Collecting

So I am hitting that wall that I was hitting before the Tarkir block.  Amonkhet is coming out on Friday, and they just released the news of Iconic Masters.  Why am I hitting the wall again?  Well last time I hit the wall, I was spending a lot of time taking care of my father, and was at the hospital a lot. I really did not have any time to open packs, sorting the cards, or doing trades.  I still did go through my normal buys of each expansion, and just left the sealed boxes that way.

I always told myself after I came back to buying new cards, that I would never stop buying sealed product again and keep up to date with some booster boxes so I would not have to completely start over getting the sets I missed out on.  So we are still buying all the cards.

I am not sure if it is because of the new position at my job, or it is because the new baby, or if I am just burned out on having to buy so many things each year.  Thinking back, it was manageable and I was not having such pain in what I had to pick up each year.

2011
Mirrodin Besieged
New Phyrexia
Magic 2012
Innistrad
Knights vs Dragons
Ajani vs Nicol Bolas
From the Vault: Realms
Commander
Graveborn

That was it.

2017
Aether Revolt
Amonkhet
Hour of Devastation
Ixalan
Modern Master 2017
Iconic Masters
Commander 2017
Commander Anthology
Archenemy
Mind vs Might
Duel Deck 2017
From the Vault: 2017
SDCC 2017

But along with each set, I am also going to have to pick up Gift Boxes, and Planeswalker Decks.

From the looks of it, it really is not much more than 2011, but it is those Masters sets that are just killing me.  Well that and the Masterpiece sets.  It almost feels like I miss the good old days where I could just get the Core, Expansions and the 5 specialty sets.  There is just too much reprint stuff.

Modern Master 2017
Iconic Masters
Commander 2017
Commander Anthology
Archenemy
Mind vs Might
Duel Deck 2017
From the Vault: 2017
SDCC 2017

All that.  All that is the reprint stuff.  Yeah, we might get a hand full of new cards in Commander or Archenemy.  Maybe a new card in the Duel Deck.  But seriously, all that is reprint.  That is not even the Masterpiece sets in the new Expansion cards.

ALL OF THAT IS REPRINTS!

270 + 259 + 400 + 400 + 300 + 120 + 120 + 15 + 5 + 54 + 54 = 1,997 Reprints just in 2017

New sets: 198 + 303 + 198 + 303 = 1002 and that is if they don't reprint anything.

They are printing twice as many cards, cards that have already been released, than releasing new product.  I am literally using my cash to buy cards that I already own.  CARDS THAT I ALREADY OWN!

So yeah, that collecting wall is right at my nose.  I keep trying to think about what I need to change up, and really my speculation needs to be cut down to almost nothing.  Then I need to just get a small sample size to get some cards in from the new sets with the plan to finish sets after rotation, and finally I just need to be a small buyer again.

I have actually been thinking of just going to a single set and not a playset, then just going out and picking up the cards that I think would be worth picking up.  I have also thought about trading away all my other sets, just to keep 1 card of every set, and not going for play sets anymore.  I have yet to try and monetize the collection and start selling cards, and I still don't know how I feel about that.

That does bring up an interesting decision.  I know I have been debating a spreadsheet re-design, yes again.  This time I want to remove the columns that deal with cards that I still need for the collection, and switch those columns to condition columns.  So now I would track the cards I have in my collection and what condition they are in.  Then I can start to try and update the cards to all NM cards.  I would also remove the Trade Book section and extra section.  Since everything thing not in the collection is up for trade on Deckbox now, I really don't need to keep those separate.

But back to the interesting decision, I could then track the price I have set in Deckbox, then compare that to the prices I am pulling from my price sheet, and see if I need to adjust prices.  I just need to figure out what I want to try and put up for sale and start turning into a selling site, and not so much a trader.

I would think that could adjust issues I am having funding all these new cards I need to buy, but I am still a bit torn as to if I should sell at all.

But yeah, hopefully I will be able to post more of these types of Blogs, and not just the collection Blogs.