So today was a rather productive day for me in terms of trading. I was able to negotiate a trade over the last week with someone, where I would give him 4 Snapcasters, 4 Cavern of Souls, and 2 Temporal Masteries and would get 4 Force of Wills (in mint condition). The problem is that I didn't own any caverns or masteries. I was able to gradually pick up a mastery and a cavern, but really turned it on towards the end of FNM to get the other caverns. It is really important to pinpoint the people who will allow you to trade up cards, because that seems to be the biggest key to trading (though it took me a long time to learn that). So I still need to get him 1 cavern and 1 mastery, but that should not be too hard to acquire, since I was rather aggressive in terms of trading this week and did a lot of trading up. I got another Elspeth, Knight Errant for a stack of smaller cards, and was also able to move a lot of the Scars block stuff that I wanted to get rid of. I ended up moving a Jitte in the process of my trading, as well as 4 Stoneforge Mystics, but it was important to get those Forces.
I opted to go to the other card store after FNM finished, since someone I knew was hard up for cash and wanted to sell some stuff. I was able to get a Jace, the Mind Sculptor (60), 5 Foil Zendikar lands (50), a Flooded Strand (40) and a Bloodstained Mire (20) for $105, which was a pretty sweet deal. I was also able to trade him some random cards for the High Tide deck to get a Vindicate, a Foil Delver, a Grim Monolith, and a Stoneforge Mystic. I then seemed to really go into trading mode, picking up a Wooded Foothills, an Arid Mesa, a Knight of the Reliquary, and some card worth 10 for some smaller stuff (I managed to move 1 of the Aether Vials with "Zektar Shrine" written on it for full value), and got rid of some lightning helixes, which seems like a good idea with the Return to Ravnica speculation. I was then able to trade with the random people there, and moved the playset of Seachromes for a lot of smaller stuff (I didn't know Seachromes were down to 12 so I really made a killing) and got some good profit on each of them. I picked up an Entreat the Angels for a Death Baron and a Platinum Angel (I knew Death Baron was valuable to casual players, and I am glad I finally met one). I ended up selling 6 packs of Avacyn Restored for $20, which was pretty good, since they were prize packs, and in reality, out of the 53 rares you can open, 39 are bulk rares that I will end up buying off people for .10 each. It seems like selling them for 3 for $10 is a great deal, and even if someone opens a money card from time to time, in the long run it is insane profits. Not opening lots of packs is a little problematic in terms of refilling the binder, since that Force of Will trade is going to take $170 in value out of my binder (the Snapcasters were not in my trade binder), so in the long run, my ability to trade might be hampered by the fact that I don't have a lot of the new cards. This is where trading well and drafting well fill in the holes. Being able to take 5+ rares in a draft fills up the binder for trades, and winning packs allows me to draft during the week for free. Drafting during the week is something that a few people have recently started, and it is rather nice. Playing for picks instead of a prize pack means that on any given draft I can be playing for a top card, and in general, the top 2-4 get something rather good. Since I generally open poorly, this gives me the chance to play well and get some money cards.
So the kid who randomly has all of the old and insanely expensive cards told me today that he has a Mana Drain. I need to have it. He texted me a list of cards he wants, and I think that this is how the deal is going to go down.
I get:
1 Mana Drain (Guessing SP condition, worth 130), going to try to value at 110
He gets:
$5 he owes me for FNM last week, going to value at 10 trade
Karrthas, Tyrant of Jund (6)
4 Lotus Petals (14), going to value at 20
Nirkana Revanent (8)
Foil Godsire (7), going to value at 10
Foil It That Betrays (10), don't have on me, but will try and move it
4 Pathrazer of Ulamog (1), going to value at 4
2 Entomb (36), though I might hold on to them and see if he finds smaller stuff, if so, it would be around 35 dollars in random cards, or $20 cash.
I'm not really sure which it will be, but I am hoping that he takes a pile of smaller stuff so my binders don't show any signs of depletion. If I am able to make that trade, it would be great, and I would really be able to make great improvements in my collection this weekend. Overall getting a Mana Drain and a playset of Forces would really put me in a good position in terms of trading at bigger events, since I have 10 Force of Will now, and moving a Mana Drain should be a cakewalk. I don't really know what else this kid has that is worth anything, but for now I am going to continue hope that he brings in more and more insanely hard to find cards and is willing to trade them to me for smaller things and small amounts of cash.
No comments:
Post a Comment