Bonus Money!

Total Trade Count: 207,765
Total Foil Count: 3,766

So this always happens.  I say I am done and I don't want to write anything, and then something happens where I want to write about it.

Around this time of the year I get my bonus from work, and since I do work an ass ton my wife expects me to spend a little extra when that bonus comes in for all the hard work I do put in to provide for my family.  This year it is a lot less than other years, just because we have a baby and I need to put money away for him, but I did end up getting some stuff.

In the last blog I wrote about trying to pick up an Urza's Destiny box from Wizard's Cupboard, but since they wanted a cashiers check and would not take my credit card, they cancelled the purchase.  This was pretty upsetting because I cashed out my CardSphere balance to pay for the purchase, and I had already paid the withdraw fee before Wizard Cupboard told me the sale was cancelled.

What that means, I took out $3300 from my CardSphere balance and had to pay a 10% withdraw fee for their service.  That service, that I am glad to pay for, is a website that you can see what MTG cards other members are looking for, and if you have them the site will match you up so that you can get paid for those cards they are looking for.  Peer to Peer trading is what I think they call it.  So when you send cards you get a cash balance of what those cards are worth, and you can build that balance up to $10k.

You can withdraw that balance anytime you wish by paying 10% of anything you are taking out of your balance.  So what I do is send out all the cards that I do not need for my collection, build up my balance, and get the cards and sealed product I am looking for.

My plan was to keep building that balance up until I got to $10k, but seeing that this website had a box I needed for sale, I thought it would be a great time to pick up the higher priced boxes I was looking for.  Enter Wizard Cupboard and what they cancelled...

So yeah I was a little upset, and what do I do when I am upset?  That's right!  I buy stuff anyway!

Card Kingdom had these boxes up for sale, and they were around $250 each so I figured why the fuck not.  I was already sad, so at least these will make be feel a little better.  Now I am done with the really really old boxes, and the Champions of Kamigawa block.  I still have the really expensive boxes like The Dark and such, but those are bucket list type items that I do not think I will ever buy.

And then I was like, fuck it more!  Let's go see what is at the LGS, I have money in my pocket that is burning a hole.  What did I find, that's right... promo cards that I do not even collect.  Ok, but come on, Teferi's Protection and Noble Hierarch?  I am a WUG player, so they just fit perfectly.

Box Toppers!  I still need 20 more, but I am halfway done!  I also like to buy these at the FLGS Lodestone because it helps support them, and keep them open, so I will always accept paying a higher price there.

And these...  SO....  I did not know how many I actually had in my collection, and I just love this card for EDH, so I just grabbed all of them.  But when I came back home I saw that I already had 9 of them, and I still have 3 sealed sets of the Commander decks, so I really don't need anymore of them.  But now I have all that I might need and more.

And these.  These are the Battlebond cards I need for my complete playset of first print cards.  I still need 3 more cards, but this gets me really close to being done.  Funny thing is, right after I picked these up I have been reading a lot of stuff on Reddit that the price of Battlebond is going up.  Score 1 for me!

And while I was at Lodestone, the greatest FLGS in the world, I saw they had the guild kit decks, but they were missing WG and BU.  I was looking to get a complete set for the collection, but I did not want a partial set, so I went home to see if I could pick up Selesnya and Dimir before I grabbed the rest at my FLGS.  eBay had some crazy prices for those two decks, and it looks like Selesnya had some really good reprints, so the price was pretty inflated.  Amazon on the other hand had complete sealed sets of guild kits under $100, so I just snagged one of each and called it a day!

But as I was up at my FLGS we were talking about why I even wanted them since it was all reprints, and that reminded me that all I really wanted were the lands!  But with the sealed sets, I did not want to crack them just for the lands, so I went onto CardSphere and added 5 of each, from each deck to my Want list.  Hopefully those will be coming soon in the mail.

While I was there, I thought I would just go for it and add all the Player Promo cards I wanted.  These are promo cards I wanted, because I like the full art.  I should be posting more of these that come in.  I already have a bunch on the receiving list, waiting to open.

And through all that, I finally bought something on Facebook.  I have been a member of some of the Magic the Gathering groups on Facebook, but just been silently watching to action from the back.  I saw one seller post this box for $1750 and figured, "Why the hell not?!"

I really hate buying things for the first time on any site, and I was pretty sheepish about spending so much money on Facebook.  Luckily this was a seasoned seller, and actually had a website he sold from.  He was posting on Facebook for a lower price than what he had on his website, so I can only think he was just trying to move the box.

The payment went through PayPal and he sent me all the pictures I was asking for.  A week later, it showed up in my PO Box, and I am very close to getting all the sealed booster boxes I am looking for!  So yeah, I am now thinking I will not need to sell my Revised Booster boxes, and I can just pick up everything I need on Facebook.  I hate Facebook, but if I can get what I am looking for, then let's go!

So I hope to have some updates, and I will keep sending out more trades.  I am just not sure how much I will be posting here, but I will try and keep up with what is going on.

Booster Boxes needed:
7th Edition
Fifth Dawn
Mercadian Masques
Nemesis
Prophecy
Coldsnap
Urza's Destiny

Bucket List
The Dark
Portal
Starter 1999

Highly doubt:
Unlimited
Arabian Nights
Antiquities
Legends

How is it going?

Total Trade Count: 207,944
Total Foil Count: 3,773

It has been over a month since my last post, and I am hitting another 2015 where I just don't care to do anything dealing with MTG again.  I keep sending out trades on CardSphere, but I really just don't care.  Ok that is not totally true, I did cash out most of my balance on CS in order to purchase an Urza's Destiny booster box from the Wizards Cupboard site.  Unfortunately that fell through because they required a cashiers check and would not accept my credit card.

So that put me is an off mood.

Not just cause I did not get the box, but I cashed out my balance before I maxed out the CS total.  I really wanted to break that and get an e-mail from Ted saying I needed to pull money out and I was freaking them out.

So instead I went to Card Kingdom, switched my support from MTA Cast to Command Zone because of reasons, and picked up a Homelands and a Saviors of Kamigawa booster box.  I figured I would get some type of satisfaction for pulling that money out.  I know, it is not even close to the amount needed for an Urza's box, but that is all I could find.  Don't worry, I went out and refreshed my stamp supply for more trades.

At some point I am going to have to put an order with BCW for top loaders too, but let's wait a bit for that.

But yeah, just bored.  WoTC has been changing things up so much, that I am just put off.  They are putting out expensive products now, and keeping up with them is just becoming tiresome.  Also, I am on my new budget where I am trying to not add to my bulk so that puts me in a position where I need to wait for rotation to pick anything up, so I am really just sitting around waiting for the new releases to pick up the sealed product I need.

Having to wait the two years before I pick up any singles is killing me.  I mean I do need to head up to the FLGS and see if they can fill out my Battlebond and UMA needs, but that is not the same.  I do miss cracking packs, and the excitement that comes with that event, but I like seeing that total trade count go down more and more.

Also, with the new MTG budget, I am finding a lot of new things to spend my money on.  If you can't tell, I am a huge budget guy.  I have spreadsheets galore.  My main budget plans out my financial life all the way to 2036 when I retire.  I have been doing a lot of research on tax planing for retirement, and trying to figure out what my retirement number is going to be.

Since I am not buying booster boxes, I have been picking up more dividend paying stocks and planning my attack on the bond market.

So yeah, I have even been thinking about just calling it and then focusing on the stuff I still need and be done with it.  Just stop picking up new product after War of the Spark and call it good.  Finish out the Booster box and Fat pack needs and wait to see if my son even likes Magic the Gathering.

But yeah, I broke 208,000 cards and just wanted to send an update.  The blog might slow to a crawl for a while as I just try and figure out what I want to do.