Spreadsheet Redesign

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So my plans to keep going with this Blog has hit a process issue.  So really, we separate all the cards out, but then you need to keep track of what you own, what you can trade, and what you need.  So with this in mind, I am re-designing my spreadsheets.

Before I had a single spreadsheet that held the database I pulled from TCGPlayer.com and the inventory of all my cards.

Database Sheet:

Inventory Sheet:

So why am I doing this?

- Well in the old spreadsheet I had all my cards in a single column.  The inventory sheet would reference the database sheet and SUM the number of cards owned to the price giving you the total price of that single card owned.  In order to find out the price that card, I would have to change the number owned to '1' so that I would just see the price of the single card.

- Also, I did have a place that showed what foil cards I had as well, but there was no real pricing done with them.  It was mainly used to show how many I had.

- I also never split up what I was willing to trade, so I really never knew how much my collection was worth, I just had a complete price of all the cards I had.

So, I am trying to split up the spreadsheets a bit.  My first thought was to keep separate spreadsheets for each collection, for trade, and foil, but that really brought a process issue in having to keep up with multiple spreadsheets.  I decided to keep all the numbers in a single spreadsheet, but I would split up the pricing database into a separate spreadsheet.  This way I can update the prices, but keep the inventory in a different place.

Also, my original spreadsheet became too large in size since I had all my inventory and all the database information in a single spreadsheet, so splitting them up would make things more manageable.

New Format:

As you can see I have 3 different columns.  Collection, Trade, Foil.  This will allow me to gather the data on my collections and keep everything on a single spreadsheet.  I will go through this more when I get finished, as I am just trying to reconfigure all my tabs.  Hopefully we can keep a baseline of what is needed for the spreadsheets, and additions to the design will be easy to update.

Commander Sealed

Ok, so a couple of days ago I went online to buy up a full set of Commander decks.  It was the 5 decks that WotC put out a couple of years ago.  The only reason I went out and did this purchase was because WotC announced that there will be a new set of 5 Commander decks coming out in the fall.

So since I am a collector, my thinking was that with this new set coming out, the original set is going to be worth more.  I went on eBay and purchased it from Linden Cards, I think they are from Iowa.  I have had good luck buying from these guys before.

- Side story
I had bought a Zendikar Fat Pack from them earlier in the year.  It was a slightly higher than I wanted the price to be, and after checking around I paid too much for it, but it was worth it.  The stupid thing was that I just bought it because I wanted the full card art on the land, but when I was sorting the Fat Pack into my collection I found a whole stack of Zendikar land, so I was a bit miffed that I bought the fat pack.  Granted I did not have the fat pack box, and that is pretty cool to add to my collection, but still not worth the price I paid.
- End story

Ok, back to the Commander stuff.  So I bought the full set of 5 decks for around $330.00.  With shipping it is closer to $350.00.  With that being said, doing some research I also found the set of 5 going for closer to $399.99 on eBay.  But when checking Amazon.com I found them going for closer to $475.00.  Today I checked the prices and I saw that Linden Cards just raised their price to $375.00 on eBay, so overall I think it was a good purchase.  Granted, my purchase of the full set might have caused Linden Cards to raise the price anyway, but I did get the full set of 5 decks at a good price, from a buyer that I do like.

But with all this being said, I decided to also purchase the Commander's Arsenal as well.  I found the full set on eBay for $229.00 shipping included from the eBay seller pitchout1. Now I just bought the cards, so lets see if the cards come in the mail.  Again, the only reason I bought the cards was because of the news that there is a new Commander set coming out.

In hindsight I should have bought the sets earlier in the year when the Commander Arsenal set was closer to $199.00 and the Commander 5 deck set was around $299.00.

I mean, I do like playing EDH, don't get me wrong.  But I thought that now would be a good time to pull the trigger in getting the cards for my collection since they are releasing a new set.  I will be opening all the sets to sort into my Pre-Modern collection, and I plan to play with all the cards.  I have put thought into buying another set to keep unopened, but I am not sure I will pull that trigger.  Maybe that will be another blog for me to write.

20130729 UPDATE: So after opening all the decks, and sorting them and putting them into my spreadsheet, the price of the full set of 5 decks prices out to be $486.41.  So that means if you can buy the set of 5 decks for less than this price, you are technically ahead of the game.  This is also going off the medium prices on TCGPlayer.com.  Considering that you are pulling the cards from sealed packages and putting them right into sleeves they might be considered prices at the high amount.  It is just hard to do that since TCGPlayer.com has started to allow everyone sell on their site, and people are over pricing their cards.

Keepers

We have figured out that we are going to keep three collections:

Pre-Modern
Modern
Standard

Being a player and a collector you will want to keep a playset of each card.  Since you can have up to 4 of any one card in your deck, that means we will want to keep 4 of every card.  Now I know there are reprints, but being a collector you will still want to have 4 of every card to complete your sets.

That means that in each collection you will have some of the same cards.  Now you could put all the reprints together in any one collection, but that is just too much work to do.  With every new release you would have to go through the many boxes just to get the reprints and put them with the other cards.  If you just collect 4 of every card and keep them in the collections we have set up you will still be able to build decks based on the specific collection you are looking in, and also still have each set together.

Now you might do something different, but that is how I have decided to do it to minimize time, but also keeping the cards in order to keep the collecting going.

With all this said, there are cards that you might want to keep more than 4 of because they are useful and you might want to have more than one deck using those cards.  One example is Force of Will.  I have kept 8 of those due to their usefulness.  Another example is dual lands.  You will always be able to use dual lands, and they are also great cards to use for trading later.

Ok, so three collections with 4 of each card.

But talking about playsets, we should really define what a playset is.  For Vintage there is a restricted list.  You will never have a deck with 4 Black Lotus in it, so technically a playset is 1 Black Lotus.  With that being said, a full playset would be 4 of every card that is not on a restricted list and one of every card that is on the restricted list, but being a collector you would still want to have 1 of every card.  So, it is a pretty big punch to the nuts, but 1 Alpha Black Lotus, 1 Beta Black Lotus, and 1 Unlimited Black Lotus should be the goal.  Yeah, thats big punch to the nuts...

If you could ever get to this point, that would be the crown jewel of collections.  Maybe someday...

I would also add having one of ever banned card would also be the goal.  Banned cards are normally ante cards, and cards like Chaos Orb.  You will never see a deck with Chaos Orb in it, but you will still want to get one of each of those.  And no one plays for ante anymore, but you will still want those as well.

Collection Separation

So since I had been collecting from 1995 to about 1998 I had a lot of older cards, Alpha to Exodus.  On top of that my father kept collecting through Urza's Destiny so there were many other cards that I needed to sort into the collection.  I should add that my father and I played around the same time, seeing as how he was the one who got me into MTG, and now the collection consisted of his cards as well as my old ones.

I had played MTG on and off with friends from 2000 to 2007 and then I stopped to concentrate on work.  Then when I started my new job, I was travelling a lot, and my boss used to play Dungeons & Dragons, so we went up to Target and picked up a Magic 2011 Starter Tool Kit and some packs.  We then started to play on a regular basis, buying New Phyrexia and Innistrad and beyond.

So I had close to 80,000 cards pre Urza's Destiny, and a growing collection of the new cards, but I was missing 8 years of sets that had come out that I did not have.  I also missed out on all the Premium Decks, From the Vault, Duel Decks, and Commander decks.

So first I needed to separate the older card with the newer cards, but the problem I hit, that there were new play deck versions that you could play.  Back when I used to play there were only 3 playing types:

Type 1 - All cards with a restriction and banned list

Type 1.5 - All cards with a banned list

Type 2 - Only the recent sets with a restricted and banned list

Now there were many more versions of play styles:

Vintage - Type 1

Legacy - Type 1.5

Modern - Eighth and up

Commander (EDH) - 100 card with a legendary commander and only one card of any type

Standard - 2 most recent blocks with the current core

Block - only cards in a specific block

There are many other types of deck types, but with these major ones in mind, I decided to separate my cards so that it would be easier to build decks off of that.  I split up my collection into 3 different types:

Pre-Modern

Modern

Standard

This way I would be able to build a Vintage, Legacy, or Commander deck out of all the different collections.  Then if I wanted to play Modern I would go through the Modern and Standard collection.  Standard would of course just be pulled from the Standard collection.  If I ever wanted to play Block, I would have to go to the specific collection that the block existed in.  Considering that Cold Snap was released awhile after the Ice Age block, but is considered Modern legal I would have to pick the cards out of two collections.

Either way, I had a way to split up my cards into manageable collections so I could keep things straight and not have to go through a ton of boxes to build a Standard deck.  And I picked the Standard playing decks because when I started playing again my goal was to always play Standard, but you will find out later that I switched to Commander because of cost.

Now that I had the general purpose collections in mind I started the sort.  Splitting up all the cards into their sets, and then placing the sets into boxes that were Pre-Modern, Modern, and Standard.  Next we will talk about the card count in the collection as to how many of a single card I would keep of any one set.

And it begins

So I began playing Magic: the Gathering (MTG) back in 1995, right after Homelands was released.  I was more of a player then, and just bought and traded cards to build decks to play.  I played and collected cards up until Exodus, and had to stop because I had found the pastime of drinking and partying, so my budget switched from MTG to last call.

Since I stopped collecting, I kept playing with the cards that I did own.  Finding a few friends to teach, and other friends that still played but did not buy any new cards.  Since then, I have plunged back into MTG as a player, but more as a collector and I have found that there is not a lot out there on how people buy, sell, trade, or collect the cards in general.

For the past couple years I have been trying to fine tune my collecting as not to waste my budget on cards that will not have value in the years past standard play, but also figure out a way to stock up on the cards that I feel will hold value in the coming years.  As a collector, it is necessary to sort your cards in a manner that will allow you to inventory your cards as well as make them easy to find when you build decks.  In this blog I hope to add insight for other collectors/players so that they find it easier to keep up with this pastime we call MTG.

What I hope to cover in the coming days is getting my collection in order, how I sort my cards, what categories I keep my cards in, where I spend my money, what I save as sealed for future trading, and what I think is important in a set.  Again, I am not so much a FNM player, but someday I am hoping to find the time to get into playing more at a competitive level.

Some people might think I am foolish in spending money on some of the things I do for my collection when I could be spending money on more cards.  From my perspective it is just about the cards themselves, but the collection as a whole.

I also hope this helps other collectors out there, or wanna be collectors of any card game.