Total Foil Count: 3,792
Total Cards Needed Count: 917
It has been a while since I have updated the blog, and it is getting harder and harder to keep writing the blog. The simple updates just seem tedious and I am trying to find some more meat for the blogs. I guess I just don't want to put out content that says, "Look at me, I shipped out 100 more cards..."
As I think of what else to share on here, I thought I would post what I got with the new set that was released.
So, Ravnica Allegiance just came out, and I am starting my new budget rules. This means I am only picking up 2 Booster Boxes, 2 Bundles, and the Planeswalker decks. I am only going to be opening up the Bundle because I like the boxes they come in. I can also get a spin down life counter, and that basic land pack.
It is pretty amazing that they are switching it up a bit. They are not putting any basic lands in the packs, and WoTC has replaced them with Gates. So I was only able to get the basic lands from that land pack. In that land pack, they also added a single foil of each land, so that was pretty cool. They have also just release a single art for each land, which is really odd and makes me worry a bit. I just like to see all the different art for the basic lands, but it also makes me wonder if we will see a spike in basic land if they are making it even more difficult to get.
When the set got released, I ran up to my LGS and picked up my pre-order, and then only opened the Bundle. I am keeping the other Bundle for the collection, one Booster Box will go into the collection, and the other Booster Box goes into the "Trade Later" pile. I was really hoping to hear something about the Mythic Edition boxes, and I did not want to open a Booster Boxes up if they were going to release another round of the Mythic Edition ones.
Remember, I am trying to get rid of all my extra cards, and I want to avoid adding more cards that I no longer need to my inventory. My thought was to pick up the Booster Boxes at the LGS for the collection, and then get the Mythic Edition box to open because of those special foiled out cards that I would be cracking packs for anyway. Lucky for me, they did another release of this product!
There are a ton of Vlogs on YouTube about what happened the first time Hasbro tried to sell their product on their online toy store, and you can also find a bunch of videos on what happened when they moved it off to the Hasbro eBay store, so you can go out and see all that info for yourself. I am just happy I could get this product, and was able to get them at MSRP. There is some signs that the value of this set will be less than that, but we have never really cared about that with the entire collection in mind.
And so for the content of this Blog, I opened 1 Bundle and 1 Mythic Edition Booster Box for my set. That is a total of 34 packs. 10 from the Bundle, and 24 from the ME box. All in all it is going to be an add of 624 cards total.
360 cards for the ME Box
150 cards for the Bundle packs
80 cards for the land pack
34 cards for the tokens from all the packs.
I ended up getting 581 cards for the collection, 10 foil cards, and 19 cards in the bulk pile. There were also 14 cards that were put into the Mythic Edition set with 8 Foil Planeswalker cards and 6 tokens.
The important part in all this is that we only got 10 cards that we did not need with opening those 34 packs.
Now, for the interesting part, I am going to need to get 586 cards to finish out my playset, and that adds up to needing $989.23.
Mythic: $512.45
Rare: $403.72
Uncommon: $55.16
Common: $13.53
The pricing is all being taken on Feb 4th, 2019, and as we all know that after rotation the prices drop. What we are trying to prove out here is that in buying the sealed product we need, and only opening the products we are looking for things we need out of those specific products, we will be able to save close to $500 each release.
Booster Boxes: $240.00 for 2 boxes
Bundles: $77.40 for 2 Bundles
Planeswalker Decks: $32.24 for one of each
ME Booster Boxes: $537.60 for 2 boxes
Thus far we have spent $887.23 on sealed product and have only cracked $307.50 worth of product in order to get our sets that has netted us $583.15 worth of cards we do not have to worry about. Remember that we only cracked the ME Box for the special Planeswalker cards and that set alone is around $376.56 at this point in time.
So that means, right now we are in the green when it comes to costs. The sealed product will be kept that way, so in the long run it will only increase in value. I do understand that my cost basis for the sealed product is not very low at all, but being able to buy them at my LGS keeps that place in business, and I can continue to have a place I trust to play and buy things from. And in the long game, that $30.00 I could have saved per box from an online retailer is just not worth it to me right now. I do know that if I were to still buy in bulk, and try and pick up more sealed boxes, my LGS would cut me a better deal. But now, I am only picking up 2 sealed Booster Boxes, and they need to make their margins.
I know, you are all saying if I just bought a Booster Box from an online retailer and cracked all those packs, I would be sitting pretty close to where I am at right now with the RNA set, and it would have only cost me $90. But that is where you are wrong. I would not have a complete set of the Mythic Edition card and tokens, and I would be looking to have to spend over $300 to acquire all those cards. That would have put me closer to $400 for the same amount of product for the sets. This way, I am sitting where I am at now, and I have sealed product left over for the collection.
If you look at the fact that I used to spend close to $1040 for 10 Booster Boxes, and 4 Bundles, and after cracking all the packs I would still need close to $400 worth of rares to finish the set. I would also be left with close to 2500 cards I would need to get rid of. It was a never ending cycle of buying new product, increasing cards to my bulk inventory, and still needing to spend more money for more cards to get to where I needed to be.
This way, I am only picking up sealed product that I need for the collection, and then having to go out and pick up the cards I need rather than being left with a bunch of stuff I don't need. I have found the chase to find the cards is worth more than just buying an ass ton of crap and still having to chase after cards I need. And hopefully I get to save some money.
So right now, as it sits I need $989.23 worth of cards in order to finish out my playset. That is 586 more cards. Let's just wait to see what that dollar amount is in 2 years, and in the meantime I will be saving up that amount so that I can just send my LGS a list of cards I am looking for so they can fill it out with as much as they have.
Also, with CardSphere I plan to pick up a bunch of stuff with the trading balance that I keep building up to with getting rid of that bulk stuff that I have sitting around.
The best number out of it all is that we only added 19 cards into the bulk pile.
