13,823 Crucible and an Alara Reborn card

Picked up these two things of beauty.  Had to trade away some EDH stuff to get them, but all in all a good trade.  I am a bit down from the trade since it was proposed, but I think I will do good on this one.  Only 4 more Alara Reborn cards left to fill out the set, and my first Tenth Edition Crucible.

15,015 Modern pickup while I pick up my PreOrder

As always, before I go into my LGS I search their website for things to buy.  And looks like they picked up a couple of things I have been looking for.  And I also picked up some stuff I was not looking for!  :)

Blood Moon, Hallowed Fountains, and the Twilight Mire were what I ordered before I went into the store, and added a Wrath of God from Tenth, along with 4 Tendo Ice Bridges.  Funny thing is I thought the Tendo Ice Bridges were lands I needed from Coldsnap, and did not realize that I bought something I really wasn't looking for until I got home and added them to my spreadsheets.

Anywho... I am just happy I got another Blood Moon!

BAM!  As with every set I buy, I try and pick up a playmat.  Got me some Liliana, which I think was the best art of the Planewalker Origin's playmats.  I also picked up a trade binder.  This is not any trade binder though.  Normal trade binders have 9 slots on each page, but this trade binder comes in 4 X 3 pages.  So that means you can show off your complete playset in the binder!!!  How cool is that?! So yeah, it was about time I picked up one of these, and I am sad it took me this long to do it.  I am sure happy I watched that Tolarian Community College YouTube video that exposed me to this wonderful binder.

13,825 Wasteland for some Modern Gold

So yes, I traded away a Wasteland for these stupid cards.  And yes, I was sober when I did it.  But really, I picked up a couple of lands and my final Azura, what more could I ask for.  And before you say that the lands will more than likely be reprinted in MM set, I poop on you.

13,829 Ensnare my Bridge!

Ok, so this one was another down trade, but I feel bad about this one.  He was looking for a bunch of Standard cards, and this was the only card I could find that I needed from him, and he was willing to do the trade, but I expect that I will be up on this trade after Khans rotates out of Standard.  It was the second trade with this local trader, so maybe if he starts up another trade I will see if I can adjust it more in his favor.

13,830 Kiki me Likely

First trade with this trader, and he was willing to down trade for this.  I did trade away a Fetch Land from Khans of Tarkir, and some black Legacy rares, but I am just happy to get this one off the priorty list.  For some reason I have found it difficult to get these.

Magic Origins

Got my normal Pre-order for Magic Origins, and I do see the prices increasing since the release, but with all the other Core sets, I can only assume they will go down with due time.  There was some reprints of cards that are like the power nine, but a little weaker, and I think players will find ways to make them strong.

Picked up some Fat Packs along with the pre-order.  Nothing really special with the Fat Packs, but hoping for some full art lands with Battle for Zendikar!

Normally I do not pick up the Clash Packs, but this set released some good cards in the Clash Pack. The only reason I picked up this one was because there was an alternate art Siege Rhino, and a couple other good Standard cards.  But they also released a Fetch Land with this pack, and that does not mean much but I think that this Clash Pack has a possibility of going up in price because of the special foil cards, and the Fetch Land.  So, yeah I just picked one up.

15,024 ABUGames Repacks! 8th & 9th Edition

So I finally got the balls to try this out, and let me tell you it was good and bad.  So lets go through and see how well we did with buying Repacks.

Now to start this off, what the hell is a repack.  A repack is what a LGS does when a set comes out, and they open a bunch of boosters, take all the good and wanted cards.  Then they take all the crap they dont want, Repack them into 15 card boosters, and sell them as 'Repacks'.

Why in the hell would I do something like this?  You see, since the LGS knows they are selling you crap you technically get a better deal.  Lets say that you need all the commons and uncommons from a set.  If you were to go out and purchase complete playsets of the commons and uncommons it could cost you around $150.  Again, the LGS knows they are selling you crap, so they only sell it to you for around $30.

So that is 36 boosters of 1 throw away rare, 3 crappy uncommons, and 11 shit commons all for the low low price of $29.99!  That is 540 cards for $29.99!  That is $0.18 a card.

(Just wanted to point out that the rare that I got from my first pack was from 9th Edition)

What my thinking was, get a couple of these Repacks for some sets I have barely anything for and see what I get that I need, what extra crap do I get, and what would the cost difference be if I just bought all the cards that I got.  So I bought 2 Booster Box Repack from 8th Edition and 2 from 9th Edition.  Lets start out with the first 8th Edition Booster Box

Old Collection Card Count Total: 16,205

8th Edition
Old Collection Value Total: $214.59
Old Trade Value Total: $0.00

After Opening the first booster box I got 5 rares from 9th Edition.  I also got 2 lightly played cards, along with 10 played cards.  The played cards were so bad that I just threw them away.  But lets break down the 8th Edition Rares that I did get from the box.

Rares:
2 White
8 Blue with 1 duplicate
4 Black
6 Red with 1 duplicate
6 Green with 1 duplicate
5 Artifacts
- With any normal booster box, you would rarely see a duplicate rare being pulled from the same box.

With the uncommons, the only complaint I have is there were a couple of the cards that I got a crazy amount of the same card.  Normally you would see max 5 uncommons of the same card, but there were some cases that I got 12 of the same uncommon card out of all the packs.

Going through the numbers, this is what I recorded.
First Box Collection: $69.06
First Box Trade: $22.10

Old Collection Total $214.59 - New Collection Total $283.65 = $69.06
New Trade Total: $22.10

So before I opened the first box, I had $214.59 worth of cards in my collection.  Then I added all the cards that I needed for 8th Edition into my collection and I ended up with $283.65.  If I subtract those two numbers we end up with $69.06.  That means, I spent $29.99 on that booster box, and was able to add $69.09 worth of value to the collection.  Which is a pretty big add if you ask me.  That would mean a 100% down trade.  I would also like to add that I also got $22.10 extra in cards that I did not need, but I also need to add that I am most likely never going trade/sell them away because no one will want them.

So, with that down, let see what we ended up with after opening the second box of 8th Edition.

1st Booster Collection Total: $283.65
1st Booster Trade Total: $22.10

2nd Booster Collection Total: $317.71
2nd Booster Trade Total: $79.60

For the Collection
$317.71 - $283.65 = $34.06
$79.60 - $22.10 = $57.50

As you can see the trade total went up more than the collection total, and this is what you would expect.  Since the first box filled out more of what we needed, the second box would fill out less, and we would see a higher increase in the trade value.  So really, with the second box we added $34.06 to the collection, and $57.50 to the trade.  So we spent $29.99 for $34.06 worth of cards.  Buying a third box would be worthless, and it would be more cost efficient to spend that $29.99 on singles to fill out the set.

Total out of the 2 Repack Boxes:
8th Edition Collection: $103.12
8th Edition Trade: $79.60
Total 8th Edition = $182.72

So you can see, we spent $59.98 on 2 Repack of 8th Edition, and added $103.12 to the collection.  Leaving $79.60 of junk to the trade binder.  All in all I think it was a good buy in getting 2 Repack Booster boxes, but I would not go any higher than that.

I will go through the same thing with the 9th Booster boxes, and you will see I got more of a gain because I had less cards in the collection for 9th Edition.

I would also like to add that I did open one pack that did not have any uncommons, and on the second booster box, I got another 5 rares from 9th Edition.

*****
9th Edition
Old Collection Value Total: $274.46
Old Trade Value Total: $0.00

With this set I just opened the 2 boxes and sorted everything out.  I proved what I wanted to know in the 8th Edition opening, and just wanted to get it done.  But the same thing happened, and lets just get to the numbers.

Total out of the 2 Repack Boxes:
9th Edition Collection: $120.12
9th Edition Trade: $73.26
Total 8th Edition = $193.38

So here we can see that I spent $59.98 and added $120.12 to the collection, and $73.26 to the trade binder.  All in all, it was a good buy, but yes again I would not buy more than 2 repack boxes per set, and I would also need more than 1000 cards to complete the set.  Pretty much needing all the commons and uncommons.

The only issues I saw with the 9th Edition repacks, 3 of the packs only had 2 uncommons, and I got 2 8th Edition uncommons in both boxes.

After opening all 4 boxes I went from 16,205 to 15,024.  That was over 1000 cards added to the collection for only $120.00.  That comes out to around $0.12 a card.  A little high for a common card, but hey.

I am pretty sure I would not do this again, and the cards that I did get extra were completely a waste, but it does give me an idea to try and see if I can get something together to try and sell.  Better than what ABU Games is offering, and worth more to a collector than the repacks.

16,205 Magic Origins has been added to the countdown

Here we go, here we go...here we go!

Last core set for the game.  From a personal point of view I think they should have done this a long time ago.  From a collector's point of view, I think they should have done this a long time ago.  From a player's point of view, I think they should have done this a long time ago.

It was a no load set in my eyes.  Most of the cards you were buying were reprints.  No new story involved, nothing really great being pulled from previously released sets.  Just a bunch of reprints I had to buy to keep the collecting up.  When I got back into Magic I was pretty happy with it, but now I am just sick of wasting money.  Honestly I wish they would release 3 new sets, and 1 Modern Masters set each year, but that is just me.

Having to buy 4 new sets, plus a MM or Special set like Conspiracy, along with the 2 Duel decks, 5 Commander decks, and the From the Vault set is just a bit much.  And that does not even count what ever little thing they release to keep people buying up stuff.

So again, I had my pre-order in for about a month now, should be picking up the boxes tomorrow. Going to be busy this weekend sitting in front of my computer for work, so what better time to crack some packs.  I will update this post with a picture of the booster boxes when I get them.

14,993 Arcbound Ravagers!

Ok, I did have to trade away a Tundra for this trade, but I think it was completely worth it.  Pulling out some of those duals to trade for the high priced Modern cards is really working out.

This was the second trade that I completed with a trader on Deckbox.org, and he has shipped first both times.  It really has turned out very well, and I do see more and more trades with new traders.  I just seems like there is an influx of new traders, which is nice for me.  They have a lot of Modern cards and they are looking for my Legacy cards.

So for one Revised Tundra I was able to get this:

Hinder and Squelch were really good pickups, and I think they are going to see more play.

Arcbound Ravagers!  This is what peeked my interest in this trade the most.  I know they spiked last week, and they are already starting to come down, but I am just happy to have finished those off my priority list.

Small pickup here, but I think they will see more Modern play in the days to come.

Goblin Charbelcher are seeing more Modern play, and they just reprinted a Goblin card in Magic Origins that goes very well with this card, so just happy to have completed this play set.

15,013 Legacy Purchase - Lots Complete!

So I was tired of looking at my Legacy sets, and not being able to complete them through trading because no one had them in their trade list.  Or if I tried to start a trade with them, they would go for my money cards and I would just cancel the trade.  So once again I headed to ABUGames.com and pick up some of the Legacy cards I needed to just finish the sets.  Lets see what I picked up!

Scourge Complete - Nothing really hear to scream about, but done!

Onslaught Complete - Just wanted to point out the 2 Forest!  Huge pickups!

Odyssey Complete - Nut Collectors, but really just happy to be done.

Legions Complete - Seed.Born.Muse....  Done!

Judgment Complete - Past Legions this was the next most expensive to complete and hard to find with trades.  no one wanted to trade the Burning Wishes away without trying to get my Duals.

Invasion Complete - Phyrexian Altars are the big ones!  Pretty sure they are going to only go up in price.

Apocalypse Complete - Lay of the Mother Fucking Land!  Yeah, nothing big but another set complete!

With all these getting done, I am only looking for Core sets (5th, 6th, and 7th), Urza's Destiny, and 2 fucking Eladamri's Call...  Sucks that ABUGames did not have any for sale.  I will try TCGPlayer next time I try and pick some stuff up, but seriously, so happy to be done with those sets!!!

15,056 Future Sight uncommon and an M10 Mythic

Another first trader for me.  He shipped first and everything checks out.  I did trade away a Crypt Command from MM15, where I did not really want to trade that away for these types of cards, but I did finish up some higher priced uncommons I really needed.  And always getting a M10 mythic is always good, and I really just want to finish this core set.

15,059 Modern trade coming in

Repet trader!  I love these!  I traded away a Dual Land, but got these before some weird spike this week.  In the end I made out big time because both of these cards rose in price, but the Ravager really spiked.  So I was able to come out +$10 on this trade while in transit.

Again, I am not smart enough to make those trades on purpose, I was just really lucky.

15,061 New trader, and not happy with the trade, but can't complain

So this trade was mainly for the 8th Edition Blood Moon, but instead I got a 9th Edition Blood Moon. Not that it was a horrible mistake, and I was happy to get it as I still needed it, but poor form for a first trade.  This trader did send first, and I could have sent back, or requested that I get the cards I traded for, but hey.

I was pretty excited for these Time Stops as well.

Boom!  More legacy needs!!

So this one I was fairly upset about this one.  This was supposed to be an 8th Edition Avatar of Hope, but instead I got the Prophecy one.  Now I am done with this set, and again I could have made a big stink, but he was a new trader and mistakes can be made.  This is also a $0.26 card, so not something to make a big stink out of.

The real thing I am upset about this, is that he actually went through the cards and posted the conditions.  Which I was really happy to get, but I am more concerned about edition than I am condition right now.  I did trade away a Dual Land, so that is upsetting, but the Blood Moon I did get was good enough for me.

15,074 Only 2 More Shards of Alara!

So pulled an Elspeth for an Inquisition of Kolizek.  It was a Mythic for an Uncommon, and I can honestly say that I got the better deal.  I can only say this because I am pretty sure the Uncommon will get reprinted in either Return to Zendikar or the next MM set.

15,075 Worldwake here I come!

I have no idea why it has taken me so long to get Worldwake complete, but it has.  I have had the Stoneforge Mystics and the Jace filled out for the longest time.  I can only think that it is because everything else seems small time for this set, since I have those big ones.  But here I am, with only one more Dragonmaster left, and an Avenger of Zendikar for the big hitters in the set.

I cannot how happy I will be to complete this set.

This was a local MN trader, but I did shipping with him because of the distance from his location and an LGS that I would be able to meet up at.  Normally I would just have them ship to my house, but I am paranoid, so this is the first time I had him ship to my work.

Everything worked out, and ended up a fantastic trade.  I did end up dipping into stock that I was trying to hold onto for more than 5 years, but hey... anything to get that Worldwake done.

15,080 Got me an extra Stifle

So I was worried about this trade.  I traded away a MM15 Dark Confidant and some Delvers, and was getting the Crucible and Seedborn in return.

I shipped my cards pretty quick because he had a trade score above 20 and I was thinking I could trust that score.  A couple of days had past, and he accepted my shipment, but still never sent his.  He replied with a chat, saying that he was busy over the weekend so never got to ship them out, and would straight away.  Then the next day he said that he had a collision with his wife and got a beverage spilt on the Seedborn Muse, ordered a new one off of TCGPlayer.com, and had it shipped to me.  Then, I checked the tracking he provided and it said that it was going to his house and not mine!

Panic ensues, and I promptly ask him about the tracking number.  He says he does not know what is going on, and does not understand why it is showing that.  I am pretty much thinking that I am out the MM15 Dark Confidant, trading fodder that I got with a sealed box of MM15 just to trade away for the priority list I am looking for.

The next day I check the mail and the Crucible shows up.  The very next day I get the Seedborn Muse and a nice little surprise of my final Stifle.

Lets just say that this trader is A+ in my book.  Not only did he mess up, fix the problem as quick as he could, he sent a little extra just to make it up to me.  This is how I like to trade, and how I like to be traded with.

I know I dont share trader's names on here, but if I did I would give him props!

15,083 Entomb me!

 All three were on the Priority list!  Got my final Entomb, and first Kiki.  I did trade a dual land away (among other things), but I think it was a good trade.  Bribery used to be worth a lot more, and I can only see it being used in EDH, but this was an even trade.

15,086 Damn I got them all!

So you might be able to tell with this picture, but the second Damnation is not near mint, and I am pretty much done with this trader.  Why am I don't with this trader?  If I trade you a Force of Will, and you send me a card that is not posted in the condition that you posted, I find it a pointless mission to try and confront the trader and get the condition of the card that was posted.  I will just stop trading with this guy.

I might bring it up and see if he will correct the issue, but I doubt he will want to correct the issue.  I will update this post when I find out.

But all in all, I got all my Damnations I need and I also finished up the Rhys I needed.  That is 2 cards off my priority list.

UPDATE: So it looks like I forgot to send him one of my cards, so I could not just complain about the condition, and I just let it be.  I am thinking that when I do finish phase 1, I will just trade for a new one, and use the poorly condition Damnation as fodder.