Trades!!!!

Card Count: 1350

Got me in some Deckbox trades!  These trades were pretty much trash for trash, but not complaining because I am getting really close to 3 digits!

Let's go!

This was a simple trade, and yes first time trader.  I sent him an Eternal Masters Toxic Deluge and I got this in return.  The trade was also below $10 so it was sent and received in a PWE with a stamp. Nothing to crazy on this one, but he did send first and all was good so I shipped him out his card.

This one was full of excitement!  First time I traded with this fella, but we sent at the same time because we had high enough trade scores.  What is exciting about this trade is of course the Core set cards.  I am finding it more difficult to get Core set cards than anything.  6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th all of them.  It just seems like no one bought much of these sets, and no one really has a good amount of them, so I am having to get them piece by piece.

I hope there will be a big trade in from Canada soon.  He sent me a butt ton of 10th Edition cards.  I am really happy about that because that was the set I was missing the most out of.  I was actually considering going to a LGS and just buying what I needed from their online store, lotusvault.com.  I should give a shout out to them at some point.  Maybe I will head up there and take some pictures to post a blog on.

Considering the amount of time and effort I have put into getting all these cards, I am going to make sure my last card that I get for Phase 1 is a trade, and I am planning on sending out a tournament deck of Revised to that lucky trader as a surprise with a note.  Hopefully they will get a Dual land or something good.

I just think it is good karma and a fun thing to do.  I mean come on, I started this whole thing over 4 years ago, and have traded well above $23,000.00 worth of cards on Deckbox spending over $870 on shipping costs.  I guess I am just getting giddy about the thought of being done with Phase 1.  Phase 2 will be the supplementary sets like Portal, Phase 3 will be the sealed booster boxes, and then Phase 4 will be the crazy sealed stuff that I don't really need, like the Collector's Edition set.  I might also try and get sealed From the Vaults from each set since I opened them for my Cube and I also need to rebuy Planechase 2012 since I opened that too.

I am also throwing around the idea of getting a foil set of each edition, but that might just be too much.  We will see.  But in all honesty, if I don't really have anything to trade for, I am not sure what I am going to do.

Really? Modern Masters 2017

LGS: 4 boxes at $220 each

Cost basis is more toward the $200 mark based on all the $5 Rewards Point certificates.

So, if you go on eBay right now for around $740.  That is $60 a box less that what I paid for at my LGS. Here we explain again, that paying more at an LGS (Mead Hall Games) keeps them in business where online stores could care less if you buy from them or not, and it is a race to the lowest price. But yes I know I could get another box with the money I saved if I just bought online, but my LGS would not be there and I would not have a place to gather.

With that being said, after the release I do plan on picking up another case, and will most likely pick them up online.  I am somewhat hopeful that Rudy from Alpha Investments does a special sale for his Patreons, but either way I will be picking up another case.

Considering what I bought for Eternal Masters, I just know I will be picking up more later in the year. I might as well just do better planning for it.  Of course I will be just collecting 1 single set, and will not go for the playset since I have all the first print cards as playsets.

I have no faith in this product with the price point of $9.99 per pack.  I also have no faith in the reprinting of cards in a single set.  Modern Masters was a good idea and Eternal Masters was a good idea, but the money grab by WoTC is just crazy.  If they did a new reprint set every 5 years, that would be more worth it than every other year.

And considering that they are coming out with other sets that are not Standard legal with reprints, it is getting to be too much.  I am pretty sure they are coming to the end of releasing so many sets, and can feel the pain of people saving up money for higher valued sets, and the income for Standard sets is going down, but MTG players really only have so much to spend on new product.  And if WoTC releases sets that are going to have already proven reprints then the players will just wait for those sets to come out, and just pick up singles rather than buy sealed product.

Now, all these releases are really cutting into the investor of MTG product, which is a good thing, but the only side effect that they were not expecting is that the regular MTG player, or casual player is just not going to shell out cash on packs and boxes to open only to lose half the value right after opening the product.

I can really smell an over saturation of the MTG market with way too much product, and now players are just moving on to other games because it is too hard to keep up.  You can also tell that people that do get higher end cards and are happy, but get really sad because WoTC comes out with a reprint and that high value card now loses it's value.  So they are just getting burned all around.  They get the cards they always wanted only to see the value of that card drop once WoTC tries to make the game to available to newer players.

Most of these players are way too short term to actually see the value the do have, and they sell out once the price drops, and try to move on to the next habit.  Only those players that just stock the cards away and wait 10+ years will see some return on the game they used to play.  You hear it time and time again, "If I only kept those cards I used to play with back in the day."  It is happening all over again, and the long view players that keep their cards around will be the only ones that see a great return over what they invested in.

In the cycle of life for MTG, this will be an over saturation period and people will leave the game. WoTC will not be able to show strong enough profits, and there will be cuts.  The sets will slow down and less will get printed and released.  I don't think lines will be cut, but paper sets will slow down.  I do think there will be an increase in the online games they put out, but they will still try and sell paper Magic more into full sets like Commander.  I do think the player base will increase, but more from the online side of things.

I do see a larger casual market coming into focus, without a need to make it to the ProTour.  Those players will move online and the casual market will be for the paper folks.  Where casual gaming is more of a social event and holding up in your office playing on a computer is where the competition will shift to.  LGS's will move to a more social arena providing cocktails and food, keeping areas up to standards where people can come and gather in a social manner.  It will not just be catered to MTG, but all sorts of games.

I do see it now with the successful LGS's, but they still cater to the selling of games rather than the social aspect of it.  Large amounts of space is used for marketing to sell, and that will change to playing the game actually being the marketing tool to sell the product, or even getting the game with the meal to enjoy.

I am most likely wrong, but I guess I just like to write down what I would like to see because that is where I would go on a Friday night.

***Edit***

Yeah spoilers are all out there, and I broke down and just picked up 4 more boxes for pre-order from my LGS.  Left see what happens when I get to open 6 boxes!

What did you do!?

Collection Count:1376

So I did a pre-order with my LGS for some Modern Master 2017, and along with that I picked up a couple of cases of KMC perfect fits.  I will be going over the pre-order in a different post, so for now this is just what happened yesterday.  They had sent me a note saying that my sleeves were in the shop, so of course I decided to check and see if they had anything I was looking for.

I had been checking their site all week because I knew I would have to go up there and pick up my pre-order at some point, so my eyes were all over the Kaladesh Inventions.  Unfortunately there were no new Inventions that they picked up so I began to go through all the bulk I am looking for.  My intention was not to spend too much cash on collection needed items, but there are intentions and there is reality.

I could not find any Kaladesh Inventions, so I just went straight in.  Picked up some 6th Edition, 7th Edition, 8th Edition, 9th Edition, Eventide, Shadowmoor, Dissension, Planar Chaos, Saviors of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, and Champions of Kamigawa.  I also picked up standard cards like I said I would not do, and I also grabbed some Conspiracy: Take the Crown cards I needed.  One card that I was really something to call home about.  And I picked up some speculation.

Here we go starting out with 6th Edition:

Only need 121 6th Edition cards to fill out this set.  Nothing really big to get, just a lot of little.

7th Edition:

Another core set and it is more of the same.  Serra Angels, Meekstones, Djinn's...bla bla bla.  But only need 91 more cards to get this Edition done.

8th Edition:

Coat of Arms, Howling Mine, Shivan Dragons.... Seriously you need to have a playset of all these cards?  Yeah stupid, but I am a completionist!  Total excuse...  113 left for 8th Edition!

9th Edition:

Elvish Champion /cheer!  209 left for 9th Edition.

Champions of Kamigawa:

Cards left 128 for CHK!

Betrayers of Kamigawa: 

107 left for BOK!

Saviors of Kamigawa:

Only 51 left!!  SOK

Dissension:

Seriously I only need 15 more cards!

Planar Chaos: 

12 needed...

Shadowmoor:

9 more...

Eventide:

Ugh I should have never started saying how many I have left in each set.  Just over it like 4 sets ago... 9 more here too.

Aether Revolt:

So here we go now.  Completed this set with this purchase and I know I said I wasn't going to buy anything until after rotation, but come on.  I needed these two mythics, one a planeswalker that was around $5 and a $1.50 mythic, so I just picked them up.  I know I know, I am working on it!

Conspiracy: Take the Crown

BAM!!!!!  Alternate Foil Kaya!  Seriously I never thought I would own one of these, but my LGS had it so I picked it up.  Funny story, they were only going to charge me $10 for the card because he priced it just as the non-foil card?  But yeah, I caught it and corrected him.  I could have saved myself $120, but hey I need to keep them in business.  And yes, this was a shameless plug for me as an honest person, but really if I did not buy from the LGS I would just buy online for a lot less.  I really try to just buy from local LGS's because I need them to stay in business.

Online is the way of the world, but there is something to just hanging out in a room with people that like the same thing.

Leo!!!!!!!  Got my playset!

Speculation Nation...

What the fuck do you need with all those Torrential Gearhulks?  But really, I see it as rich as Snapcaster Mage, granted you can only cast Instants but they are for free.  That means, if WoTC comes out with a crazy awesome Instant, then this card is top of the list.  A whole powerful category of cards now either gets put on check, or there will be something that spikes this cards at some point.  Oh yeah, and it is a 6/6 Flash creature...

So yeah, got a pre-order for the MM17, my 2017 perfect fit requirements, and bought a bunch of cards I shouldn't have, but did anyway.  But really, as soon as the collection count hits 0 I really don't have much to buy from my LGS outside of the new products.  The do no have a lot posted on Portal, Portal Second Age, Portal Three Kingdoms, Starter 1999, Starter 2000 and so on.  Those are really the singles needed in my phase 3, while phase 2 is the ABU cards I need for those full sets.

What I am hoping that happens, is my local spending will go to a crawl and I will be picking up sealed product online.

Love me some Deckbox!

Card Count: 1530

Couple of trades coming in on this one.  One of the traders I had mentioned in a previous blog about the condition, and how perfect they were.  The other trade was a first time trader, so he sent first again.  So let's go through these trades.

This is from the first time trader with me, he was also a new trader and he sent first.  Again, I can't say enough good things about these traders.  You might be a bit sketchy about trading with them since they don't have a high trade score, but you always request that they send first.  That way you can resolve any issues with the cards before you send yours out.  I also like newer traders because they have a lot of fodder that no one else wants, so you can pick that up on the cheap because they are always looking for higher end cards and downtrades happen a lot.

Downtrades are a beneficial thing for me because I get more value for the cards.  So instead of trading $10 for $10, I normally get a 20% discount.  That means I can trade $10 worth of cards for $12 worth of bulk.  That might not seem like a lot, but when you consider having to pay for the bulk, that extra $2 goes a long way when you do over $10,000 worth of trades.

I believe I traded away a couple of MM15 Eye of Ugin uncommons for these.

Next trade:

This trade was with another first time trader.  He still had a trade score that was lower than what I feel comfortable with and I normally have them send first, but since I did a previous trade with them I normally just send at the same time.  It is all about a trade history with that trader, and since I had a trade history I was not worried about the conditions.

With this trade I did have a single issue, and I am still waiting to hear back from him.  The Mana Clash is just in the wrong version.  Not a big issue, but I would like the edition I traded for.

Another great thing about this trade was I traded away Standard cards for this trade.  Like all Standard cards, I will go even up because I know the Standard cards will go lower after rotation.  He did pick out a lot of land cards, so there is a chance the cards will go up in price if he holds them for a long period of time, but for me it was a good trade considering all the bulk I grabbed.

So yeah, another good couple of trade and I am getting closer to my goals.

Playing with Family

So there was some family on my wife's side that came close to town, so we headed over to my sister-in-laws house to meet up with them, and I have a nephew that enjoys the nerdy side of life.  I started to teach him how to play Magic about 2 years ago, and we normally play when there is a family get together.  Last time I got him some cards was about 2 years ago, so I took it upon myself to pick up some of the newer cards to add to his collection.

Just picked him up a spattering of packs, Aether Revolt Pre-Release pack, and an Aether Volt Bundle.

I think I got more joy out of him opening the packs than anything.

Unfortunately he did not think he was going to see me on his trip up so he did not pick up his cards, but luckily the cards that I got him was enough for him to build a deck.  We spent a good hour or so putting decks together and got a single match in.  I went 2-1 but that game he won wasn't even close. He destroyed me.  I was impressed.

Considering we spent most of the time building decks, it was good to get a 3 game match in.

Of course when I was at the LGS I saw they had a Torrential Gearhulk, so of course I needed to pick it up.  I am still thinking that this card will have Snapcaster value moving forward.

That Defense Grid came from a trade we did after we played our matches.  I gave him an Eternal Masters Wasteland and a smattering of foils and rares for it.

I find it strange on how much good stuff he pulls.  I think the first bunch of cards, he pulled a foil Polluted Delta, and this bunch of cards he got this Masterpiece, but he also pulled his own Torrential Gearhulk.

Hopefully sometime he will make it up to the house and we can do some more trading so I can get him some more good cards older cards.

Thursday Pickups!

Not that Thursday Pickups is a normal thing, but it is what happened this week.

Headed up to my LGS and picked up these online purchases.  My LGS only does instore pickup, which I don't mind too much because I can see what else I can buy.  And with these Inventions I am trying to just pick them up in trades or buying them locally, so from time to time I will check their site and see if they have them.

My LGS (Mead Hall Games) has a rewards program where you get a $5 code for every $100 you spend there.  The only issue I have is that you can only use 2 codes per purchase.  So since I buy a lot there, I get a lot of codes, but I can't use them all at once.  The store has been good with splitting up my buys into multiple purchases, but I would think it would be a lot easier to use if they could just add them all to a single purchase.  I still keep a running tab of all the codes I have, and it just gets longer and longer, but I hope someday to be all caught up with my codes.

I can see why they might do this, so that people won't just get things for free and they have to buy more to get more, but it is annoying when I plop down $1000 for a pre-order, use 2 codes, and then get another 10 codes for what I bought.  It is doing what it is supposed to do, and it gets me to buy more, but it is annoying to have a rewards program that kind of works.

I am much more a fan of the 10% Discount Card from the Source.  You might pay them for the card, but the ROI on that card is crazy for someone who buys a lot.  Granted their prices are higher than other LGS, but it still works out in the long run.

Picked up these as well for $25 each, and was able to use a single $5 discount code, so really it was more like $23.75 each.  I know that I could just save up some cash and pick up a booster box for less, but yeah I just like buying stuff at my LGS and supporting them.

Old Disallow done!

Count: 1565

Quick and easy trade.  LP Voidslime that is basically Disallow that was just released in Aether Revolt.  Now think about it, this card is around $8.50 a card and does the same thing that Disallow does, but Disallow is 1 single color which is at $7.10.  So, what do you think is going to happen with Disallow?  Oh thats right, I can see a spike in the card coming up.  Lets just wait and see.

Trade me!

Collection Count: 1566

I got two trades in, but only got -2 on the count.  Both of these trades were fairly new traders, so I did not get much to choose from to go to the collection, but again I try and get those trades pushed through because they are new and I want them to trade for.  And, they really did not want much that are highly needed cards I have.

So the first trade was like so:

Picked up the City of Brass from 8th Edition which was my 4th one I needed, so that was nice to get. Love finishing up the playsets from the Edition I need.  In all honesty, it is an OCD thing, where I find comfort with removing a line from what I keep track in my Notes application.  One more line gone is just better than getting a single card removed.

I did pick up some Mythic cards, and the Narsets were just for fun.  The Dig is of course a speculation, but all in all I liked this trade.  If Frontier pops, then I might be in a better situation for the outcome of this trade.  I did trade away a Company and a fetchland but most of the cards this trader wanted were Standard cards.  I did trade away a miscut Birds of Paradise from Conspiracy: Take the Crown which was nice.  I did not think anyone would want those.

Next Trade!

I needed this one for the collection, and it also removed a line from Notes, so that was cool.

And these were the fodder.  As you have read, I am all about getting Magic Origins cards for speculation, but I did grab a playset of Dictate of Kruphix.  Just looked like an interesting card for the future.  And yet again, picked up another Dig.

This trade was interesting.  With new traders, they are a bit more high touch then seasoned traders. There is an issue with USPS and tracking on my end.  The tracking sometimes does not show up as updated until it hits the other end's post office, and there is a lot of worry that goes on because they think I did not send anything.  I can understand the freak out just cause I did a little freak out myself when it started happening.

Also, I really wanted to get this trade done because this person wanted a ton of stuff for his CUBE, and it was a lot of common cards.  So picking up this fodder was great because I am trading a lot of my bulk for fodder, and the trade up was great.  It was a lot of speculation cards, but considering what I was trading away, the up-trade was well worth it.  I think it ended up being $2 in his favor because of it.

Conditions of perfection!

Card Count: 1568

Deckbox trade coming in from a new trader that sent first.  I love these trades because they are new to Deckbox and are usually getting some high priced cards for junk.  I feel that it gets them pretty excited to use Deckbox more.

I want to point out that this trade has insanely perfect conditioned cards.  Like I needed to use my loupe because I thought they were fakes.  But really, who would counterfeit commons worth $0.16 cents?

Here they are, the perfection is delicious!

Future Sight

Lorwyn

Shadowmoor

Eventide

Planar Chaos

So yeah, lots of card to come in for a small amount going out, and the countdown is going down faster!  Great first trade for a new trader on Deckbox!