($.50)
Foil Crushing Vines ($1)
Pack Value ($4.50)
Alright pack. I am going to hope a lot of the rares can be traded, while it seems like uncommons and commons are going to carry the majority of the weight. Finding someone who needs a set of Lingering Souls or a Captain will really make trading a lot easier, since moving 4 cards at a time really allows for trading up.
Pack Sixteen:
Strangleroot Geist ($2)
Vault of the Archangel ($4)
Pack Value ($6)
Solid pack. I think that I might try and pick up 12+ vaults if I can get them for 2.50 each, since they will always be tradable for casual and EDH. The Geist should easily be traded, especially if I can get a playset.
Pack Seventeen:
Strangleroot Geist ($2)
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed ($6)
Pack Value ($8)
This is great way to finish off opening packs. Geist should trade fine, and Mikaeus does see some Modern play in Pod, so this should easily be tradable.
Totals:
Packs opened= 17
Expected Value= $58.50
Actual Value - Foils= $83.25
Foil Value= $8
Total Value= $91.25
Actual Value per pack=$5.37
Overall, it was a fun process, especially since Elizabeth opened a Sorin early, so the rest felt like a freeroll. After going through this, I would imagine that if I could trade for packs at $3 each, it would be a slight gamble, but at the same time worth it. Though there are a few rares in that priced at $1 that I might never trade, being able to trade other things for value will allow me to make up more money. Without the Sorin, it seemed like a very bad set of packs, and it would have still been over the $3.44 per pack EV. I guess I will have to see what I move and how much value I can gain on things. The Sorin should go a long way in that. Hopefully we open some more packs and can repeat this level of success.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
The Zones of Magic
So in Magic, there are several play zones, which include (I had to cheat and look them up to be sure I didn't forget them)
The Hand-Where your spells and lands stay until you play them
The Library-Where you draw cards
The Battlefield-Things that are in play
The Stack-Where things wait to resolve
The Graveyard-Where things are that have been cast, killed, or destroyed
The Exile Zone/The "Outside the Game" Zone-Where cards that have been removed from the game exist
While those descriptions are rather basic and don't begin to describe anything in particular, it is important for someone playing Magic to understand the complexity and interactions of the zones to become a better player. I remember it took me a while to understand the stack and how abilities used the stack. I started playing around Alara block, and for the life of me, I couldn't understand that you could kill Putrid Leech with a lightning bolt if you waited for the pump trigger to go on the stack and bolt it in response. I look back and feel rather noobish for not understanding that interaction, and wonder how many games I lost because I just didn't know that.
Beating Jund aside, it is important to understand the zones that exist to a Magic player in terms of their card collection. Now we can draw some parallels (hopefully they aren't too far of a stretch)
The Hand-The is the section of cards of that a person owns that are in a deck and currently being used. It is generally a lot harder to get these cards off a person, unless they explicitly tell you that they are for trade (these are usually casual/EDH decks that the person is working on, and they only really do this when you have something they really want, so when you get that tell from a person, you know you can really go to Value Town). I am often torn because I want to trade the cards in my deck for more valuable cards. Not doing so requires a lot of patience and discipline, which I am still lacking. Over the weekend, I traded a Snapcaster Mage for a beat up Thoughtseize. This was a spur of the moment deal, because the guy wanted a caster and wanted to get rid of his thoughtseize. The guy asked me for prices, and the person he was trading with wanted more than just the thoughtseize. I was able to go straight up for it, despite the fact the Snapcaster was in my deck, and I had no extras. I felt confident doing this because I could always borrow a Snapcaster from someone if I wanted to run the same deck at FNM, or just play something else (which I had honestly been debating). While the Thoughtseize is in rough shape, I would imagine that I could get 35 for it (perhaps 40 if the person I am talking to really needs it), and I know at any given time I can trade it for a Snapcaster plus something small. Since Snapcasters fluctuate from 22-30, I can really use that leverage to really profit (I am thinking trying to move the Thoughtseize and perhaps something small like a Grafdigger's Cage for 2 Snapcasters if I can talk them down to 22, or at least a Caster and a filter land, which, in 2 trades, would allow me to effectively convert a Grafdigger's Cage for a Snapcaster, or at least get a free filter land by being the middle man in a trade). It is important to keep your decks in tact because winning events is the best way to boost your collection without trading.
The Library- In Magic, this is where you build your hand, drawing cards and adding to your pool or possible spells. In terms of a Magic collection, your library is any way (excluding trading) that you add cards to your collection. This can be done through buying packs, buying singles, buying collections, drafting/sealed events, or winning cards/packs by playing in events. As a general principle, I do not buy packs to open for cards. I am not lucky, and it is effectively playing the lottery trying to try and open a chase Mythic (Empirical evidence would suggest that women are better at opening packs of cards then men). In terms of buying singles, I will only buy cards at 60% of their StarCity price, which is effectively their buylist price, giving me the option to get my money back at any time (depreciation aside). This has been rather amazing for me, since my local store has some people who always seem to be needing money and somehow have decent cards to sell (Wastelands at $25, Polluted Deltas for $20, etc). This gives me more and more ammo for trading, and helps me get big ticket items on the cheap (I recently bought a foil Sorin, Lord of Innistrad for $50, which has the value of $100). I already have an offer of a Savannah for it, which is only worth $80 mint, but I would imagine that it is SP, and that I could get something else out of it. I could also just try and move it at a bigger event for other stuff. The important thing is that instead of spending $50 in opening packs (17 packs at $3 each), I got the omost valuable card in the set with 0 risk. I would love to start buying collections and then piecing it out on eBay or website buylists, but that has been a little tricky so far.
In terms of drafting, after a while, I have started to become good in terms of valuing cards in terms of their worth, how much better the actual "Correct" pick is, and how likely that card will help me win the event for prizes. My general rule of thumb is that if I will "rare" draft something in the first 1-4 picks, It needs to be worth $4 at least. Anything pick 5+ is probably around $2+. Picks 10+ I will almost always take the rare, no matter how bad it is (I have probably traded about 6 Rooftop Storms at $1 each). Winning tournaments (FNMs in particular) gets you packs, boosting your collection. I have recently spent time thinking about the value of opening packs vs. Trading them at MSRP ($4 a pack), and it seems worth it. Thought the Double Faced Cards make calculating the value of an unopened pack hard, it would seem that Innistrad is not worth opening anymore, but Dark Ascension is, solely due to the "Captains" that are worth 2+ each.
There seems to be a cycle: Having the best cards available -> Winning at FNM -> Getting more packs to get more good cards -> Repeat. While playing the cards correctly is important, I am pretty confident that I could give a UW Delver deck to some of the worst players at FNM and they would still win at least a pack or two. While I might not be the best in terms of piloting a deck, I have not been in a position where I was unable to play a deck that I wanted because of card availability (Meeting and becoming friends with people is important with that as well) since Shards block rotated. I think that I am in the cycle, as I will generally leave FNM with 4+ packs of cards and a promo.
The Battlefield- The battlefield is your binder. These are the cards that you have that you want to trade off for better things. Just like in the Magic battlefield, getting "2 for 1" is the easiest way to beat your opponent. If they spend all game casting Hill Giants (3/3 for 4 mana) and you cast all Skinrenders (3/3 for 4, when it enters the battlefield, put 3 -1/-1 counters of target creature) they will not be able to keep up. The same thing is true in trading. If, on every trade, you get a small bonus, you are constantly going to get more and more card advantage. In regular Magic, if a 2/2 attacks and is blocked by a 3/3, the 2/2 dies, and the 3/3 does not. That is a basic principle in Magic. That principle does not hold true in trading though. I can trade X dollars in cards for X+Y dollars in cards. Going back to my earlier example, if I can find people that will trade me a Thoughtseize for a Snapcaster Mage, then find people who will trade me a Snapcaster Mage and a Grafdigger's Cage for a Thoughtseize, just by going back and forth between people you get a free cards every 2 trades. While it is not that simple, that is the basic idea behind a value trader. I find people who either:
1) Need cards for their decks, and are willing to overpay in cards because they don't want to buy the card for money
2) People who undervalue some of their cards or overvalue yours
3) People who want cards I have but do not want
In terms of binders, I am actually carrying around 4 binders right now. I am still trying to find the optimal way to sort and try to trade my cards, but I think I am getting there. The binders are set up this way
1) All Standard rares+valuable uncommons. This is sorted by color and set, and I only keep 4 of each card in there. I leave the extras sleeved in a box to replace any I need to. I only put 1 in each sleeve, or else they will stretch and need to be replaced. I only keep 4 of each int he binder to reduce their flipping. The first few pages contain the big ticket items and some non-standard stuff I want to trade. When people see good cards on the front pages, they seem to not mind flipping through the rest of the binder because they know I have good stuff and that it is worth going through. I always show my standard binder first, since those cards are the most relevant and easiest to trade.
2+3) Random foils and bulk rares. These are the cards that I would just love to trade and get value on. There is a trade off between the number of people who can view your binders and the amount they can look at. Most of the time I will pull these binders out for casual/EDH/new players, since they are random cards and random people like random stuff. I would not bring these to bigger events, since at events with 100+ people I want to maximize the amount of trades I make, and having people go through junk rares would only take away from the time I have to trade. I am going to begin to trade for bulk rares at the next big event I go to, and I would imagine that I will write about that experience.
4) EDH+Modern staples and Legacy staples- I really do not like breaking this binder out, as most people want a lot in it, and in reality, if someone had a binder like that, I would want all of it too. I only break this out when they don't find enough in my standard cards and they have Legacy and Modern staples for me. I am not 100% on this statement, as there are exceptions, but I will never trade Legacy for Modern or Standard, I will rarely trade Modern for Standard, and I will never trade Eternal cards for Standard without getting a 30%+ boost on my card values. The reason is that Legacy cards hold their value the best, then Modern, and Standard cards fluctuate in price greatly. Modern and Legacy cards are also immune to a price drop from rotation. Looking back at my last post, I traded a bunch of standard staples for an Italian BB Bayou and a Foil Damnation
GAVE: 2 Foil Darkslick Shores ($50), 2 Foil Seachrome Coast ($50) Mox Opal ($22), Liliana of the Veil ($35) Elspeth Tirel ($20) and FTV Zuran Orb ($2) Total= $177 GOT: FBB Italian Bayou (SP) ($160), Foil Damnation ($40) Total= $200
I gained $23 on that immediately. In the short term, I will lose on the deal, as the Seachromes and Darkslicks will jump due to their play. In the midterm (6 months), I will try and look back and see how accurately I can predict the prices post rotation. The Shores will probably drop to about $12 each, the Seachromes might be $15 (only because of Modern), Mox Opal will probably be $20 (though it could drop to $15), and Elspeth will sit at $8, if not $6, as she will not see any play in any format. The Foil Damnation will probably go up and down a little bit, but will probably be $60-70 one month after Standard rotation, and the Bayou will probably stay the same, if not jump up 10-30. Converting Standard to Legacy is my ultimate goal. Legacy cards have higher buylist prices, and retain their value the best. They are the "blue chips" of Magic cards. I want to continue to gain value on all of my trades, work on converting Standard to Legacy, and increase my portfolio through trading.
The Stack-The stack is the mess of cards that are not in your binder, the extra copies beyond 4 that I do not keep in my binder, the cards that people do not want to trade because they might use them, and the piles and piles of commons and uncommons that sit at home and are never used. The goal of the stack is to make sure that everything resolves (does not remain on the stack). I try to put as many rares and tradable cards in my binder, as not having them on me is wasted potential. I try my hardest to make sure that every card in my binder is for trade, and that everything is organized so I can find what I need quickly. With commons and uncommons, most of them are not really tradable. For every Gut Shot and Lingering Souls, there are dozens of Darksteel Relics that nobody wants. My current project is sorting all of my commons and uncommons by number, pulling out a playset of everything, and putting the rest in a huge card box, sorted in case I ever need to get anything, but out of the way so they don't impede me at all.
The Graveyard- The graveyard is a mental zone that contains memories of all of the good and bad trades a person has made in their life. While I don't really have that many bad trades, I remember recently that I could have traded for a sharpied up Scrubland but someone else got to the guy before I did, and I didn't interrupt them to offer more for the card. I could have gotten it at $18 in trade, but I didn't say anything and missed out. I'll probably talk about this in the future, but I do think about from time to time. I also remember when people grind value off me, or when people are not honest with me. There was one case recently when someone wanted a Ratchet Bomb (which he said was worth $5 but was actually at $10 due to the recent spike in play it saw), and I got a Phyrexian Metamorph (worth $7, which would have been a great deal if the Ratchet Bomb was $5). Normally, I would say that is my fault, since I didn't know the prices, but the fact that I asked him what it was worth on StarCity, when he had a smartphone in his hand, him giving me the wrong value does not fly with me. I equated it with stealing. While it is easy to either dwell on something small like that, or write it off as a sunk cost, I can't do either. If the guy ever wants to trade with me, I am going to smartphone everything, and make sure that I get $2+ value on everything every time that we trade for as long as I know him. Beyond that, there were a couple other small trades that I might have lost $1 or $2 on that I let bother me too much. I should be remembering all of the trades I make where I gain. The problem is that it seems the human brain doesn't really work like that. People remember small losses more than big wins. Therefore, it is important to make sure that people do not feel like their trades were losses if you are getting value on them. At my local store, I am "The guy who has pretty much everything", and people like trading with me, despite the fact that I make profit on every trade. This is because they need cards and I don't, so I am able to get about $3 max per trade with no problem. People don't consider it a loss if they are getting what they want for stuff they don't need. There is a utility factor involved in Magic cards, and I make sure that cards have 0 utility value for me. People are willing to give up a little bit in cards value to improve their deck or get a sweet new card, especially for stuff they don't use. That is the best way to stay in everyone's good graces and have people seek you out to trade with. As soon as you start ripping people off, you won't be able to trade with many people, and in the long run you lose. It is important to actively try and not rip people off, because in the long term, you benefit more than in one lopsided trade. This is very true when Standard rotates, and people are fine getting rid of their cards dirt cheap for new stuff. That idea does not hold true at large events, since you really don't see most people again. In those cases, it is all about maximizing profits.
The Exile Zone- The exile zone is where cards go to no longer have any impact on the game (with the exception of a few cards that get them back). These are the cards that people do not want to trade because they are attached to them, need them, might need them, or are just too stubborn in trading them. Most people put all of their cards in their trade binder, despite the fact that they don't want to trade all of them. One of the worst ways to start off a trade is someone going through your binder and picking out something, only for you to say "Oh, I can't trade that". I will trade anything in my binder, unless it is something that I just acquired earlier in the day that I stick in there to store, or cards in there that I need to return to people. I will give that explanation beforehand so people know. The cards I don't want to trade stay at home. These include my dual lands, my promos, the cards with sentimental value to me, and cards that I want to keep playsets of. I generally do not want to trade Legacy stuff either, so when I pull that binder out, I tell people that most of that isn't for trade, and only in there so I can build a deck if I need to.
It is important to understand how to treat your Magic card collection. If things are not sorted both physically and mentally, trading becomes harder and more clunky. Being able to move things spur of the moment allows for better and more efficient trading.
The Hand-Where your spells and lands stay until you play them
The Library-Where you draw cards
The Battlefield-Things that are in play
The Stack-Where things wait to resolve
The Graveyard-Where things are that have been cast, killed, or destroyed
The Exile Zone/The "Outside the Game" Zone-Where cards that have been removed from the game exist
While those descriptions are rather basic and don't begin to describe anything in particular, it is important for someone playing Magic to understand the complexity and interactions of the zones to become a better player. I remember it took me a while to understand the stack and how abilities used the stack. I started playing around Alara block, and for the life of me, I couldn't understand that you could kill Putrid Leech with a lightning bolt if you waited for the pump trigger to go on the stack and bolt it in response. I look back and feel rather noobish for not understanding that interaction, and wonder how many games I lost because I just didn't know that.
Beating Jund aside, it is important to understand the zones that exist to a Magic player in terms of their card collection. Now we can draw some parallels (hopefully they aren't too far of a stretch)
The Hand-The is the section of cards of that a person owns that are in a deck and currently being used. It is generally a lot harder to get these cards off a person, unless they explicitly tell you that they are for trade (these are usually casual/EDH decks that the person is working on, and they only really do this when you have something they really want, so when you get that tell from a person, you know you can really go to Value Town). I am often torn because I want to trade the cards in my deck for more valuable cards. Not doing so requires a lot of patience and discipline, which I am still lacking. Over the weekend, I traded a Snapcaster Mage for a beat up Thoughtseize. This was a spur of the moment deal, because the guy wanted a caster and wanted to get rid of his thoughtseize. The guy asked me for prices, and the person he was trading with wanted more than just the thoughtseize. I was able to go straight up for it, despite the fact the Snapcaster was in my deck, and I had no extras. I felt confident doing this because I could always borrow a Snapcaster from someone if I wanted to run the same deck at FNM, or just play something else (which I had honestly been debating). While the Thoughtseize is in rough shape, I would imagine that I could get 35 for it (perhaps 40 if the person I am talking to really needs it), and I know at any given time I can trade it for a Snapcaster plus something small. Since Snapcasters fluctuate from 22-30, I can really use that leverage to really profit (I am thinking trying to move the Thoughtseize and perhaps something small like a Grafdigger's Cage for 2 Snapcasters if I can talk them down to 22, or at least a Caster and a filter land, which, in 2 trades, would allow me to effectively convert a Grafdigger's Cage for a Snapcaster, or at least get a free filter land by being the middle man in a trade). It is important to keep your decks in tact because winning events is the best way to boost your collection without trading.
The Library- In Magic, this is where you build your hand, drawing cards and adding to your pool or possible spells. In terms of a Magic collection, your library is any way (excluding trading) that you add cards to your collection. This can be done through buying packs, buying singles, buying collections, drafting/sealed events, or winning cards/packs by playing in events. As a general principle, I do not buy packs to open for cards. I am not lucky, and it is effectively playing the lottery trying to try and open a chase Mythic (Empirical evidence would suggest that women are better at opening packs of cards then men). In terms of buying singles, I will only buy cards at 60% of their StarCity price, which is effectively their buylist price, giving me the option to get my money back at any time (depreciation aside). This has been rather amazing for me, since my local store has some people who always seem to be needing money and somehow have decent cards to sell (Wastelands at $25, Polluted Deltas for $20, etc). This gives me more and more ammo for trading, and helps me get big ticket items on the cheap (I recently bought a foil Sorin, Lord of Innistrad for $50, which has the value of $100). I already have an offer of a Savannah for it, which is only worth $80 mint, but I would imagine that it is SP, and that I could get something else out of it. I could also just try and move it at a bigger event for other stuff. The important thing is that instead of spending $50 in opening packs (17 packs at $3 each), I got the omost valuable card in the set with 0 risk. I would love to start buying collections and then piecing it out on eBay or website buylists, but that has been a little tricky so far.
In terms of drafting, after a while, I have started to become good in terms of valuing cards in terms of their worth, how much better the actual "Correct" pick is, and how likely that card will help me win the event for prizes. My general rule of thumb is that if I will "rare" draft something in the first 1-4 picks, It needs to be worth $4 at least. Anything pick 5+ is probably around $2+. Picks 10+ I will almost always take the rare, no matter how bad it is (I have probably traded about 6 Rooftop Storms at $1 each). Winning tournaments (FNMs in particular) gets you packs, boosting your collection. I have recently spent time thinking about the value of opening packs vs. Trading them at MSRP ($4 a pack), and it seems worth it. Thought the Double Faced Cards make calculating the value of an unopened pack hard, it would seem that Innistrad is not worth opening anymore, but Dark Ascension is, solely due to the "Captains" that are worth 2+ each.
There seems to be a cycle: Having the best cards available -> Winning at FNM -> Getting more packs to get more good cards -> Repeat. While playing the cards correctly is important, I am pretty confident that I could give a UW Delver deck to some of the worst players at FNM and they would still win at least a pack or two. While I might not be the best in terms of piloting a deck, I have not been in a position where I was unable to play a deck that I wanted because of card availability (Meeting and becoming friends with people is important with that as well) since Shards block rotated. I think that I am in the cycle, as I will generally leave FNM with 4+ packs of cards and a promo.
The Battlefield- The battlefield is your binder. These are the cards that you have that you want to trade off for better things. Just like in the Magic battlefield, getting "2 for 1" is the easiest way to beat your opponent. If they spend all game casting Hill Giants (3/3 for 4 mana) and you cast all Skinrenders (3/3 for 4, when it enters the battlefield, put 3 -1/-1 counters of target creature) they will not be able to keep up. The same thing is true in trading. If, on every trade, you get a small bonus, you are constantly going to get more and more card advantage. In regular Magic, if a 2/2 attacks and is blocked by a 3/3, the 2/2 dies, and the 3/3 does not. That is a basic principle in Magic. That principle does not hold true in trading though. I can trade X dollars in cards for X+Y dollars in cards. Going back to my earlier example, if I can find people that will trade me a Thoughtseize for a Snapcaster Mage, then find people who will trade me a Snapcaster Mage and a Grafdigger's Cage for a Thoughtseize, just by going back and forth between people you get a free cards every 2 trades. While it is not that simple, that is the basic idea behind a value trader. I find people who either:
1) Need cards for their decks, and are willing to overpay in cards because they don't want to buy the card for money
2) People who undervalue some of their cards or overvalue yours
3) People who want cards I have but do not want
In terms of binders, I am actually carrying around 4 binders right now. I am still trying to find the optimal way to sort and try to trade my cards, but I think I am getting there. The binders are set up this way
1) All Standard rares+valuable uncommons. This is sorted by color and set, and I only keep 4 of each card in there. I leave the extras sleeved in a box to replace any I need to. I only put 1 in each sleeve, or else they will stretch and need to be replaced. I only keep 4 of each int he binder to reduce their flipping. The first few pages contain the big ticket items and some non-standard stuff I want to trade. When people see good cards on the front pages, they seem to not mind flipping through the rest of the binder because they know I have good stuff and that it is worth going through. I always show my standard binder first, since those cards are the most relevant and easiest to trade.
2+3) Random foils and bulk rares. These are the cards that I would just love to trade and get value on. There is a trade off between the number of people who can view your binders and the amount they can look at. Most of the time I will pull these binders out for casual/EDH/new players, since they are random cards and random people like random stuff. I would not bring these to bigger events, since at events with 100+ people I want to maximize the amount of trades I make, and having people go through junk rares would only take away from the time I have to trade. I am going to begin to trade for bulk rares at the next big event I go to, and I would imagine that I will write about that experience.
4) EDH+Modern staples and Legacy staples- I really do not like breaking this binder out, as most people want a lot in it, and in reality, if someone had a binder like that, I would want all of it too. I only break this out when they don't find enough in my standard cards and they have Legacy and Modern staples for me. I am not 100% on this statement, as there are exceptions, but I will never trade Legacy for Modern or Standard, I will rarely trade Modern for Standard, and I will never trade Eternal cards for Standard without getting a 30%+ boost on my card values. The reason is that Legacy cards hold their value the best, then Modern, and Standard cards fluctuate in price greatly. Modern and Legacy cards are also immune to a price drop from rotation. Looking back at my last post, I traded a bunch of standard staples for an Italian BB Bayou and a Foil Damnation
GAVE: 2 Foil Darkslick Shores ($50), 2 Foil Seachrome Coast ($50) Mox Opal ($22), Liliana of the Veil ($35) Elspeth Tirel ($20) and FTV Zuran Orb ($2) Total= $177 GOT: FBB Italian Bayou (SP) ($160), Foil Damnation ($40) Total= $200
I gained $23 on that immediately. In the short term, I will lose on the deal, as the Seachromes and Darkslicks will jump due to their play. In the midterm (6 months), I will try and look back and see how accurately I can predict the prices post rotation. The Shores will probably drop to about $12 each, the Seachromes might be $15 (only because of Modern), Mox Opal will probably be $20 (though it could drop to $15), and Elspeth will sit at $8, if not $6, as she will not see any play in any format. The Foil Damnation will probably go up and down a little bit, but will probably be $60-70 one month after Standard rotation, and the Bayou will probably stay the same, if not jump up 10-30. Converting Standard to Legacy is my ultimate goal. Legacy cards have higher buylist prices, and retain their value the best. They are the "blue chips" of Magic cards. I want to continue to gain value on all of my trades, work on converting Standard to Legacy, and increase my portfolio through trading.
The Stack-The stack is the mess of cards that are not in your binder, the extra copies beyond 4 that I do not keep in my binder, the cards that people do not want to trade because they might use them, and the piles and piles of commons and uncommons that sit at home and are never used. The goal of the stack is to make sure that everything resolves (does not remain on the stack). I try to put as many rares and tradable cards in my binder, as not having them on me is wasted potential. I try my hardest to make sure that every card in my binder is for trade, and that everything is organized so I can find what I need quickly. With commons and uncommons, most of them are not really tradable. For every Gut Shot and Lingering Souls, there are dozens of Darksteel Relics that nobody wants. My current project is sorting all of my commons and uncommons by number, pulling out a playset of everything, and putting the rest in a huge card box, sorted in case I ever need to get anything, but out of the way so they don't impede me at all.
The Graveyard- The graveyard is a mental zone that contains memories of all of the good and bad trades a person has made in their life. While I don't really have that many bad trades, I remember recently that I could have traded for a sharpied up Scrubland but someone else got to the guy before I did, and I didn't interrupt them to offer more for the card. I could have gotten it at $18 in trade, but I didn't say anything and missed out. I'll probably talk about this in the future, but I do think about from time to time. I also remember when people grind value off me, or when people are not honest with me. There was one case recently when someone wanted a Ratchet Bomb (which he said was worth $5 but was actually at $10 due to the recent spike in play it saw), and I got a Phyrexian Metamorph (worth $7, which would have been a great deal if the Ratchet Bomb was $5). Normally, I would say that is my fault, since I didn't know the prices, but the fact that I asked him what it was worth on StarCity, when he had a smartphone in his hand, him giving me the wrong value does not fly with me. I equated it with stealing. While it is easy to either dwell on something small like that, or write it off as a sunk cost, I can't do either. If the guy ever wants to trade with me, I am going to smartphone everything, and make sure that I get $2+ value on everything every time that we trade for as long as I know him. Beyond that, there were a couple other small trades that I might have lost $1 or $2 on that I let bother me too much. I should be remembering all of the trades I make where I gain. The problem is that it seems the human brain doesn't really work like that. People remember small losses more than big wins. Therefore, it is important to make sure that people do not feel like their trades were losses if you are getting value on them. At my local store, I am "The guy who has pretty much everything", and people like trading with me, despite the fact that I make profit on every trade. This is because they need cards and I don't, so I am able to get about $3 max per trade with no problem. People don't consider it a loss if they are getting what they want for stuff they don't need. There is a utility factor involved in Magic cards, and I make sure that cards have 0 utility value for me. People are willing to give up a little bit in cards value to improve their deck or get a sweet new card, especially for stuff they don't use. That is the best way to stay in everyone's good graces and have people seek you out to trade with. As soon as you start ripping people off, you won't be able to trade with many people, and in the long run you lose. It is important to actively try and not rip people off, because in the long term, you benefit more than in one lopsided trade. This is very true when Standard rotates, and people are fine getting rid of their cards dirt cheap for new stuff. That idea does not hold true at large events, since you really don't see most people again. In those cases, it is all about maximizing profits.
The Exile Zone- The exile zone is where cards go to no longer have any impact on the game (with the exception of a few cards that get them back). These are the cards that people do not want to trade because they are attached to them, need them, might need them, or are just too stubborn in trading them. Most people put all of their cards in their trade binder, despite the fact that they don't want to trade all of them. One of the worst ways to start off a trade is someone going through your binder and picking out something, only for you to say "Oh, I can't trade that". I will trade anything in my binder, unless it is something that I just acquired earlier in the day that I stick in there to store, or cards in there that I need to return to people. I will give that explanation beforehand so people know. The cards I don't want to trade stay at home. These include my dual lands, my promos, the cards with sentimental value to me, and cards that I want to keep playsets of. I generally do not want to trade Legacy stuff either, so when I pull that binder out, I tell people that most of that isn't for trade, and only in there so I can build a deck if I need to.
It is important to understand how to treat your Magic card collection. If things are not sorted both physically and mentally, trading becomes harder and more clunky. Being able to move things spur of the moment allows for better and more efficient trading.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
New Beginnings
So in general, I am going to be posting about Magic Trades, tournament results, and my thoughts on the game as a whole. I figure that having it all down will be nice. So, in terms of playing, I had the most explosive sealed pool ever at a GPT in Rochester, but lost in the finals after going 6-0. It happens, but I got a Huntmaster, a Geist of Saint Traft, a Stromkirk Noble, and some other good rares. Getting those rares and 18 packs for $30 is pretty sweet. Beyond that, I made a few deals to boost my collection in the past week. I don't have them all written down, but this is what I remember.
GAVE:4 Blinkmoth Nexus (MP condition) ($50)
GOT:1 Unlimited Plateau (SP condition) ($80)
Profit = $30
Thoughts: Overall, this was a great trade. It was before the PTQ, and the guy needed the Blinkmoths. They were a friend's, but I was able to just owe him 4 Nexus. I gained $30 in trade because the guy needed them for his deck and was willing to overpay. I got an unlimited dual, which are hard to come by, for some modern cards which should be easy to replace.
GAVE: 4 Foil Glacial Fortress ($40), 2 Inkmoth Nexus ($18), 2 Seachrome Coast ($40), and a Hero of Oxid Ridge ($4), Total = $102
GOT: 3 Polluted Delta (One French) ($135)
Profit= $33
Thoughts: This was another great deal. I got rid of the Fortresses and Seachromes at what I think will be their peak (if not really close), along with Inkmoths which are worth little because they were in an event deck. The Hero was a throw in. In reality, I converted 102 in standard for 135 in Legacy and finished my playset of Deltas.
GAVE: Gravecrawler ($8)
GOT: Lord of Atlantis ($4) and Mishra's Factory ($4)
Profit= $0
Thoughts: I really didn't gain anything on this trade, but I picked up a few Legacy staples for a standard card. If the gravecrawler goes up a few bucks, that is fine, as it will probably fluctuate a bit while the standard metagame corrects itself. I thought Lord was worth 5, and that I would grind a dollar on the trade, but it wasn't. I would imagine that I can trade both the Lord and the Factory for $5 each though if I want to.
GAVE: Foil Moorland Haunt ($8), foil Mana Leak ($6), foil Dissipate ($6), and Foil Divine Offering ($1) Total= $21
GOT: 2 Geralf's Messanger ($16), Gravecrawler ($8), and foil Stitched Drake ($1) Total= $25
Profit= $4
Thoughts: My price recollection was a little off on this one. I thought the Haunt was 10, the dissipate was 4, and the offering was 3. On the plus side, I was high on the cards he wanted. I got a couple bucks in this deal, which is always nice, since trading foils to people who want to pimp out their decks is a great way to get value in trading. I need to start acquiring more foils, because you can easily get value on them. The foil stitched drake seemed strange, but I thought it never hurts to ask for a little bit more.
GAVE: 2 Snapcaster Mage ($60), Arid Mesa ($10), and Bloodstained Mire ($15) Total= $85
GOT: 2 Sneak Attack ($50), 2 Stomping Grounds ($40), Godless Shrine ($20), Merit Lage Token ($8) Total= $118
Profit= $33
Thoughts: This was another one of those deals that shows the power of Snapcaster Mage. Flashback ability aside, that card's best power is getting value on Legacy staples. The guy put the Sneak Attacks at $18 each, and the Shock lands lower, so I was able to get some real value in the trade. Getting shock lands is helpful, though I plan on moving them soon for Legacy staples. Overall, great deal.
GAVE: 2 Gravecrawler ($16), Twilight Mire ($8), Massacre Wurm ($5), Total = $29
GOT: 2 Standstill ($12), 4 Thorn of Amethyst ($10), Lord of Atlantis ($4), Foil Lightning Helix ($13), Total= $39
Profit= $10
Thoughts: Originally I thought that the deal was pretty fair (He put the thorns and 1.50 each so I knew I could grind a couple bucks off it), but it turned out the foil Lightning Helix was 13, not the 5 he put it at. While the wurm and the gravecrawlers might go up a bit, getting $10 in value is really beneficial, since Modern is hot right now and a Foil Helix is pimp.
GAVE: 2 Foil Darkslick Shores ($50), 2 Foil Seachrome Coast ($50) Mox Opal ($22), Liliana of the Veil ($35) Elspeth Tirel ($20) and FTV Zuran Orb ($2) Total= $177
GOT: FBB Italian Bayou (SP) ($160), Foil Damnation ($40) Total= $200
Profit= $23
Thoughts= While lots of deals are cut and dry, this one was rather complex. While the Foil Seachromes and darkslicks are listed at $25 each on Starcity, they are worth more, I am assuming 30 on the Shores and 40 on the Coasts, which means I gave him an extra $40 there that doesn't show up in those numbers. At the same time, the damnation is probably around 50-60, which means that value wise we are about even. The fact that I got to move all standard cards (Liliana and Opal see some eternal play, but that is about it) for a FBB dual and a Modern/Legacy Foil is great. I might have been able to get more value on the foil lands, but it isn't worth my time to try and trade them for smaller stuff to trade again and again for top tier stuff when someone has the highest tier stuff and wants to trade them to me.
GAVE: Foil Negate ($1.50), Foil Flashfreeze ($1.50) Foil Daybreak Ranger ($4), Jin-Gitaxis, Etc ($7) 2 Japanese Phantasmal Image (X) 2 Japanese Surgical Extraction (X) Total= ($14+4X)
GOT: 3 Blinkmoth Nexus ($45), 2 Surgical Extraction (X-4), 2 Phantasmal Image (X-4) Total= $37+4X
Profit= $23
Thoughts=In reality, the guy wanted to pimp out his deck with foils and foreign cards, which I gladly helped with. I figure that the foreign cards were worth about $2 more than the English versions, so overall it worked out well for me and helped out someone from Rochester I see a lot.
GAVE: 2 Geralf's Messenger ($16), Diregraf Captain ($1.50), Loadstone Golem ($1)= Total $18.50
GOT: Watery Grave ($20), Foil Clifftop Retreat ($6) Total= $26
Profit= $7.50
Thoughts= This deal seemed rather easy, as he valued the Messengers at $10 (which they might jump to) and the Watery Grave at $15, so I knew I was getting some value. The Clifftop Retreat foil was great, since I can see these lands jumping in 6 months, and while trading for stuff for that far in the future seems crazy, if it ends up being 15+, I would really make a killing. I am not sleeping on the Innistrad lands.
GAVE: Foil Slagstorm ($10), Torchling ($.50), Foil Lingering Souls ($10), Godhead of Awe ($2), Watery Grave ($20), Temple Garden ($20), Crucible of Worlds ($25), Mangera of the Corondor ($1.5), Jace, Memory Adept ($15), Vesuva ($10), Time Stretch ($4), 2 Steam Vents ($50), Zur the Enchanter ($3) Total = $161 + $100 cash
GOT: Tropical Island ($100), 3 Scrubland ($195), Force of Will (MP) ($60) Total = $355
Profit = $96
Thoughts= This deal was pretty strange. He had duals, and these were pristine duals, very beautiful, to the point where I could see sending them to get graded. He put the trop at 80, the scrublands low, and the force really low. I was able to get within $100 in trade, but we couldn't get there. I gave him cash for the 2 remaining Scrublands and the balance on the Trop. While I am not a huge fan of spending money, I could easily sell the duals I bought to StarCity and make $10 if I wanted.
And now the Granddaddy of the them all
GAVE: 2 Chandra's Phoenix ($16), 4 Spikeshot Elder ($8), 2 Flameblast Dragon ($1), Reverberate ($1), Balefire Dragon ($2) 2 Kessig Wolf Run ($6) 2 Gavony Township ($4), 2 White Sun's Zenith ($2), Nissa Revane ($5) Norn's Annex ($1), Eldrazi Conscription ($3), 4 Genesis Wave ($6), 2 Fresh Meat ($1), 4 Grim Lavamancer ($14), 4 Past in Flames ($20), 4 Memoricide ($4), Praetor's Grasp ($0.50), 3 Dismember ($9), 4 Surgical Extraction ($28), Phyrexian Obliterator ($18), 2 Jace, Memory Adept ($30), Emrakul, etc ($15), Ulamog, etc. ($10), Elspeth Tirel ($20), 2 Defense of the Heart ($20), Runechanter's Pike ($1.5), Sorin, Lord of Innistrad ($35)
+ $100 cash
Total= 283 + 100 cash
GOT = Beta Tropical Island (Undetermined Condition) (Guessing $500)
Profit = $117
Thoughts= This was the most mentally straining trade I have ever made. I first had to get the card verified in Rochester, graded, and then had to come up with a price for it. He was brutal to trade with. I was hoping he'd take a bunch of Legacy staples worth $20-$50 each and get there easily, but he took pretty much all standard or casual, but had a story for every card. I thought I was going to go nuts. In the end, if you value the Trop at $500, I come out $117 on top. I did give $100 cash though, which I don't like to do, as I only really spend money on cards if they are at 60% of the StarCity value, so I would count the 100 a little higher. On the other hand, I traded a lot of junk cards and low, easy to replace standard cards for a Beta Trop. Huge win for me. In reality, I wanted to give him more, since it was a huge trade and I don't want any bad blood. If he regretted the trade, he could tell everyone at the store and people wouldn't want to trade with me, which can't happen to someone who wants to value trade. I will take it though. It is now the most valuable card in my collection. Honestly, I could see the dual going for upwards of $700, but that would be if I stuck it under a phone book for a few months to flatten out the bent in it. I felt great getting it, and couldn't be happier.
Overall Total in trade= +$376.50
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