Just another PO Box day

Total Card Count: 64

I seriously hate sending out cards.  Loathe it!  If I could pay someone to send out the cards I choose to send out, I would in a heart beat.  But that would mean I would have to pay someone, and that would cut into my profits.  And.... I am pretty sure they would mess up something in the inventory and I would have to count all of my cards again...  And I am not going to do that.

So yeah I ended up packaging up around 130 cards, into 10 different packages.  Only 1 package was going international, and it was around 60 cards, so I was able to send in a bubble mailer and used USPS shipping through Pay Pal.  I like being able to send out to international locations with larger trade, so that I have to use USPS shipping through Pay Pal because I get tracking.  I can also send in larger bubble mailers, and things just get packed up a lot better.

In doing so, I also head up to the post office and pick up what gets delivered at the PO box.  So yeah, lets see what we got in.

Here we go!

This was a Deckbox trade that I pulled in.  The condition of the cards are pretty good, so for a trade bait transaction this went pretty well.  By the time this trade ended we were still pretty even on prices.  I feel like I ended up higher on this trade, just cause I traded away a lot of foil cards, and we all know how much foil cards suck.

This was a card that a CardSphere member forgot to send me, but yeah looking at 6 more Unstable cards, and I show 5 of them coming in on CardSphere, so getting pretty excited.

Bam!  I just like getting Very Cryptic Command rare cards.

Bam!  Very Cryptic Command AND! Steamy!

The art on these cards are a lot cooler than the different texts.

Here comes another Deckbox trade and this is my first Portal Three Kingdom cards.  I am still on the fence for this set, and I just think it would be like trying to get an Alpha set, but I might try.

Still with the same Deckbox trade and I also picked up these three Commander cards for the playsets of the first prints in this set.

And..... Standard.  That is right, I am stuck with trying to finish out trades in Deckbox with Standard cards.  Standard cards....  I hate not finding what I really need within trades and have to pick out Standard cards to finish a trade.

So yeah, the posts are not as frequent and it is the holiday season, and I am trying to sync up my budget for 2018 so I can go get what I need.  The slow down in my world is real.  I really want to look at 2018 and do some more collection buying since I don't need to pick up much for the collection.  I would really like to see if I can make a profit with selling more on CardSphere, and trading for selling fodder on Deckbox.

I have my pre-order for Rivals of Ixalan and I don't plan on buying much for speculation.  If I do, it will be sealed boxes from Alpha Investments.  I think I am going to be like everyone else and will try and pick up a ton from the return to Dominaria, so I am saving a ton for that.  I am not to excited for the Masters sets next year, but lets wait and see if there is one.  If it is another Eternal Masters set I am going to vomit.  And if there is another Conspiracy set I am going to vomit harder.

I really hope we just get the 3 expansion sets, 1 core set, 1 commander, and 1 anthology set next year.  Of course I will be grabbing the new Challenger decks and that last Duel Deck, along with the From the Vault, but I hope the slow down in MTG production is real too.

PO Box drive by

So I was doing some last minute Christmas shopping and I just had to stop at the PO Box to see what might have came in.  I do have 4 trades coming in from Deckbox, and I have around 10 coming in on CardSphere.  It is touch and go when they come in, and I already checked the PO Box earlier in the week so I was pretty sure there was nothing in there.  Low and behold!

Here we go!

After this one, I only need one more stupid version of this card.  This is a solo send, so at $1.69 paid I am very grateful for the card.

Alright!  I am pretty happy about this one, and it is not because of the Bloodghast.  Those 2 Rot Farms were the last Iconic Masters cards I was looking for.  I went a little above the single set for the Masters sets, and I picked up some playsets. 

Mishra's Bauble because of the lack of reprints. 
Flusterstorm because of Flusterstorm. 
Mana Drain because of why the hell not.
Uncommon Land cycle because I just really like those lands in Commander.
Rare Land cycle because I am just a land whore.

So yeah, I have everything I am looking for with that set, and with that Bloodghast it was the second of the 3 cards I tired to get in case a Deckbox trade got lost in the mail.  Remember that I did get those cards "Return to Sender" because of postage, and hopefully the cards I sent get to the trader soon.  If they don't get there, at least I have replacement cards for him.

While I was putting together some Commander decks I ran into this card.  This was a first print in Commander 2016, and I am trying to pick up playsets of all the first plays in Commander, Conspiracy, and other sets like that.  So, yeah I just added it to my Wants, and Wam!  Cards just fucking get sent!  Love CardSphere!

So yeah, went shopping to the LGS near me, mostly because they also sell game and other gaming supplies.  They have kites, and magic items, along with other things for juggling.  I was there to try and pick up something for my cousin, and he likes Chess, so I figured I would find something there.  He does like to play Magic the Gathering, but he is not very die hard for the game, so I just thought I would get him something else.

But of course, while there I needed to see if they had anything I could pick up, and you cant tell this is a foil card, but it is.  I paid a little too much for it, but it is a speculation and I can really see this card going up to the $100s.  Let's wait and see!

Duel Decks

So it was announced that coming in April the final Duel Deck will be released. 

This is a sad as well as happy moment for me.  I never really liked the Duel Decks because I never wanted to open them to use.  I think of these decks as a supplementary product not worth opening.  They don't contain any new cards, and are full of reprints.  In my eyes, there is no reason to open these decks at all.

Without wanting to open the product, I have never been able to play them.  There is also no way I am going to trade for the cards from the sets to build the decks, but since they are all reprints I decided to put all my cards to use!

Elves vs Goblins!

That is right bitches!  I am just going to make every single Duel Deck and keep them in deckboxes to play with people that want to learn.  I also do this with Pauper decks, just because I think it is easier to teach new players with those less complicated decks.  Also, it is just a great thing to keep together to play at any time you need to.

Jace vs Chandra!

I think this is going to be the most expensive deck to keep together, but hey I can just pick up the other deck building cards if I ever need them.  With being done with the collection, it is nice just to trade for more of the wanted cards for decks I am building if I need more than 4 of a specific card that was not reprinted.

Divine vs Demon

So this could be another expensive deck to keep around, but it really would be interesting to play Demon vs Elves or something like that.

These are the only first 3 Duel Decks I have put together, and I need to get the other ones, but it is a good start.  Hopefully by the end of my week off of work, I can knock out the rest of these decks.

One thing I was thinking of doing, getting specific deckboxes for each deck, along with the specific sleeves they made for them.  I think that would be a good twist on it, but I never liked the feel of those sleeves.  To, slimy.

As for the Challenger decks...  I might pick up 1 of each, but I am not excited for those either.

Pre-Xmas Incoming CardSphere!

Today on the Greatest Magic the Gathering Blog in the world!

So going to check the PO Box in the week before Christmas is a fucking nightmare, and the only reason I went before the post office closed was to send out some outgoing Deckbox trades, but yeah....  I have no idea why I always forget this time of year, and how much of a pain in the ass it is, but I always do and then complain about it.  Maybe I should just stop complaining and do these as a PSA for anyone who reads them.

Here we go!

Just getting this one out of the way.  So I had a Deckbox trade, and it had been +2 weeks, and nothing had come in.  He agreed to give it another week, and if nothing came in I could resend everything.  With that, I would need 3 Iconic Masters Bloodghasts again to send to him, and this is what I got in from CardSphere because I was expecting that he would not get the package and it was lost to the USPS gods.

Great thing here, I can get pretty much any card I need for a specific price on CardSphere.  Within an hour or so of my posting the new "Wants" I had three new packages being sent to me.  I really am enjoying the ability to lower what I would pay for the cards I "Want" and people being able to accept my offer or not.  It creates a lot of flexibility with getting your cards.  It is just better than going to TCGPlayer and looking at prices there for the seller to send you, and there have been plenty of times where I got cards that were in worse conditions than what was posted.

Shitty thing, was telling myself to check the PO Box before I post any new "Wants" just in case there was a shipping issue on my end and the package was "returned to sender".  Low and behold, after work and posting the new "Wants" on CardSphere I went to check the PO Box, and there it was.  I found out, if you use an extra thick top loader, USPS expects an additional $0.21 because it was not machinable through their sorting systems.  This was the first time this has happened to me, and I am just blaming trying to ship during the holiday season as the culprit.

All in all, CardSphere if Great, and shipping during the holiday season sucks!

This trade was actually supposed to be 3 cards, but the sender forgot one.  Also the Everythingamajig was the wrong one, but he did not know there were multiple versions of this card.  To make things even worse, I got the Grusilda on another box opening, but never got to removing some cards from my "Wants" so this trade was just horrible.

So this one, again I got the Phoebe in that box opening, but I did need that Ineffable Blessing.  I am really on the fence with these different versions of the same card within a set.  I did not like it in Alliances, and I don't like it here.  I am not complaining too much just cause I am only looking for a single set, but if they start to do this with more of the Standard sets, I will be put out.

All of these are cards for multiple versions of the same card.  Yup, I hate this idea.

Should I tell you that I already got this in a box opening and it was sent before I opened the box?  Yeah...  I need to not add anything to my "Wants" if I plan to open more boxes.  Just wish ABU Games would send my pre-order faster, or I just become more patient.

Stupid...

So yeah, got in some much needed Unstable cards for my set, and looks like 12 cards away from that set.

I do have a pretty heafty balance on my CardSphere account, I think if I hit $2000 I will just cash out $1000 for some sealed product purchases.  I really do like CardSphere!

Happy Holiday's!

What up Mother fuckers!

Yeah, no idea how to start this one...

So yeah, I have never been the holiday type.  Ever!  Ok, maybe when I was 9 and getting Empire Strikes Back toys, when life was good and innocent, but ever since then I hate them.  With a passion.  But now, we have "the child" and it is red and greed diarrhea all over the place.  My family sees the Christmas tree in the living room and make comments like, "Wow, really...  How did that happen?"  To my reply is to point to my wife and she returns a big smile.

Suffice to say, I hate this time of year.  In my world, every small child had a wake up call in the double digits of age, where their entire life came crashing down, and all those special wonderful moments of family just blew up in their face.  Where life came knocking on their face and gave them a shit sandwich.

But now with "the child" I find myself embracing the holiday spirit again, and only wish to not allow that shit sandwich to hit my child's mouth until maybe 18'ish, when they learn to hate the world anyway.  Christmas tree, and Secret Santa, and holiday presents for people I should buy things for and had never done that before for.

With that, I am just excited to see what happens from here on out, and waiting for the plot to thicken.  Another reason why I am posting this, I have been trading a bit but it is slow going and I am trying to think of things to write about.

The YouTube community has been toxic and I wanted to write about that, but not in the context of what every other content creator is posting about.  So I hope to get that up this week.

**Edit**
Yeah started to write about this topic and decided to just leave it.  If there is more drama that comes up I might write about it, but the YouTube world is toxic and I just get depressed when I think about it, so not writing anything about it.

Also, I wanted to write about some of the things I am doing with the collection now that I am all caught up, and hopefully that will come this week as well.  Just with getting back into building decks, and what I used to do with new players that do not have collections like me, and how I try to make it even.  Also what I am doing with the Duel Decks.

But yeah, with "the child" it is pulling me away from writing as much, but I am still here, and will be posting more within the weeks to come on more than just cards I am getting for the collection.

/hugs!

CardSphere Secret Santa!

So what they hell!

CardSphere - giving gifts - getting gifts - Lets give it a shot!

And this is what I get...

Spot on!

Yes that is an Unlimited Meekstone!  And he sent me some 4th Edition cards, but I think he missed the fact that I needed Korean cards, not english, but who cares!  Unlimited!  Meekstone!  Boom!

And if anything makes me feel like an idiot, it is these things.  He pretty much sent me plastic loaders for shipments, with a ledger on the back to see where they have gone, and 5 fucking pre stamped with return address envelopes all set to ship out.  I have to say that getting these envelopes was the best part of the package, just pure love from someone that is on CardSphere.  I wish I had thought of it, and I will be doing the same thing every time I send out a Secret Santa!  Just pure joy!

Thank you CardSphere member #7!

Barter in the books!

Total Card Count: 87
Unlimited: 34

Today on the greatest Magic the Gathering blog in the multiverse!

CardSphere trades a flew!  The big comings and goings was the large amount of Unlimited cards that came into my possession.  I am just amazed on how well CardSphere works.  Since I have put the Unlimited cards up on my Wants, I have had a lot of cards come in.  Considering that we are still lower than 6k of users, it is just great that I am getting the cards that I am posting to my wants.

Here we go!

So this was a trade in where the sender thought he was sending me an Unlimited Sunglasses of Urza, unfortunately it was only Revised and a dispute had to be opened.  With how CardSphere works, it was resolved very quickly and I was refunded my balance.  Fucking loving CardSphere!

This next one is a sexy one!  All 4 are rare, and they came in with some ware, but still good condition!

Fucking score!  I was a bit timid on this one, just cause the condition was too good.  But everything checks out and it is real.  A huge score!  I can't believe I picked this one up.

This next one came in with more Unlimited, the final basic land I was looking for to complete my Modern cards after the recount, and a great Erg Raiders from Arabian Nights.  First off, Fastbond was a great pick up all on it's own.  Blaze of Glory is a Reserve List card, so I am happy as snot someone wanted to part with that.  Control Magic is a sought after uncommon, and that Disintegrate is always wanted.

Now, that Erg Raiders.  When Arabian Nights was printed, they did a different print run with a different printer.  The colorless mana symbol is lighter on the left, and darker on the right.  Collectors call these two separate cards, and to fill out the full set you would need to have both.  There is only a handful of cards with this problem, but they exist none the less.

There are only 14 of the, but I have found that it is pretty difficult to get them all.

Holiday slowdown

So we just had Explorers of Ixalan come out with From the Vault, and this weekend was the Unstable release.  I was able to pick up a couple of sealed boxes of Unstable from the LGS Lodestone here in Minneapolis, but I am optioning to not open them. 

I was also able to pre-order 4 boxes from ABU Games, and 1 case from Alpha Investments but I plan on holding onto a large percentage of that for the long haul.  I am thinking I will open as much as I can to get close to a full set, but I am really after the lands and tokens.  Considering on opening weekend I can get a full set for around $106, it is somewhat stupid to try and open more than I need for the set.  I do hope I can get a foil land, that is some pretty good trading fodder.

The trading has been going on, and I have ended up sending out over $500 worth of cards within the last 2 weeks.  Better yet I am getting in over $250 cards with 10 of those being Unlimited cards.  With more and more people joining CardSphere, it really looks like sending out as much as I can to build up that balance is going to payoff.

Deckbox on the other hand is pretty slow.  I do get offers from time to time, but the amount of ABU cards on Deckbox is slim pickings, and when you consider trying to find someone that needs something that I have it becomes much worse.  That is one good thing about CardSphere, I can just send and send and hope for cards to come in.  There is no real barter, and at this point in the game it is pretty sexy to just send cards out and have cards on my Wants.

It is a non-stop thought in my head to just call it quits and not getting any of the new cards, and every day I get closer and closer to that decision.  I guess I am just hoping that WotC pulls their heads out of their ass and stop releasing so many products.

I have started to build up my collection of decks since I am done with my verification of the collection.  Now I can build up all those Dual Decks for some quick easy playing.  I do plan to keep 2 decks of each variety as well, that way I can head out to play when ever I need to.  I hope to some day build some decks of my own design, but I am a bit away from those days.

So yeah, hope I can put an update later this week with Unstable and maybe some incoming trades!

Duck, Duck, Grey Duck

This is a local game store near the house and every once and a while I will head up there to see what they have.  They have a pretty small community up there, a lot of high schoolers, and some older EDH players.  I have found that they do end up getting a lot of Masterpiece cards and higher priced cards, I can only assume that their player bases usually cashes out with them in order to get other packs or lower prices staples.

This LGS usually holds a lot of PPTQ and smaller tournaments, and they have enough space to hold them, so they do get a lot of product like this.  They are also so small that they do not get a lot of collector traffic, so finding this type of product is pretty easy.  Most everything they sell is MSRP, so picking up there is a no brainer, but it does suck that they try and sell Master sets at MSRP.  With Iconic, I don't think they can keep that pricing model up for very long.

But yeah, picked up another two of these for the collection.  Thinking that in a couple years they will be closer to $70 a piece.

Also found some of these for the collection.  They did have a lot of other Mythics, and considering that I opened 6 boxes and only got a handful of Mythics, my theory of them picking up a lot of these cards from their player base is a bit stronger.

And yup!  Got the rest of my playset when most of the other stores I stopped in did not have any of these.  But yeah, my theory more and more solid when I go up there and keep seeing these types of cards.

Now all I need are a couple of Uncommon lands to finish out my Iconic Master needs.

Deckbox is Still Alive!

And we are still alive in Deckbox!

I was able to pick this on up for the Standard needs.  Remember I tend to grab what I can for Standard cards to even out trades.

Decided to grab these for some speculation.  Of course if they reprint them I am hosed, but I still like the bet.  Journey to Nix cards, not a loved set.  I can hope!  Well I can hope if they do end up reprinting the card it was because the card edged up past $20 and it does not end up going back down to the price where I got them at $2.50.

A complete Reserve List play here.  More on the cheapish side of the RL, but since I was just trying to even out the trade I thought I would go with these.

Yup, another RL play here.  This would make my 3rd Lady, but I needed to fill in some pricing to even out the trade.  Her ability is not that bad, but this is defiantly a more expensive RL card.

And this is what started this trade.  Since I started to add my Unlimited needs to CardSphere and Deckbox I am trying to finish out that set.  Luckily I was able to find this Canadian trader that had them sitting around.

Here is the gravy that I was able to get in the trade.  He thought these cards were Beta, but after he shared the pictures we found out they were Alpha.  I could have saved myself a lot of trade value if I had kept them as Beta, but what kind of trader would I be to take advantage of someone.  Anyway, these are always a great pickup for what ever reason.  Anytime I can get closer to an Alpha set is a good time.

It has been a struggle on Deckbox lately, but I am able to get trades here an there.  I have been trying to do trades on Deckbox, but it is slim pickings.  Granted I do not have a lot on my Wishlist, but traders to try and still get some things done.  It is a pretty good place for me to do a lot os speculating with downtrades, but my trading life is on CardSphere right now.  I am able to keep trading while running up my balance for the hopes of finding more people to sending me cards I need.

Unlimited Supply of Awesome!

Today on the Greatest Magic the Gathering blog!

CardSphere strikes again!  I actually got a couple of Unlimited cards for the collection.

This one was a little beat up, but adding it to the collection.

And another Unlimited Rare to add to the collection.

I do have to say that CardSphere is turning out to be really cool.  I am going to have over $800 in funds, and really just looking for my sealed needs or the ABU cards.  Moving a lot of my bulk for items I need, cannot get any better than that.

Black Friday Shopping!

Today on the Greatest Magic the Gathering blog in the multiverse!  Let's see what I picked up on the worst day to go out in public if you hate people!

Last year was the first year I had ever gone Black Friday shopping and I picked up some awesome items at some really good prices.  So this year, why the hell not!  I am lucky in the fact that I only really need to go to a couple places when I do go shopping on this horrible day.

Let's see what happened.

Of course I had to stop up at the shop to see what deals they have.  Normally this store sells cards at higher prices than most places, and they say they are matching what Star City Games charges, but what I have found that this store is setting prices to stay in business.  Most other LGS's are setting prices lower to get the customers, but The Source's business cycle just makes sense.

This is a store that does a lot more than Magic the Gathering, and I would say that MTG player base consists of about 10% of their customer base.  This store has been around for a very long time, and they try and do a lot of good for the community, but Magic the Gathering is not their bread and butter, so it is really nice to go in there to see what is going on.

Black Friday, if you bring in can goods they will give you 10% off of anything, and then they have a customer rewards card that you can buy to get another 10% off.  So really, you can get 20% off everything in the store.  This discount even gets added on top of the other discounts they have.  So for instance they could have a 50% off table, and if you buy something off that table with your other 20%, that does truly add up to 70% off.  So yeah, deals galore.  This is the place I picked up 4 Eldritch Moon booster boxes around $69 each.

This year, this is what I picked up.

I normally troll their singles for this old ABU stuff.  Since they have such a large player base, they normally get all the older collections that are getting sold in MN, so every once and a while you will find some cool older cards.  And these cards I need for my collection!

Yup, Iconic Masters.  I did my openings, and now I am trying to get everything I need to fill out the set outside of opening packs.  I finally decided to go with a playset of rare lands, and a couple of set cards.

And here are all the other lands I need.  I just need one more Graven Cairns to get all the lands I need.

And this little beauty.

And this.  Why the hell did I pickup another box of Ixalan?  Because of these:

Ok so these fucking things.  WoTC decided that this year is a good year to put out these little packs to move some sealed product.  If you recall, last year they did the same thing, where they gave you a pack of cards with 3 cards in it.  The pack had a chance to give you a Masterpiece card, but you also got 2 more foils.

So this year, if you buy a sealed booster box of any standard set you get one of these packs.  We will go over what is in the pack later on in the post, but these are the reason I am buying more sealed boxes.  I did end up buying the booster box for $120 with a 20% discount, so the cost basis is around $96 for this box of Ixalan.  So outside of a pre-Order buy of $90, I ended up paying $6 for this pack.

I also picked up a ton of deck boxes and sleeves, but it was a small day at the Source this year.

Next stop!  Here is my LGS, and I am really happy I made the switch to this shop.  They just get it, and they get me.  They have a great player base, they have a great shop, and they understand what players want.  Now I might be a bit bias because I buy a lot from this store, and they might treat me differently because of that, but I really like going to this store.

Let's take a look at what I picked up!

Ok, so this was a pre-Order and I was able to pick it up today.

Oh sexy sexy time!  So little tangent, when I was at the Source I asked them if they had any of these From the Vault box sets for sale, and they said that they only got 15 in, and were going to use them for prize support rather than sell them.  They do have a large player base, and this would be the only want to get them to the players fairly.  I understand it, and they do only sell this type of product at MSRP, so I can totally support that decision.

From Lodestone!  At MSRP!  Two of them!  Yeah, really happy to pick these up.

So let's just start out with the Ixalan flip cards.  This one finishes out the 2 playsets I was looking for.

Two playsets!

Dos Playsets!

Two!  Too!  To!

And boom! 

And if you are wondering, yes waiting longer to pickup Standard Cards is the best way to go, and prices are very low right now.

Kaladesh on the other hand...

Hear me out before you trash me on why I would pick up more of this set.  So yeah, the main reason for getting these was because I wanted more of those Buy-a-Box packs, but all this last month I have been thinking a lot about Energy and that new resource.  Like New Phyrexia I think that Energy from this block is going to be a really good long term bet.  Right now it is running wild for Standard, and they did have to ban Aetherworks Marvel because of how powerful it was, and I really think that Energy is going to go pretty far in the other eternal formats.

So it is a very long term bet, and considering how much they printed of these boxes it might be a very long wait, but I really think this is a good set to see some return out of.  They have some pretty good Masterpieces, a great new resource in Energy, a land cycle that is wanted, a new type of Snapcaster, a 4 ability Planeswalker, some pretty good Mythic Rare artifacts you could base decks out of, Expertise cards, and some artifacts that are used in Vintage.

Yeah, let's see if I am right about this.

I also got my first Flusterstorm.  So this is a weird one.  The Commander version was close to $90 a piece before they did this reprint, then it has dropped down to around $50 but it has been slowly been creeping back up.  I think that this original printing will hold it's value.

And...

So yeah, here is my playset.  Let's see, you can play this in Vintage and EDH.  Why the hell would I need to have a playset of this?  I just figured I would pick these up, just in case.

And then there was this stuff.

I opened up those Buy-a-Box packs and got some more of those Rebecca Guay lands that are in the Buy-a-Box promo packs from when I bought my Ixalan pre-Order.

Here are all the foils I picked up from the packs, and the only one to be happy about was the Foil Glorybringer.  I only expect that to drop in price after rotation.

And the whole reason why I went into debt by picking up sealed product I did not need.  I got all of the flip lands except for the Legion's Landing and Search for Azcanta, and I still need that Treasure Map.  I am hoping that I will have an update to those needs later this week...  /wink