24,769 to go, and got some more stuff

It has arrived!

Stopped up at my favorite LGS Mead Hall Games in Minneapolis and picked up this beauty today.

Not sure if I am going to open it or not.  I might just keep it with my Duel Deck and keep them sealed, but I do like having those cards free to build decks with like I do with my commander decks, but I am still on the fence.  I also broke down and finished off my Fetchlands, and picked up the final 3 Bloodstained Mires.  I know there is rumblings about the Fetchlands being reprinted, but I look at that from a collector, and having the originals will be worth more than the reprints.

I honestly hope they reprint them.  They are really good cards, and make game play much better.  The game is nothing without the competition and game play, and with more of these around would only make the game more accessible for others to play.

Also picked up this to finish out the set:

Now this is something that I would not open because I think it is just a collecting thing that I like to have.  I dont think it will go up in price, but it rounds out the collection.

I also picked up my last Stoneforge Mystic that I needed.  Now I have all the Worldwake rares, and just really need to concentrate on those last mythics that I need to get all the expensive cards in the set.  Still thinking about buying a seal booster box for the commons and uncommons that I need.

I have a Modern rare trade for sealed product coming in, so hopefully I will have another update.  I also was able to get a trade done for my last Scars of Mirrodin card that I needed to get my playset, so cant wait for that trade to come in too!

To foil or not to foil

So you have your foil cards...  I have been contemplating for quite some time if it is worth keeping all the foil cards I have in the case where I decided to start trying for a single set of each.  Would it be worth it?  Then, what all do I deem foil cards to collect?  Do I try and get them all?  Or just the main release ones?

I have been battling this question for quite some time, and I have always just put it off.  Keeping one of every card that I get a foil, and then trading the rest away.  I am just not sure what I will do.  Even as I write this, I am going back and forth in my head as to if I should try, even at a later date.

So for now, I am just going to keep at least one of each foil, just in case I decide to collect those foil cards...

I am leaning more toward not doing so, because I think they are stupid...

24,772 and counting

So today I got a very good trade come in.  I was able to get a large amount of Unlimited commons, and granted they were just commons, but now I only need 83 more Unlimited cards to fill that set.  I also got some Modern cards, but the Unlimited was the coolest part about that trade.  Also it looks like I only need one more Rare in Worldwake which is a Stoneforge Mystic, so that is pretty cool too.  I still need 14 Mythic Rares, and 274 Uncommons/Commons, but at least I am getting the rarer cards out of the way.

So all in all it was a good trade day.

Spreadsheet Update - Trade Tab

Here we are going to take a look at all the extra cards outside of the collection.  I call it the Trade tab because technically everything in this category is available for trade in order to complete the collection. This tab will look just like the Sealed tab by listing all the sets, Core, Expansion, and any opened special set that I have opened.

So you can see, we have all the sets listed on the left.  Then at the top I have split out the rarity with total column, and columns for Mythic Rare, Rare, Uncommon, Common, Land, Token, and Book.  We will get to the Book column in a second.

All of the rarity columns totals are being pulled from the set tabs in the Trade total sections.

Set Tab Total

We are looking at this section
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If you remember on each Set tab we have formulas that will look at the Trade columns and SUMIF up the totals by rarity.  This was done so we could see what type of rarity we had, and how much of that rarity we could put up for trade.

So on the Trade tab, we are taking all that information from all the Set tabs and compiling it to see the greater picture.  The sets are again split up by color to define the blocks, and Bold defines a Modern set, but we have added the same coloring for the rarity.  You will also see a dark grey only in the Mythic Rare column, and this was done to show that those are the sets without Mythic Rare cards.

Lets just take a look at a single set's formulas, and we will use Journey Into Nyx because we have values populated for that set.

Journey Into Nyx:
Column B: ='Journey Into Nyx'!$A$16
Column C: ='Journey Into Nyx'!$A$17
Column D: ='Journey Into Nyx'!$A$18
Column E: ='Journey Into Nyx'!$A$19
Column F: ='Journey Into Nyx'!$A$20
Column G: ='Journey Into Nyx'!$A$21
Column H: ='Journey Into Nyx'!$A$22
Column J: ='Journey Into Nyx'!$AE$1

You can see for the set Journey Into Nyx we are taking the totals from the Set tab ('Journey Into Nyx'), and we are looking as specific cells.  What are the $ for?  Well since we have a template for all our Set tabs, and you can find the same data in most of the same cells, we will use the $ when you define the cell to make sure that it does not increment when you copy a row to add a new set on the Trade tab.

What does that mean?  Well there are 4 new sets every year, and with those set adds every year I wanted an easy way to just copy a Row and paste it under the currently new set, and change the name of the set so that row would point to the new set tab name but keep the same cell values.

So, for the new set of Khans of Tarkir what I will do is create a 'Set tab' from the 'Set tab template' we created.  I would rename the Set tab to be 'Khans of Tarkir'.  Then I would go to the Trade tab, copy the Journey Into Nyx row, and insert the copied cells under the Journey Into Nyx row.  I would then rename the set name cell to be Khans of Tarkir, and change the color of the cell to light yellow to follow the Block separation.  Finally highlight the columns B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and J and click 'ctrl H' to pull up the replace sub-menu.  Find 'Journey Into Nyx' and replace it with 'Khans of Tarkir' and hit Replace All button.  This will replace the Set tab formulas with the set you are looking to change, but you need to remember to create the Set tab before trying to replace the set tab names in the formulas, or the replace will fail because the targets don't exist.

Khans of Tarkir:
Column B: ='Khans of Tarkir'!$A$16
Column C: ='Khans of Tarkir'!$A$17
Column D: ='Khans of Tarkir'!$A$18
Column E: ='Khans of Tarkir'!$A$19
Column F: ='Khans of Tarkir'!$A$20
Column G: ='Khans of Tarkir'!$A$21
Column H: ='Khans of Tarkir'!$A$22
Column J: ='Khans of Tarkir'!$AE$1

Just to give you an example of what I used to have to do before I started using the $ in the cell definition, I would do the exact same thing as above, but I would then have to go back into the cells and change the cell number because without the $, those number would change.  So if you copied that same row and copied it under the latest set, all the numbers would increment by 1 because of the way the spreadsheets work; 16 would become 17, and 17 would become 18, and so on.  Also in the same vein, if I were to paste the cells to the right by one cell B would become C, C would become D, and so on...

Now lets touch on the Column J used for 'Book'.  I have this formula looking at Cell $A$AE which is the total of all the cards that are in my tradebook for each set.
  - Earlier I explained that I wanted to keep track of all the cards in my tradebook so I could know what the value is on cards that I carry around with me for trade.  While all the totals on this sheet define the complete trading fodder in all the cards, the Book values is used just to define what I have in my trade binder.

Then at the bottom row I have the totals for each column which will give me a quick peek as to what the value is for each type of rarity.  I only find this important when I have thoughts of selling my entire collection.  Since stores really only look at valued cards, it is pretty easy to grab the Mythic Rare and Rare and set a specific % to how much I could get from a store, then lower that % for each Uncommons, Commons, and Lands.

Spreadsheet Update - Sealed Tab: Packs

So we have gone through the decks that WoTC releases, but now lets go through the sealed packs and the different variations of how packs are released to the public and what we keep.

I have a goal to have at least 1 sealed booster box per Core and Expansion set all the way back to Revised and The Dark.  Yeah, totally crazy but I am hoping to at least one day have a sealed box of Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and Legends but I really have only seen Legends for sale on IDeal808.com.

So the rest of this tab is going to be used to keep track of all the the sealed product I own.  The issue that I have hit with this tab through the years is that there are many different forms of packs.  I have tried to gather up the data on every type because I own many different variations from many different sets.

Dk = Preconstructed Deck
Bo = Booster Pack
Box = Booster Box
St = Starter Deck
Fa = Fat Pack
FB = Fat Pack Box

As you can see I have grouped the expansion sets by block, and separated the blocks by different colors.  There is no defined reason for the color other than to separate them from each other.  You will also notice that some of the sets are in Bold, those sets are the ones accepted in Modern, and the non-bold sets are Vintage/Legacy sets.  I know you can use Modern cards in Vintage/Legacy decks, but I needed a way to split up the older cards with the newer cards.  This also follows the way I have split up the cards stored in the boxes.

Column B, C, D, E, F, and G are used to keep count of the different products.
 *I keep track of opened Fat Pack boxes in Column G, there is no card count assigned to these counts, but I just like to keep track of how many boxes I have.

Column H is used to show the price of a complete Sealed Booster box that is manually inputed.
Column I is used to show the price of a complete Sealed Starter Box that is manually inputed.
Normally I gather the prices from www.abugames.com.

Column K is going to be the card count total for all the sets
Column L is going to be used to get the card count for Preconstructed Decks
Column M is going to be used to get the card count for Booster Packs
Column N is going to be used to get the card count for Booster Boxes
Column O is going to be used to get the card count for Starter Packs
 - Some of the older prices are based on deck rather than boxes of Starter Packs.
Column P is going to be used to get the card count for Fat Packs

Column R is going to be used to get a total price count of Booster boxes

Formulas
Column L: =IF(B2="","",(B2*60))
 - This will look at what is in cell B2 and multiply it by 60 as preconstructed decks have 60 cards

Column M: =IF(C2="","",(C2*15))
 - This will look into cell C2 and multiply it by 15 as booster packs have 15 cards

Column N: =IF(D2="","",((D2*36)*15))
 - This will look into cell D2 and multiple it by number of packs then by number of cards since booster boxes have 36 packs of 15 cards

Column O: =IF(E2="","",(E2*60))
 - This will look into cell E2 and multiply if by 60 as starter packs have 60 cards

Column P: =IF(F2="","",(((9*15)+80)*F2))
 - This will look into cell F2 and multiply it by ((number of packs * cards in pack) + land pack) since fat packs normall have 9 booster packs of 15 cards, and an 80 basic land pack

*If you notice, all the formulas for the count will do a check to see if the cell is empty.  If it is empty, then it will stay empty, but if there is a value in the cell it will preform the formula.

Column R: =IF(D2>0,D2*H2," ")
 - This will look into cell D2 and see if the value is greater than 0, if it is it will multiply the number of boxes by the price manual gathered, if not then it will post a blank cell.

So in this section we have all the Core and Expansion, then we have all the pack types, and we should be able to keep track of the numbers of each pack/box.  Then we will find the card count of the sealed products as well as the total prices of the sealed booster boxes.  We will use this later on the Total page, but for now on this page you can see the totals on Row 97.

Cell K97: =SUM(K2:K96)
Cell R97: =SUM(R2:R96)

Spreadsheet Update - Sealed Tab: Decks

So, now we have the set tabs all setup so we can collect the data and then see what we have, what we need, and how much everything is worth and how much we need to collect for every Core and Expansion set out there.  So now we are going to get into the weeds of taking all that data, and putting it into forms that we can use to summarize the entire collection as a whole.

Just remember, this is how I use the data to keep an inventory, average how much I need to spend to finish my collection, and to plan on how much more space I need to finish the collection.  I not only keep track of the dollar value of the collection, but I can get card counts and see what is available for trade.

I will be working backwards to the Collection Tab because that tab gathers data from all the sub tabs, which collects data from all the set tabs.

Sealed Tab: Decks

This section of the Sealed Tab shows counts and inventory of sealed decks that are in the collection. This would include Duel Decks, Commander Deck, From the Vault series and so on...

Lets take a look at the section:

Set Color Code:
Red = Need to get
Black = Have

Price Color Code:
Black = Need to get
Blue = Have

Total Color Code:
Green = Total

Just wanted to add that I use color to gain focus so that is why Sets Needed has a color, and Price has a color.

























Column Definitions
Column T: You can see that I keep track of the years these small sets were released
Column U: Sets and Set Names.  Here I try and keep everything together, like all the From the Vault decks, all the Premier Deck Series, Planechase and so on...
Column V: This is the count column, but it will also accept a 'O' which stands for Opened.  I wanted to keep track of the sets I have, but I also wanted to keep track of the sets I have opened for the cards to play with in my Cube.
Column W: I use this column to keep track of what I have paid to get the set.  In some cases I have put 'Trade' to define that I have traded something to obtain the set.
Column Y: Current Prices that have to be manually looked up
Column Z: Listed card count in the set, I am using this for the level set in the formulas, so if I own more than one set I can gather an accurate card count.
Column AB: Value total column where we will take the count column and multiply it by the current price column.
Column AC: Total count column where we will take the count column and multiply it by the listed card count column.

Column Formulas:
Column AB: =IF(V3="O","",V3*Y3)
Column AC: =IF(V3="O","",Z3*V3)

So what does this do for us?  This will allow us to keep track of all the subsets that are released, and we can also keep track of the ones that are open as well.  I should add, that any set that has been opened will have a set tab so that we can keep track of the cost of the set in the set tab and not a complete sealed deck, and that is why we needed the 'O' option so we did not double count the price and card count of the sets that were opened.

24,833 to go

Couple of more trades came in, and I am wondering if I should start posting my trades and why I did them, but that might be too much.  But the trade I am really waiting for is the Unlimited commons coming from Canada.  I am always worried about trades from Canada for some reason.  I have only done 3, and all of them have gone very smooth.  I think it is just the fact that it is not cost effective to pay for tracking that worries me the most.

Here is the count
Mythic: 146
Rare: 7341
Uncommon: 8377
Common: 7932
Basic Land: 1344

I got 5 rares and 2 mythic rares in these last two trades.
1 M11 Mythic Rare
1 Zendikar Mythic Rare
1 Shards of Alara Rare
4 Darksteel Rares

One of the Darksteel rares needs to be traded out because it came in as Played, but since they were just throw in rares to get the trade more even I am ok without saying anything.  And it was a full playset, so it accomplished something outside of just getting a trade done.

Spreadsheet Update - Color / Rarity Needs

4. Number of cards needed by color
5. Number of cards needed by rarity

Through my counting and planning I wanted to know how many more 3200 count boxes I would need in order to keep the organization I have setup.  I had not completed playsets for each of the editions yet, but I wanted to know if the needed cards would be too much for the boxes I already have.

With this feature enhancement I can look at the Cards Needed columns, look at the Type, and sum those number counts that I needed.  Then I could gather all the needed numbers from all the edition tabs and compile them in a single spreadsheet to find the totals.  From those totals I could separate the Modern from the Legacy cards, and figure out how much space I would need to store all the cards together.

I also wanted to validate how many more Mythic Rares, Rares, Uncommons, and Commons were needed to fill out my playsets.  So in the same formulas I did the same thing but looking at the rarity.

Here is the new spreadsheet, and we are going to be looking at Column A and B with Rows 42 - 59.

W stands for White
U stands for Blue
B stands for Black
R stands for Red
G stands for Green
D stands for Gold
C stands for Colorless
A stands for Artifact
L stands for Land



M stands for Mythic Rare
R stands for Rare
U stands for Uncommon
C stands for Common
L stands for Land
T stands for Token



Cell A42: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"White",Z2:Z602)
Cell A43: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Blue",Z2:Z602)
Cell A44: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Black",Z2:Z602)
Cell A45: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Red",Z2:Z602)
Cell A46: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Green",Z2:Z602)
Cell A47: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Gold",Z2:Z602)
Cell A48: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Colorless",Z2:Z602)
Cell A49: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Artifact",Z2:Z602)
Cell A50: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Land",Z2:Z602)

This should look into the W column and check the color of the card, and then SUM the number of cards needed from the Z column.  So for each category I am able to see how many of each color I need. And since we are sorting by Vintage/Modern/Standard, then by color this will allow me to total up all the counts for each of the Vintage/Modern/Standard sets to see how much space I need when filling up the boxes I have.

Cell A55: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"M",Z2:Z602)
Cell A56: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"R",Z2:Z602)
Cell A57: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"U",Z2:Z602)
Cell A58: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"C",Z2:Z602)
Cell A59: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"L",Z2:Z602)
Cell A60: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"T",Z2:Z602)

This should look into the X column and check the rarity, and then SUM the number of the cards needed from the X column.  So this will basically let me know what I need to concentrate on when trading.  I have my need lists in Evernote, but as I am trying to concentrate on Modern blocks and Vintage sets I want to make sure that I look at the sets that I need rares in.

So for instance, Worldwake I only need Mythic Rares, so I am not as worried about that set as I am the other sets where I need more of the rares.  The issue was that I just had a total number of cards that I needed per set, but I really didn't know what that meant.  So not I can see that Worldwake total at 296 and out of that number I really only care about 17 Mythics, and 5 Rares.

Or I can see my Mercadian Masques total is set to 64 more cards needed, but with this new enhancement I know that 58 of those needed are basic lands.

You will be able to see more from the Total and Collection tabs when I get there.

**EDIT**

I needed to add some Cell configurations and decided to edit this blog to incorporate the changes.  Just in case someone wants to follow along and build their own spreadsheet.  This way they will not need to go back and edit all their Set Tabs with this new information.

Cell A65: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"M",AA2:AA600)
Cell A66: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"R",AA2:AA600)
Cell A67: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"U",AA2:AA600)
Cell A68: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"C",AA2:AA600)
Cell A69: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"L",AA2:AA600)
Cell A70: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"T",AA2:AA600)


This will gather price totals for all the cards that still need to be bought, and separate those totals out by rarity.

Conspiracy Pre-Order - IDeal808.com

www.ideal808.com

So, what to do about this new set coming out....

I have no idea what to think about this set, and frankly I hope it does not sell a lot and they stop making sets like this.  It was hard enough to get Modern Masters last year, and now I have to get some of this to keep up the collection.  Now, I know I have a full play set of Portal, Unglued, and working on Portal Second Age, but I consider this set like those.  Do I get a full playset?  Do I treat it like Modern Masters and just get a single card of the set?  Well, I did pre-order 4 boxes from IDeal808 and I should have one more booster box coming from The Mead Hall Games, but really this set just makes me upset as a collector.

To me it seems like WoTC had such a good showing with Modern Masters that they decided to make a little more money with this set.  Now this set is not priced higher than normal packs, so I have a hope that they will be treated like any other set, but I have heard grumblings that it will be a short print like Modern Masters.  I really think that with the 4 sets a year to collect was good enough.  I mean come on...

Year sets:
3 Expansions
1 Core
2 Duel Decks
1 From the Vaults

And now I hear that they will be doing Commander Decks every year!!!!!  Man....

I have budgeted to get all this with the addition of 2 of the Holiday boxes, in which I hope they keep doing because I like the sticker/card separators/boxes, but if they keep adding an additional set to get I might have to consider just collecting 1 of every reprint and then a full playset for all the new cards.

Rant off: so I was able to pre-order a box from www.ideal808.com for around $115 and I dont know what the price from the Mead Hall Games is just yet.  It is coming out soon, so I hope they let me know what the price is going to be.

The set only has 210 cards, with 65 of them being new.  I will have to see how this set goes, I might have an update to this later once I open the packs.

Update: Looks like Mead Hall Games is not selling any of their boxes, as they want to get people in the stores for multiplayer drafts, so not going to be getting a box from Mead Hall Games.

24,840 and Counting

So today I go a Big trade, a Middle Trade, and a single card trade in the mail today.  I am now down to 24,840 cards needed.  All the cards I got today were Rares and Mythic Rares, so all in all it was a good day.  I was able to remove them from my deckbox.org Inventory because I dont trust my entire Inventory on that site, I removed the cards from my Evernote notebook, and added them to my spreadsheet inventory.

I also tried to start my Mac application, but did not get far...

For the best note, I was able to complete my playset of Nemesis!  I love completing playsets, it allows me to just move on to the other sets that I do need.  Most of the cards that I got today were from Prophecy to Scourge, and I did take a big chunk out of my Coldsnap needs.

Looks like I still have 4 more trades waiting to come in, but making progress in total.

Mythic Rare: 148
Rare: 7346
Uncommon: 8377
Common: 7932
Basic Land: 1344

Vintage: 9136
Modern: 16006

I am still trying to get all the Pre-Modern cards first while working back from the most recent sets in Modern.  I just need one more Scars of Mirrodin to finish that set, Rise of the Eldrazi I need 9 but are all mythics, Worldwake is mostly commons and uncommons, and Zendikar is rares and mythic rares.

The next closest block that is complete is the Shards block, but that is pretty slow going.  I only need Rares and Mythic Rares from those sets.

For most of the sets, I plan on buying Fat Packs and Booster boxes for the common/uncommons.  And I have found that I need to go to LGS for the basic lands.

More later!

25,576 to go

So I thought I would document my travels into trying to complete my collection.  Currently I am at needing 25,576 more magic cards.

Why 25,576?

I am trying to get a playset of all the Core and Expansion sets.  With the exception of Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Arabian Nights, Legends, and Antiquities; where I am just trying to get 1 of each because I am not a millionaire and I still need to save for my retirement...  :-)  Also, I am not going to start on Starter and Portal Third Age because again I am not loaded, and the only reason I have Portal, Portal Second Age, and Unglued is because those were released when I was playing back then.

Now if you have been following my poor attempts at writing blogs on how I have my collection setup, then you know of my spreadsheets, and how I have everything laid out.  You also know where my LGS are, and some of the things I have purchased.  So now I am just trying to add more of a reason to write, because writing this blog without a purpose is getting dry to me, and I need something to flavor it up.

So here we are 25,576 left.  From deckbox.org I have some more cards coming in.  I found this wonderful couple in East Grand Forks, MN that was willing to trade me bulk rares for sealed product, so I am trying to get some of my loose packs (Not in a sealed booster box) for those rares.  I figure it is a good trade off, where they can get rid of rares they don't need or use, and I can get rid of packs that I dread opening because I dont want to sort them...

I am hoping to get 500+ cards this weekend from trades that I have done this week.  I also received my first purchase from deckbox.org which finished my Fallen Empires and Revised plays sets, so that was pretty exciting.  I also got 2 more cards closer to my Legends set, but the Cleanse was a bit beat up more that I would like, so I will most likely try and trade for a better one later after I complete phase 1.

Phase 1, yeah I should go into the phases that I am trying to complete, so...

Phase 1: Get Playsets for all the Core and Expansion sets
Phase 2: Get all the Duel Decks/From the Vaults/Beginner sets
Phase 3: Trade the not NM/M cards for NM/M cards
Phase 4: 1 Sealed Booster Box of every Core and Expansion set

Of course that will change, and I already got all the FTV sets and I am only missing 1 Duel Deck, but you get my drift.

Oh and I forgot, I think I am only going to get 1 of the reprint sets IE Modern Masters.  I only say 1 because if I am going to try and get the play sets of the originals then there is no need to get a play set of the re-releases.

I am still on the fence with Conspiracy, but I have my pre-order in and I am waiting to see what that is all about.

Commander and Planechase I already have a full set of those as well, with Commander 2013 being the only set that I kept another full set unopened.