First off!!! You can pick up your preOrder at your LGS the weekend of Pre-Release! I had no idea, hence the tardiness of this post.
Ok ok, that first row is my Masters 25 cards I have yet to make labels for and sort into the collection, but the other two rows on the right are everything I pulled from my Dominaria buy.
Let's do a recall. I have made massive changes to my buying and I only picked up 4 booster boxes, and 2 bundles on pre-order. My concern is cutting down on my bulk, and spending too much money on cards I do not need. The issue was buying way more than I needed up front in order to get my full sets, but then I was left with a ton of bulk.
I was getting a large amount of trading fodder, and that was another reason why I was buying so many boxes. I liked opening more than I needed to get card I could trade later on. I could get my full playsets and then have a ton left over to trade for things I did not have. The only thing wrong with that is no one needed my Standard cards in trade, and I would always go out and just pick up the good cards people wanted for trade.
I was basically just buying too many cards and not getting anything back in return, while buying more of the stuff I needed through more surgical purchases.
Enter the new plan!
So, when I first got back into buying MTG cards, I was only picking up 4 booster boxes, and then maybe some extra to hold on to for later. I was able to get most of my Basic Lands, Commons, Uncommons, and Tokens. It was manageable and still fun. Then for some reason around RTR I decided to go fucking nuts and get a ton of stuff and go big. My goal with the new plan is to get back to what I was doing and slow all this down. Lets take a look and see how I did.
Dominaria as of 4/30
124 Cards needed
$624.48 Worth still needed
This does not include the 40 cards I need for my Planeswalker deck playsets. They are still putting out 1 Land, 1 Common, 1 Uncommon, 1 Rare, and 1 Mythic Rare in each Planeswalker decks, and for some stupid reason I wanted to get a playset of those. I have put these requirements up on my CardSphere, and I am already getting 26 of the 40 cards I need. In past years I was able to get these cards pretty easy from a fella in the Netherlands. I am hope he comes through again.
Math time!
So I opened up 4 Boosters and 1 Bundle this go around and ended up needing $624.48 worth of cards. If I go back to Ixalan (Last Large set) and I see that I opened up 6 Booster boxes with 3 Bundles. I ended up still needing $297.60 at the time. That looks like a difference of $326.88, and if I push that difference to the missing product cost of $250 for the 2 Booster boxes and 2 Bundles I am about 1 Booster box short of what I spent, $76.88.
$624.48 - $297.60 = $326.88
This is the difference of what I needed in Dominaria compared to Ixalan. I opened 2 Booster boxes and 2 Bundles less of Dominaria and need $326.88 more cards.
Theory of it, if I would have spent $250.00 more on that sealed product I could have slimmed that $326.88 down more. So in theory I am down cards because I did not open more sealed product. Also I am losing out on all those foil cards, and the extra trading fodder I would normally get. This go around I got 1 card for trading: Two-Headed Giant. So really my theory is wrong and I am losing out on cards.
Why my theory is still right.
Since the release of Ixalan I have spent $284.81 on cards I need to complete my playset and also for extra cards I really liked like Search for Azcanta. I have also picked up 9 Booster boxes of sealed product outside of my PreOrder. That is going to be close to $792.00 just in sealed product.
With all that in mind, I have traded away close to 10 cards. That is out of the extra $250.00 worth of sealed product I have not traded much away at all, and I have spent more to get things that I like in addition to buying more sealed product just because I like the set so much.
So what did I save? I saved myself from the bulk. The time lost sorting all that bulk. The storage space keeping all that bulk. The time I gained from trying to get rid of those cards.
With just opening just a small amount I free up my cash to buy just the cards I need to complete my playsets. I free up the time to do other things like write blogs. I also free up my savings to pick up more of a set that is worth buying, and not just shotgunning every set.
Think about it, if I did not spend the extra $250 on Rivals of Ixalan, Hour of Devastation, and Amonkhet I would have an extra $750 sitting in my bank account gaining interest waiting for rotation, and freeing up that cash for sets like Dominaria to buy more of. And considering the recent sets being released, the better sets are harder to come by than ever.
What about all the foils!?
Ok, so I am losing out on some foils, but it is not that much.
Shadows Over Innistrad: $77.22 @ 75 cards
Eldritch Moon: $107.67 @ 66 cards
Kaladesh: $172.17 @ 101 cards
Aether Revolt: $206.70 @ 93 cards
Amonkhet: $76.56 @ 63 cards
Hour of Devastation: $99.12 @ 70 cards
Ixalan: $202.05 @ 80 cards
Rivals of Ixalan: $102.63 @ 61 cards
Dominaria: $129.06 @ 37 cards
So on average I am losing 35 foil cards, but the price is about average. With this, I do not think I am losing out on anything with the foils. I also really think I need to trade away all my foils, because who really cares about chasing foil cards...
Now I could just be talking myself into this new theory, and I am only saying this because I have always been so justified with how I was buying, and now that I am on this "Less is better" kick my opinion would only result in this method. But really, it was eye opening to see how much I could sell my collection, and anything extra does not mean crap. They only want to pay you what they are going to pay you, and everything else is free.
Why do I need a kick ass trade binder if I have every card? Seriously. I know it is a status symbol for me, but really who cares if I have a ton of good cards in my binder. I should be shipping those cards out to buy lists in order to get some sealed product I need, or sending them out on CardSphere.
So that is the deal. The new plan is in place and I am going to be more surgical with my purchases without just waiting for the set rotation and buying the full sets then.
I did however head up to an LGS near my house to pick up some Pre-Release kits. The store is popular with the kids, but they do not get a lot of players so they have a lot of kits left over for sale.
$25 a piece so I could not pass that up.
I also had to pick up these two to finish up my playset. I have a feeling this one will go up for the ProTour. I can just see a lot going on here, and I can see some desire in Modern for this card. Might be too expensive, but I have seen cards of this casting cost get pulled into Modern before.
And yes, I splurged but I really just want my playset of these and move on. I do not think they have a ton of value, but this is the type of card I have missed before and paid a lot more, so just wanted to get it over with.
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