Second Send

Sent Cards: 171
Sent Amount: $344.54
Packages Sent: 35

US Stamps: 37
1 oz Stamp: 2
International Stamps: 1

I forgot to take a picture, so there is that.  But it was a good send.  I was able to get all of them pulled and sent out this morning.  I am making some really good time in ramping up again.  After this last send I am looking to see close to $940.00 into my CardSphere balance. 

Most notable send is the Foil Unstable Forest.  That is the last of my foil Unstable lands.  I still do have a lot of sealed booster boxes left, so my speculation is in tact and to tell you the truth I kind of want to open all the boxes for the non-foil lands.

I was also able to send out a bunch of basic lands again.  I really cannot tell you how happy I get when I get to send out basic lands.  Just the thought of keeping them around for so long, and now being able to send them out because people want them, just fantastic in my book.

The majority of cards I am sending out at the +60% range has been sought after cards, but I think after my next send I am going to have to lower my % even further to get some more trades.  But honestly I am really looking for the collectors out there trying to fill out their sets.

I was able to help out someone trying to finish their Mirage set.  Just kind of hope they keep trying for other sets, and I can get rid of more of my bulk.

The thought has crossed my mind to buylist again, but that might be an after the holidays thing to do.  Card Kingdom and ABU Games were some really good places to send cards too.  The only issue I have is that there is not a lot of things I need from their stores, and pulling in the store credit at those stores would not be used for anything in the near future.  And doing those types of sends kind of sucks.  I just have to alphabetize everything, and find boxes to send in, and it just sucks.  It is great, I just did not have a fun time doing it.

So yeah, another send in the books.  Pretty sure I am going to be scratching the bottom of the barrel after my next send, so I really need to keep an eye out on the "Send" list on CardSphere so I can keep getting those new "Wants".

Come join me on CardSphere and get some good cards!!!

https://www.cardsphere.com/ref/711/e4031f

Black Friday 2018

So here we go again!  This year I only hit up the Source Comics and Games, and of course my LGS Lodestone Coffee & Games.

The Source - 10% discount if I brought in a can good, and then another 10% with my membership card.  That is also on top of any deal they are putting out there.  I also like just buying stuff from this store because I want to keep them around.

I finally picked up a couple of these, but I think I could have gotten them cheaper around the summer time.  I have no idea why they are so much, and I have no idea why I felt like I needed to pick this up.  The foil lands were just from Core 2019.  You did get some special foil cards from Core 2019 that were specific to the Gift Pack, but they are all stupid chase cards that have no real value, and yes that is why I bought and opened one of them.  I am one of those suckers.

I also picked up my second Game Nights set.  I was only going to pick up one of them and keep it sealed, but after looking into it more I wanted to open it up and keep it around like I did with the Explorers of Ixalan game set.  I opened it and sleeved up each of the decks, this way if my son wanted to play we can just crack the decks and play a bit.

There are some Game Night only cards, but there is no way I am opening 3 more of these for those cards.

I also picked up some of these singles, and with 20% off they were really good deals!  I just love those Battlebond lands.  And yes, these are all for the collection.

I always just have to grab this card.  At the price it was set at along with the discount, I could send it on CardSphere right away.  I should be keep it around for a bit as a speculation, but that is what I am trying to get away from.

Ok, this was another speculation, and I am not supposed to do this, but I did.  But really, how can you pass up 20% off this at $10?  It was something I could not pass up.

And here is another speculation but I do think this one is going to make me a bit more.  I was able to pick these up at $25 with a 20% discount which brought them down to $20.  With the recent spike, and the graveyard love cards, I think I can make a nice profit on them.

And 4 of these.  I feel like every time I pick up one of these packs, it is like picking up an Alpha pack back in 1995.  I just don't know why, but it just does.  It was one of the better sets ever made, and the way WoTC is reprinting all the cards, I think these cards will have a pretty high value.  At some point the print of the card will be important, and with the lower print run of the entire set, I see the value only increasing for these printing.s

I also picked up some sleeves and deckboxes.

Lodestone - 20% discount on everything in the store and some special deals to get rid of their bulk.

So they had some extra cases of Core 2019, and they put a deal out for a booster box at $80.  I picked up one.

Here is another deal they had, and I decided to pick up another set of Commander 2018 decks for $20 each.  I mean, come on.  I don't care if they are not sought after right now, but 5 years from now they will be.

Now I do not like foils or Promo cards, but I do like Emrakul so I just had to snag these while I could at a 20% discount.  I ended up paying a large price for them, but I just wanted them for the collection.

So saw this and picked it up. Again I hate foils and promo cards, but these cards with out any writing are just cool, so for a while I have been trying to pick these up.

This one was a mistake.  I thought I needed it, so I picked one up, but looks like I already have it so now it is up on my CardSphere in the hopes that someone will want it and I can make my money back.  Let's just say that I now have a Note with all of these that I do currently have.

I also took this as an opportunity to help out my LGS and try and give back a little bit.  In my life, playing games has always been a good family building event and I always felt that it was silly to just give toys.  Giving a game will provide more entertainment and bonding.  It increases thought and problem solving skills.  All in all, in my mind games are just a better gift.

So I ended up just picking up a bunch of games and putting it in the Toys for Tots box.  Someday I hope I can bring my son up there to pick out some games that we are planning to donate to other less fortunate kids.

First Send

31 Packages (167 Forever Stamps)
118 cards

$592.87 being sent

So here we go.  I am really letting go with my extra cards and just shipping everything that is not in the collection.  I really am just hoping to get around 50% of the value, and if I can do that, they I will call it a success.  I am also going to try and hit that $10k mark that limits how much you can have in your CardSphere account.  It might be a silly goal, but why not.

I also know that I have around $7600 on my Want list so really I am going to have to send more that just the $10k.  I am just hoping that I can keep sending and I do not stall out, but I do have a feeling that I will be stalling out at some point.

This is my first send and I am just sending everything.  I am trying to hold back my Reserve List cards for prices that are higher that 85%, but everything else is just going to go.  I have priced down my Send list to 60% or higher, and I am slowly going to just keep sending cards as I can.

Just one example of me sending out and then prices spiking, I am sending out 5 Surgical Extractions from New Phyrexia at around $20.  Of course now that I am sending out, they spiked up to $40 because there was no UMA reprint.  One of the receivers actually reached out and made sure I was still sending, but that is normal because I could see other traders cancelling to not take the loss.

I am also not going to say that the Reserve List prices are going to start going down, but I really have a feeling that those Reserve List prices are going to start to trickle down.  Maybe not the really sought after cards, but the crazy buyouts that were from cards that did not really do anything.  For instance, Mightstone.  I am sending out one of those and have no issues sending out my other one.

I am sending all my foils, those are cards that just need to go.

Well that is it for the update, just hope I can hit that $10k limit!

Come join me and let me send you some cards!!
https://www.cardsphere.com/ref/711/e4031f

The slow down is real!

woo... hoo...  I ended up getting one of these reprinted foils.

I have been saving at least 10% of my gross income since I was 17.  I have been investing those savings since I was 18 because I could open my own accounts.  Some would call me a value investor.

I tend to lean toward the dividend paying stocks, and just recently started to learn about the debt market with bonds and coupon payments.  Suffice to say, I like the investments that are more than just hoping the go up in price.  I like to get a little bit more from them.  Dividend payments that I can roll into more shares using DRIPs.  Tax free coupon payments from Municipal Bonds.

I have always felt the same about Magic the Gathering cards, they were not only something I could collect, but I could actually use them by playing the game.  The increasing value of them was also an added bonus, where I could actually see the value of them go up over time.  If someone figured out a new deck to play with, and certain cards were put in the deck that had low value, you could be sure those cards would start to increase in price the more players wanted that deck.

This is just how Magic worked.  WoTC would print cards, and those cards would become more popular with the new and more powerful decks that were thought up.  So obviously WoTC needed to figure out a way to reprint the cards in order to try and fulfill demand of their customers.  The evolution of the game has been the reprints to exist in the sets defined for Standard play, but it has become difficult to reprint those cards because of how the Standard game gets manipulated with those powerful cards.

WoTC can only print so many special releases like From the Vault before those prices go sky high.  The only thing left to do is to make reprint sets of the more powerful cards and let the players buy up those sets to fulfill demand.  Makes sense.

WoTC started that with the Master series, but then morphed it into something stupid because of some reason.  I don't know, they felt bad putting out a really awesome set with cards everyone needed?  Anyway, it was a hit.  Not like Chronicles, where it just pissed off all the collectors to the point they were going to boycott the game, no this was actually successful.  The first set sold out super quick.

Not only did they release another reprint set, but the raised the price by $4.  And sure enough, the player base sucked that stuff up real quick too.  But with this set the player base was a bit upset, just because we had to pay a higher price, but got worse cards.

So they keep putting out reprint sets, but now they increase the number of sets.

Eternal Masters
Modern Masters 2017
Iconic Masters
Masters 25
Battlebond
Conspiracy
Conspiracy: Take the Crown
Anthology: Dual Decks
Anthology: Planechase
Anthology: Commander 1
Anthology: Commander 2

They also tried the chase card theory which failed and actually caused their sets to become less valuable.

Zendikar Expeditions
Kaladesh Inventions
Amokhet Invocations

So they stopped those, but still wanted to tap that chase card market so they came out with a new Mythic Edition serving that you can only buy from the Hasbro website.

And now they are putting Masterpiece cards in the reprint sets and increasing the price again.

All along there is still this game call Magic the Gathering that I love to play with really only three new releases a year.  That means there is honestly only three sets you need to pay attention to each year.  Yeah there is the Core set, but that is mostly reprints.

Everything else is noise to make WoTC more money.  It is all special edition junk for those collectors to chase after.  But don't get me wrong, it is a fun chase.  I am just tired. 

Owning this stock that used to just pay a good Dividend is now requiring me to throw in more money each quarter for the same stock that does the same thing, but it might just be shiny.  I have grown tired of the chase of the chase card.  I do not see the point to it.  I am looking back and I see all those sports cards that mean nothing anymore.

I look at it like this.  I can keep all the cards that I have now and just stop.  I have everything I need to play the game with my son.  I can still have fun with the cards I have, and there is no need to get that one special card with the full art and all the shiny.  I do not need to have more reprints in the collection.  Honestly, how many Snapcaster Mages do I really need when I already have 2 playsets of the original?

I am pretty salty with how WoTC is releasing these products.  When you think you have a grip of the releases they change it up or come out with some new product that does the same thing.  I just hope now with the death of the Master sets the come to the realization that the drafting sets are also a flop, and stop trying to get in on the draft market.

They tried to force Conspiracy and Battlebond on us and it failed.  They tried to redo EDH into some new format called Brawl that failed.  They tried to make some 1v1 EDH thing happen and it failed.  They need to just make the cards and let the community create the types of games, and stop trying to control everything.

Fine, they have to reprint cards, and they want them to be available to everyone.  So why keep increasing the prices of those sets, making it harder and harder to get to the players?  I get it, they are just trying to make more money than the did the year before, and they are a business.  I just don't want to chase anymore.

And it is not that I don't have the funds to spend on MTG cards, I am just tired of the chase of new product.  Just come up with a line up and keep it.  Stop trying to change everything.

So yeah rant off.

I did pick up some new cards, older booster boxes, and stamps so I can start to send out like a mad man!

This came in a while ago, but thought I would post it now.  I wanted a second playset from this release because I use this in almost every EDH deck I have.

Those Core 2019 cards keep rolling in, so CardSphere is working for me.

Finishing out that second playset of Lanterns, and got my foil set of a card that I thought was awesome before I really read the card...  Yeah not so good.

Woot!  This closes out my Invasion block of sealed booster boxes!  So happy I got this one in.  There was a bit of question I had on this one.  It looks like it has a new WoTC stamp on the wrapping.  All the other sets from this time has a rectangle WoTC symbol and this one uses more of the WoTC flag symbol.  I ended up getting some pictures from a reputable only LGS, and it showed the flag symbol, so I went through with the CardSphere trade.  But it did have be very worried of a re-wrap situation.  Looks like this was when they had a new wrapping printing process?  No idea.

And the trilogy is complete.  I now have an Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable sealed booster box in the collection.  This one was pretty low on the priority list, but happy to bring it in either way.

So yeah, the plan is still to send out as much as I can until that number hits 0.  Then be able to pick up only sealed product for the collection, and waiting the 2 years after rotation to pick up the playsets of any set through singles from the LGS or CardSphere.  I am still only going to go for 1 of's on the reprints, and the playsets of new prints in any reprint set.  And of course we are still getting our Commander sets because EDH is the only way to play.

Thinking about a new Goal

So what to do.  I am now in the mode of my next goal since I am getting pretty darn close to my previous goals.  Let's recap.

Playset of Legacy cards: Done
Playset of Modern cards: Done
AAL sets: Done
All sealed Product: Done
All sealed booster boxes: 14 left
All sealed fat packs: slow going

So what do I do now that I am really really coming to the end of my goals.  Do I try and get a playset of all the ABU and AAL cards?  How about getting a set of all the foil cards?  Maybe get all the promo cards.

While all those are really good goals, I have come up with another one that might lead into those.

I currently have 208,971 cards that are not in my collection, and 3,728 foil cards.  That adds up to be around $87,746 if I go by TCG Mid list prices.  If I were to take 50% of that, I would still end up with around $40k.  That could go a long way for more cards, and finishing up my other goals.  So that is what I am going to be doing.

The new goal is to get rid of all my extra cards that are not in the collection, and starting today I hope to be blogging about that along with the last pickups for the collection and all the new product.   I am still trying to figure out what I am going to post about since I do not want to call out every card that is leaving, but I would like to send updates like I was in trying to get all the cards I needed.

There is also a lot of bulk cards that I am not sure how I am going to be getting rid of, and some of the sealed product that I have sitting around as a long term investment.  I have been able to cut down my collection by a significant number with CardSphere, and I am just looking to duplicate that going forward.

I am also retooling my budget and buying habits as to not pick up any extra cards.  So that means that I will no longer be buying bulk boxes to open for newer sets.  I want to avoid picking up anything I do not need.  What that means I am not sure.  I am still going to be cracking packs, just not as much as I used to.  I no longer care about trying to build up trading fodder to trade into the needs I have since most of the needs I have are all newer cards, and those are plentiful.

I want to see how low I can get my inventory to while maintaining my collection.  This will also adjust my thinking to be more of a seller, and out of acquisition mode.  I am not going to think about buying bulk collections or looking on Goodwill auctions site for new cards.  I am basically gong to be focusing on just cards I need, and no longer going to speculate on cards.  I am going to be a pure collector and just pick up things I need.

This also means that I will be picking up most of my cards after rotation with the exception of sealed booster boxes.  I will no longer be going into stores to grab singles here and there with newer sets.  I am just going to snag my sealed product from my LGS and then picking up everything I can after rotation.

Now, you might think that is crazy, and there is always the issue with commons and tokens.  Enter CardSphere.  With the time I have spent on the site, I have seen that I can pick up most of that stuff pretty easy, and if I make the prices down on the bulk with the note that I would be willing to pay for shipping, I think I can get a lot of the cards I am looking for on the cheap.  For instance, a playset of the commons from Dominaria are close to $60, and if I am going to ask for those cards around 50% then that takes it down to $30.  If there is someone out there that would be willing to send me all them at $30 I would be willing to pay for the shipping of around $15.  That means I would get all my common's at less than TCG Mid.

Honestly I just need to figure out how I am going to buy all the stamps I am going to need.

This is all speculation, and I have no idea how it is going to go.  All I can see is that I need to try and get rid of all my cards that I do have.  There is no point in amassing all these cards in the hopes of a couple cards in the set spiking.  I need to start to clean house, and this is my little test to see how far I can take this. 

Granted, I do not know how I am going to get rid of some of the cards that I do have, but Buylisting might be an option.  Either way, this is going to be my new goal to see how it goes.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will also know that I have a weak wallet at times, and I do break my plan and buy cards.  That might happen from time to time.  Also, WoTC has been releasing some crazy sets with really high prices, so there is always a chance I will need to shell out for those as well, but with how I am going to be spending my dollars I should be freeing up a lot of it for those purchases.  I will no longer be dumping cash into the sealed boxes to crack and sitting on the bulk for trading.  I am going to only be picking up very small amounts of sealed for the collection, and spending my cash on the cards in the secondary market after the prices drop 2 years after they have been released.

This has a lot to do with the release schedule that WoTC has been using, and all the specialty product they are releasing.  This also has to do with spending money on card board when I have my son to save for.  And with everything going on, all the chase cards that are being released might go into the back burner, and there might come a time where I just go for the set releases, and give up on all the Masterpiece cards and reprints.

My new pickup lists:
Expansion: 2 Booster Boxes, 2 Bundles, 1 each of the Planeswalker Decks
Core: 2 Booster Boxes, 2 Bundles, 1 each of the Planeswalker Decks
Master Set: 4 Booster Boxes
Commander: 2 full sets of the decks
SDCC: 1 set
Spellbook Series: 5 sets
Global Series: 1 set
nonStandard Release: 4 Booster Boxes

And then everything else will be bought with singles after rotation, or bulk buys when I can.  Playsets of all Standard cards, Playsets of everything that is a first print, and then single sets with all reprints.  The big question is do I even try and get the special print cards.

With these changes, I am expecting to spend around $2200 on sealed product, and then pick up the singles at a much discounted rate after rotation.  I am going to try and keep track of everything as to see what I am actually spending on these sets with everything I am trying.  Honestly I am trying to avoid paying the premium of new sets, and Standard prices when the sets completely suck.  Example Hour of Devastation is around $143 per set, and that is around $600 for a complete playset.  That is well below my cost when I would buy sealed product and crack packs.

So here we go.  Step 1 get more stamps...  :-)

My First CardSphere Referral!

Sealed Box Count: 12

First!

Whaaaaaa?!  I got my first referral!  I can only assume it was from here, so if you are the reader that put in at CardSphere for my referral...

Thank you!!!!  I got my Referral badge!

Now if I can just get 99 more people to join through my referral I can get all my badges!

Moving on the the sealed product, I was doing some site comparisons with all the larger online stores.  There is really not that many sites out there that sell sealed product.

Card Kingdom
Alter Reality Games
IDeal808
Channel Fireball
ABU Games
Star City Games
Wozard Cupboard

These are the sites that I have documented prices for boxes I am looking for, and while I was doing my price references I found 2 boxes from 2 different sellers set at such good prices that I needed to pick them up.

It was also pretty nice to have to put something on my Discover cards or they were going to cancel my credit cards.  I typically just sign up for credit cards and keep getting the balances increased, but never really use them, or if I do use them I will pay them off within that next month.  It had been over 2 years since I used my Discover card, so they said they were going to cancel it.  And..... boom!  Good reason to buy something!

Alter Reality Games had this thing for under $350 so I just had to pick it up.  These things are being priced around $500 now because of the increases in Revised and 4th Edition prices.  Being at the price it was at I just needed to snag it.

Channel Fireball was not keeping up with pricing, and when I saw a price tag of less that $250 on this, I had to snag it.  The only other prices I saw for this box were around $600.  I can only assume those prices were set higher on the 8th Edition boxes because of the price increases of the 7th Edition foil price increases, and so I needed to make sure I kept my Discover card!  The current pricing on the 7th Edition boxes are close to $1200 now.

So yeah!  I picked up 2 new sealed booster boxes for the collection, and I got my Referral badge on CardSphere!  It was a good day!

PS Referral link!!!!

https://www.cardsphere.com/ref/711/e4031f