A funny thing happened with BCW

Total Trade Count: 206,770
Total Foil Count: 3,742

I have been posting more and more into the Reddit-verse, sharing more and more of my experiences.  And with that sharing I have had some really cool conversations.  Today was no different.

A while back I posted to someone looking to see how some other folks might be storing their collections, so I decided to share a picture of what I do.

Reddit Link

Here is the Picture:

Just for reference, the tall rack is my Modern Collection minus the Standard cards.

There was not a lot of communication on that posting, and I think I was the only one to share anything, but a few days later someone from BCW hit me up and asked if they can share my picture I posted on the BCW site.

If you have been reading my blog, you know that I occasionally buy supplies from BCW.  Since I do a lot of trading, and I send out a lot of cards, I have had to make purchases for shipping supplies.  What better way to get those supplies than go right to the source and buy in bulk!

Shop at BCW!

I used to pick up my BCW supplies at my LGS, but since I needed a large quantity of supplies I had to buy in bulk in order to save a little money.  There was also an issue with my LGS not having enough of what I was looking for, as I can only assume it is rare to have someone come in looking for 50 3 Row 3000 count BCW boxes.

https://www.bcwsupplies.com/super-shoe-storage-box-3000-cards

I am always for buying things at your LGS, I just needed to buy more than what a LGS would normally expect to sell to a customer, so I decided to just go to the source.

In the early days of trying to meet my collection goals I would receive more cards than I do now, so I would get a lot of shipping supplies from those traders.  Now I am in the position where I am mostly sending cards, so I have to make sure I have enough supplies to be able to ship properly.  This includes team bags, top loaders, and penny sleeves, and since I send in such higher numbers I also needed to buy in bulk.

Then there is the storage and organization of my collection, and with my collection being so large, I am constantly looking for better ways to protect that investment.  Not only do I want to try and protect the cards, but I want to be able to find the cards easy and put them away so I can find them again when I need them.

In my previous blog about why I decided to go with BCW storage box:

https://dogonsiereht-mtg.blogspot.com/2014/06/collection-storage.html

In this entry I go through my thought process on why I decided to go with these boxes.  Let me tell you, I am super happy with the choice I made back in 2014.  I am able to organize everything to my liking, and the expansion of my collection has never been easier.  And the taller boxes with wider rows I am able to fit cards stored in top loaders along with all my other cards, so I do not need to keep those cards separate.  They just fit so well into the wire racks, and I have found that the weight of 3 of these boxes full of Magic the Gathering cards is not too much for the boxes to handle.

I have actually expanded using these boxes on my bulk trade cards that I accrue in picking up new sets and collections.

So yeah, this BCW person wrote to me asking if they could share my picture of how I use their product and I was more then excited to allow them to share it.  I just love their products, and buying products from them is very easy to do.  With that, I asked them if they would mind if I blogged about this interaction, just because it is super cool that a vendor thinks what I do is cool!  They offered to share my blog after I wrote it, so if you are reading this from their link, "Welcome to my Blog!"

I guess I am just a fan boy, and think it is neat they took an interest in what I do with their products!

I would also like to add that this is not a sponsored link, or anything like that.  They do not pay me to use their products, and I have been using their products for a very long time (over 20 years).

CardSphere update:

This lovely set came in, and finished out my Guild Kit basic land needs.  CardSphere is just a wonderful tool in getting cards like this in.  It just works so well.

And yet another reason to love CardSphere.  This came in, finished out my Mirrodin block for sealed product, and put me at needing 5 more booster boxes to finish up my Sealed phase of collecting.  Just amazed on what I am able to pick up with this site, and I love it!

Lodestone Coffee and Games Update:

I had an afternoon and wanted to stop up at my FLGS to see what they had.  I am still trying to finish out my Ultimate Masters set, so heading up there to see if they brought anything new in, and it is always a great excuse to stop by.  I was able to snag these, just cause I wanted to have a second playset of this Man-Land card.

I also picked up another one of these.  I just think this is a great card, and I will pick up as many of these as I can.

One thing that people do not advertise about their FLGS are the conversations they have.  The interaction I get to have with the folks up at my FLGS is just great.  I think I spent a good chunk of time just going over how excited we are about Modern Horizons, and all the brews we are planning to make with the new set.  It is just wonderful to have a place to go and talk about the things we love.

Bragging time!

CardSphere just celebrated their 2nd Anniversary and they posted their numbers.  I ended up on their top 20 list of traders that have sent the most cards, and I was second!  That is just insane!  I mean I know I have sent and received a ton of cards when I was on Deckbox.org, but to see that I am on a top 20 list is just cool!

And then I also ended up on the top 20 list for All-Time Senders for the Value of Cards being sent at 6th place!  I do have to credit Woadworks for a lot of it since I was trading with him the most towards the end of 2018, but hot damn!  I am in the top 10!

Come Trade with me on CardSphere!

BCW, CardSphere Top 20 Lists, finishing up my sealed collection!

Just a ton of stuff happened this last week, and very excited to be writing this update!

Way too long...

Now I am not saying that I am done with TCGPlayer.com, but I think I am done buying cards from this site.

So I have posted in a previous blog, my speculation on some RIX cards where I am going to try and brew a deck, so I decided to just pick up an ass ton of the cards that I found very interesting.  I also am obsessed with Enchantments so I could not help myself.

Review?

Here were the cards I speculated on.

I of course logged into TCGPlayer and picked up an obscene amount of each of these cards.  For the most part everything got sent to me just fine, but for some reason a single order from a single seller took forever to get to my house.  I then did what I do when this things happens with TCGPlayer, and sent the seller a message.  There was tracking and I wanted to see if they could do something about why it has not shown up yet.  Their return message to me was that I should open a ticket up with USPS to find out where my package was.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about not getting my cards in a timely manner, it happens all the time to me and being a little patient is always worth more than the cards being sent.  I am more upset with the response.  Please tell me if I am wrong, but I was very upset with this response.  Why in the world is it my issue if your package did not get to me with tracking?  They literally sold me something, shipped it, and called it good.  Being the consumer in this manner, it is not my problem until it shows up as being delivered from the tracking.

I just sent a return message asking for a refund since it had been 15 days since the date the package was supposed to be delivered, and then opened a ticket with TCGPlayer Sales to see if I could get resolution.  But the sales team said the same thing, that I open a ticket with USPS to see where the package is.  When did it become the buyers issue to track down packages that were shipped from sellers.

This is not the first time I have had issues with TCGPlayer, but I think it might be my last.  I would be more than happy to take ownership of the issue if the tracking had said it was delivered, and I would open a USPS ticket to find out where the package ended up.  But to make me buy something from you, and have to do some detective work to find your missing package is just silly.

The more and more sellers end up on TCGPlayer, the crapper the site is getting.  This is another reason I like buying from a few stores, spending my hard earned cash supporting the places that will support me, and online stores are becoming the same way.  I know my ability to speculate cards that I like is going to go down, but maybe I can find other avenues to do what I am looking to do.

I am done with TCGPlayer.

Maybe I will use CardSphere???

Support my trip to finish Phase 5 and help me get the referral badges!!

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

Oh yeah, I did end up getting my cards, but I am still done with TGCPlayer.

CardSphere Update

Total Card Count: 88

So this is my new card count, 80 cards being Standard, 1 being Modern, and 7 being Iconic Masters.  I just wanted to put out an update to the count based on a couple cards I got from CardSphere.

A couple of Ixalan Planeswalker deck cards, but I am now caught up with all the Planeswalker deck needs.

Another thing to add, they finally added a membership fee, which gets taken out of your balance.  You can pretty much get 30 days for $6 or 360 days for $60, I of course just picked up the $60 one.  Main thing I want is the ability to sell sealed product, but I am just really hoping to pick up my sealed needs.  I can't wait for them to add all the sealed product.

Goodwill Auctions

The Greatest Magic the Gathering blog is back and running! 

The last couple of weeks I have been attempting to take care of my wife and our new born baby, so I have not really been able to spend time to write blogs or keep up with the collection.  Recently I have been able to get in front of some things and spend some time with the cards.

As the title of the blog suggests, I was running around with the wife doing a little last minute shopping for the baby.  We ended up hitting up the Goodwill so I decided to check out the cabinet that is locked, just because I have read a lot of stories on Reddit about other collectors finding gems in those types of stores and I wanted to take a stab at it.

I ended up not finding anything in the cabinet, but I did find a nice little link that they post.

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/

This is a link where you can shop the auctions they are putting on all around the country.  You can put in a max bid, and get some of the card collections they post on their site.  Now, completed a couple of auctions and won them both, and of course I ended up paying too much for them.  But really, I just wanted to get my feet wet with what type of stuff I can get, and what I should expect.

Here we go!

Alright, so this was my first buy, and I think I spent around $100 on this one.  Way over spent on this one, and did not get much from here.  It was my first auction and really I just wanted to get it because I saw some Modern Masters 2013 common card on the top.  Of course I was thinking that there would be more in the bulk of it.  I did not really get through it all, so I will write another blog on this one, and how not to bid on these auctions...

So this was the second auction I bid on, and I spent a little too much on this one, but it was well worth it.  I have been able to accept the collection into my inventory and update my trading sites with the new cards.

Here are the money cards I pulled from the collection and the 2 Theros Thoughtseize were the only cards that forced my higher bid on this collection.  Since we are looking at two trade binders, I just assumed that there was a lot more to use as trading fodder.  I was a little right.

Here are some land pulls that should being in some good trades.

Here are some more money rares, just smaller values.

Here are all the other Mythics I pulled.  Yeah yeah, not the Fog bank, not sure why that is in this picture.

This was just all the leftover bulk rares that I got.  You can also see the lower left stack, those are some promo and prerelease cards I picked up.

And here are some Commander 2013 first prints I pulled out because at some point I am going to start working on these, along with Conspiracy.

So yeah, on the second auction my bid was $200 and I ended up having to pay around $20 for shipping, but it was worth it if I can trade these cards away.

Breakdown
Cost Basis: $220.75
Money Cards: $228.69
Bulk Cards: $88.35
Promo Cards: $12.34
Duel Deck: $69.99

So in reality I spent $220.75 and picked up $399.37 worth of cards.  Some high priced cards, some bulk, some promos, and that Duel Deck.  I was actually surprised on that Duel Deck, I just assumed it was a newer one that was not worth that much, but it is one from 2011 and has a pretty nice price tag on it.  There are some up for sale around $80 on eBay right now, but the ones that have sold were closer to the $69.99 price range, so that is why I went with that.

So I am really hoping that I can turn these cards around to pick up some of the stuff I am looking for. But as you will see, I might not be in the need for trading fodder much any longer.

Cardsphere

https://www.cardsphere.com/

Ok so here we go, what is this site all about?

This is a Magic the Gathering card exchange site.  You will have your inventory posted to your profile, and the site will match your cards to what people are looking for.  On the other hand, you can also post your "Wants" on the site, and again the site will match you up to what others have allowing them to send you cards.

Boom!  Easy!

How the hell do I get cards then?  People will just send me cards I am in need of for free?

No you Timmy, you need to do something in order to get something.  So, what happens is you need to start to send cards in order to get a $ balance.  That $ balance will then open up your "Wants" to the other Cardsphere members to send you cards.  You will not get any cards without sending some first, and this is how you build up your equity within the site.  Build up enough equity, and anyone can send you anything at that price.  So if you have 100 $0.01 cards on there, and you have $1.00 worth in your balance, anyone can send you those 100 $0.01 cards.

So really, all you are doing at first is sending cards in order to build up a balance within the site, and then you wait for people from the site to send you cards.  Or, if you are not all about sending cards to get cards, then you can charge your credit cards to get cash added to your balance.  This would be the same if you sent cards on the site to get cash.

Easy right?  So let's get started.

Import "Haves"
First thing is you need to add your collection to the site.  They made it so their import tool will take in a Deckbox export file, few things here.

Basic Lands
Deckbox are inventoried differently.  That means you need to go through all the lands and add (#XXX) to each card number, or for the earlier basic lands you need to use a (A), (B), (C), and so on. They do make this somewhat easy to find, you just need to go to the Explore link and search the set you are trying to import.

Make the names of the cards listed in the sets to look like the ones you are trying to import.

Multiple Art
So another thing that is different on import are the cards that have different art on them.  Again, all you need to do is go to the Explore link and look up your set, and use the names of the cards they have posted.  They did make it really easy because they used the artist as the differentiator.  And if a card has different art by the same artist, they found something that is different and posted it on the name.

Example:
Fallen Empires - Tidal Flats (Rob Alexander) (Lake)
Fallen Empires - Tidal Flats (Rob Alexander) (Sunset)

Tokens
With tokens I think they handled it better than deckbox.  Instead of having a different set just for the tokens, they just added the word "Token" to the end of the name of the card per set.  And if there was a token with the same name, they let you know which difference you should be looking for.

Example:
Modern Masters 2017 - Beast Token (3/3)
Modern Masters 2017 - Beast Token (4/4)

I like this way of doing it more than Deckbox because all those cards are included with the set, and you don't need to look at another set listing to see all the cards for that set.  I also think it is just cleaner.

Error on Import
Another great feature is that once you do an import, and there are errors, they will provide you with an output with those errors.  So you can just fix the ones that have an issue, and import them on their own.  Great thinking on their part.

I would have to say that the only thing I hated about this part of the process was reading Reddit. There was a AMA with the Cardshpere folks, and they were touting how easy it was to import, and you could just import without any issue.  A minor mistake, but still it bugged the shit out of me because I am just like that.  At least tell me you need to do some work to get the cards in, don't make it seem like it is monkey proof.

Import "Wants"
Same thing here, just do an export and import after some massaging and boom...

Send

Alright, you have your "Haves" in there, and your "Wants", but now you have to do your part and start sending cards to others on the site to build up that balance.  You are going to want to hit that Send link to get to the next level.

Here is where you will see all the folks looking for cards and have a running balance to accept cards. Since you can't get any cards without having a balance, you can only send cards to folks that have already sent cards, or paid to get a balance.  So really, all you need to do is find a match, make sure you have the cards, and accept the offer.  That offer will then disappear from the Send section, and you will have a new order in your Sending area.

Sending

If you can't tell, I am not actually using screen shots of the pages, and that is cause I don't want to get in trouble with the site and sharing customer info, so these link pics will have to do.

But here under this link, you will see that offer you decided to fulfil.  Under here you can click buttons to start a chat, or see their address.  Once you have everything all packed up and in the mailbox heading to the Cardsphere member you can click on the Cards sent button.  I think that will inform the other end that the cards are coming.  I do know I get notified when someone sends me new cards, I am just not sure if it is on the offer acceptance, or if it is when they actually hit the send button.

Receiving

I am not going to post another link picture because it becoming redundant, but you get the gist.  Once you get a balance and other people can send the cards on your "Wants" list, you can see them here.

Trade History

Wait, you just have a dollar amount circled here.  Yeah, fucking stupid, but that is where you will go to find out your complete history on the site.  This will show what cards have gone out, and come in with the prices of everything.  You will also see a fee on every card in every transaction.  I am only assuming that dollar amount is how the site makes money.  But what that money is, I am not sure.  It might also be a way to control the inflation?  So if things get crazy, they can remove cash from the system through a fee structure.  Seeing as how there are so few users of the site, maybe that is why the fees are so low?

Cash Out
This is a pretty interesting option.  You can send all the cards you have, and build up a nice little purse of cash.  And then let's say you just want out of the site and spend that money somewhere else to get the cards you are looking for.  Well, this option will allow you to pull money out of the site for a fee.  That fee is $10 or 10% of the transaction, whichever is higher.  So that means if you pull out $1000 from the site, you will be paying $100.

Thoughts
So what I like about the site is that you don't need to have a trade.  It is just a way to send cards others are looking for, to build up a balance.  That then allows others to send to you.  This is a really great way to just get cards you are looking for.

You are also able to adjust the prices you are looking to get for the cards you are looking for which an interesting concept.  That way, you can request to pay only $5 for that $9 Fatal Push, and if someone else agrees to that price, they can send the cards you are looking for.

On the same topic, you can also inflate the price of a card you are really looking for.  So let's say you have a $0.50 card, but it is the last one you are looking for, you can actually offer $2.00 for it and hope someone will send it.  Right now I am just setting all my "Wants" at list prices.  There are some Korean 4th Edition cards I am doubling the price I am willing to pay, but I highly doubt I will get those.

I have been able to get in multiple packages, and really only had issues with my first package that was sent to me.  The cards were not NM, and I sent a message in, but I already accepted the cards, so there was nothing I could do.  In those cases, I should have hit "Dispute" on the cards coming in, and something would have happened.

It is very interesting, I have been able to just get the fodder I have been looking for, and it seems to be coming in pretty hot and heavy.  I can only assume that people are sending me my "Wants" because it is an easy way for them to build up their balances to get higher priced cards they are looking for.  It also peeks my interest to be able to send a lot of bulk that I have and build up a balance myself.  The only issue I am having is that I can't really keep a balance because people just keep sending me cards. Don't get me wrong, it is a good issue to have.

I am finding out that it is a lot easier to get things done.  With Deckbox, it is really difficult to get responses from traders.  There is a scoring system that people pay a lot of attention to, and to find someone that has the cards you are looking for, at the same time where you have cards they are looking for, and then coming up with a trade that you can each agree to?  Well it takes a long time.

It is also a consideration of critical mass.  I can see how the more people join and use Cardsphere, the more value you can get with the inventories.  But I can also see what could happen if they do not maintain their economy.  You can get crazy inflation if they are not careful.  Like right now, the prices of the cards are fairly close to market, but if there is a massive influx of coin to the site, then inflation will take effect.  Let's see how they handle it, but considering that we are pretty early in the sites existence, and I am getting a constant stream of cards I need, I might be at the site at the right time.

I am hopeful, and with only needing less than 550 cards left for my collection Phase 1, I have high hopes in getting everything I need.  With that being said, I plan to use this site for Phase 2 as well and considering the way the site works, I might actually try and get my ABU cards I am still looking for.  Of course I am not looking for the Power on here, but just the fodder that I am missing.

I have really found having your entire trade collection present on the site, it really opens up what people are looking for, and I am able to build up my balance pretty quick.  The only thing holding me back is the amount of packages I already have sent out.  I am really just trying to keep my balance closer to $0 while the cards are still coming in.  I guess the best way to put that, is I don't want too much of a balance sitting on the site with no cards coming in.  That to me, would seem like I have just given away cards for nothing, and I would be at a loss.  So as long as I keep getting cards in, I will keep sending cards and building a balance.  Lets just see how many more people join the site and send cards.

I am still very hopeful for the site.  It is a very interesting concept and I really like that they use cash as the currency and not some stupid point system that means nothing.  It is also really cool that the only way to get a balance is by sending cards, or putting in your own cash.  It really does look like there is an economy and I have high hopes for it.  I am going to keep using the site along with Deckbox.

Mirrodin and Urza's Destiny done! 2006 Left

More cards came in from my end of the year purchase.  With these cards coming in I am now done with Mirrodin and Urza's Destiny!  I also picked up a sealed Commander Arsenal.  So let's get to it.

AngelSancum 
- (1) Commander Arsenal

I decided to pick up another one of these.  I know when I started my blog I showed you that I picked up on, but I opened that one.  I was playing a lot of Commander at the time, and really wanted the cards for my Commander and Cube.  Since then, I have regretted it because it was nice to have some sealed product in my collection.  So I decided to pick up another one for that reason.  This seller was so nice that they sent me a free pack of Eternal Masters along with the shipment, because they thought it was a delayed shipment.  I of course did not think it was delayed what so ever, so it was a very nice surprise.  I did not get anything in the pack, and I should have just kept the pack since I just bought some Eternal Masters, but oh well.

JohnsMagicCards
- (1) 8th Edition: Grave Pact
- (1) Lorwyn: Austere Command

Great buy, nothing to say here.

Yugioh Gaming 
- (1) Magic 2010: Garruk Wildspeaker

Great buy, nothing to say here.

thefunkyfruitstand 
- (1) Magic 2010: Garruk Wildspeaker

Great buy, nothing to say here.

The Next Level Games 
- (3) 5th Edition: Icatian Store
- (2) 5th Edition: Orcish Squatters

Great buy, nothing to say here.

Card Titan 
- (2) Fifth Dawn: Silent Arbiter

Great buy, nothing to say here.

Gaming Till Dawn
- (1) Coldsnap: Snow-Covered Plains
- (1) Fifth Dawn: Vedalken Orrery
- (1) 5th Edition: Game of Chaos

Great buy, nothing to say here.

Mythic Games 
- (2) Magic 2010: Relentless Rats

Great buy, nothing to say here.

Mind Sculpt Games 
- (1) Urza's Legacy: Impending Disaster (Foil)
- (1) Guildpact: Leyline of the Void
- (2) 5th Edition: Bad Moon
- (1) Darksteel: Darksteel Reactor
- (1) Fifth Dawn: Silent Arbiter

Great buy, nothing to say here.

TCGPlayer Direct 
- (1) Urza's Destiny: Tethered Griffin
- (1) 5th Edition: Howling Mine
- (2) 5th Edition: Nether Shadow
- (1) Time Spiral: Sudden Spoiling
- (2) Fifth Dawn: Blinkmoth Infusion
- (1) Fifth Dawn: Roar of Reclamation
- (1) Fifth Dawn: Bringer of the Green Dawn
- (1) Fifth Dawn: Relentless Rats
- (1) Darksteel: Kraken's Eye
- (1) Darksteel: Spawning Pit
- (1) Darksteel: Screams from Within
- (1) Darksteel: Spincrusher
- (2) Coldsnap: Adarkar Valkyrie
- (2) Coldsnap: Snow-Covered Plains
- (1) Mirrodin: Wall of Blood
- (3) Mirrodin: Forest (305)

So you would think that ordering from TGCPlayer Direct you would get exactly what you ordered. Ended up I did not get some cards that were acceptable conditions.  One of the Adarkar Valkyrie was LP, one Sudden Spoiling was LP, and a Blinkmoth Infusion was LP.  Not very happy with getting cards outside of the seller's posted conditions from the website's very own service.  I think for my next bulk buy I will try LotusVault.com instead of going through TCGPlayer.

But I was able to finish out Mirrodin and Urza's Destiny with these cards, so I can't be too upset.

We are back in business!

I found that I was still able to scrape off of TCGPlayer, and I am not sure they know I can do it, but I can!

Before the printable price guides, I was able to scrape off just the table from the website.  They then change it so you had to repoint to the printable versions, but it looks like now with their new price guide they opened up the table on the webpage.

I will update this later, but I just wanted to send a quick update.  I was able to update my Price.xlsx with all the new connections, and update the Collection spreadsheet, but there are even more edits I need to post for the spreadsheets.  The prices for Mid shifted over a column, and the issue with N/A being presented on the web prices, so there will be some new updates to those changes.

But I have been able to get things 75% back up and running with Excel, and that will give me some more time to get coding to get my database up and running.

It is late and the wif is wanted to head to bed, so look for an update later!

FYI, I was going to make a pretty large purchase with some extra money I have saved up, and with the changes that had occurred I was really looking to not use TCG to buy anything and just go to the sites themselves.  But now with being able to keep my spreadsheets up to date with price, I just might throw some cash to the site again!

I know, it is pretty sad to not buy from the site for them wanting to keep this information to themselves, but come-on!  I am not some big business guy, I just don't want to post my collection on any site and keep the prices up to date.

I hate my life right now

So....

TCGPlayer has now decided to change the way they post the Price Guides and I am no longer able to scrape the website pages to get my information that I load into collection sheets.  This is not so bad when it comes to gathering the set information, but now I am no longer able to update my prices to see what my collection total is.

Options now are to use a site like MTGPrices, Deckbox, or even TCGPlayer to keep track of my inventory.  OR... I build my own application to scrape off data from websites to get prices and keep going with my own application.  TCGPlayer will not give me their API to write my own application because I am not a company that is trying to drive traffic to their site, and MTGPrices has an API that I have a request out to in order to see if I can use theirs.

All in all, I need to start building a python script that will allow me to gather data from sites for the prices so I can then merge it with data I can gather from other sites on card information.

This is going to be a long process...

More to update later.

Cardboard Crack

Website: http://cardboard-crack.com/

So I check twitter every morning right when I get up, and I always have the pleasure to catch up on my Cardboard Crack comic.  MODO, to old players, to player types, and set releases this comic is pretty spot on with what is going on in the Magic community.  Considering how much I enjoy his work, I figured it was about time I picked up the books.

I will still keep up with his new comics, but really like having his comics in print.  I know I can just go to his website and read them anytime I want, but if we don't support the people that bring smiles to our faces, then we won't have anything to smile about.

First book favorite: Yo Mama Jokes

Tolarian Community College

https://www.youtube.com/user/tolariancommunity

Innocent plug here.  Not trying to steal his signage, or plagiarize anything, but I am not good with the credit giving part about writing, so I hope just posting his YouTube page is enough.  But, if I do get in trouble for stealing his pictures then so be it, because I just need to share more about what the Professor does.

So I have been playing since 1995, took some time off to chase the women, and now that I have a wife that loves me I got right back into it.  I stumbled onto this YouTuber a while back, and just need to give him a shout out, and it is a bit sad it took me this long to share him on the blog.  But his grumpy old man segments make me cry because I remember playing back then, and it is such a good flash back.

Basically if you want to know about any product within the MTG community, the Professor has done a really good review of the product.  I can't say that I agree with every review he has put out there, but you get a really good, consistent opinion about everything he talks about.  From trade binders, to sleeves, to new sets and old sets, he goes through a lot of Magic the Gathering products and gives them a proper review.  These are not just reviews to be reviews, but they are actually useful.

I have gone through a lot of videos, and blogs, and podcasts, and articles, but with the Professor you get consistent quality reviews on pretty much everything that has to deal with MTG.

Great thing now is you can actually be a patron of his work.

https://www.patreon.com/tolariancommunitycollege

I was pretty excited that he did this, and did not go the Twitch road, but I do think he is going to be doing some Twitch for his patrons.  I do love that I can just hit his YouTube page and check out his reviews.  I might be looking at some new product, or I might be looking for a deckbox.  I know I can get an in depth review of multiple products to find out what would be the best thing for me to choose.

24,534 to go, and found a doosh I won't trade with again

So I got 1 card from deckbox.org and 3 lands from pucatrade.com.  First off, I don't want to flame anyone on my blog so I am not going to say the username here, but honestly if you start a trade and move forward with a trade, and then pull out some cards you put up don't lie about why you don't want to trade the cards.  Don't tell me you can't find the cards only to open another trade with me with the exact cards that you lied about.  Seriously, it only puts you on my Do Not Trade list.  It just shows me you are dishonest, and you are not to be counted on when you try and setup a trade.

Anywho, received another Zendikar Mythic Rare from deckbox.org, and another name I put on my Do Not Trade list.

Pucatrade.com is becoming more interesting, and I think I might be able to get some trades done for the lesser wanted items.  I think I will be able to send unwanted rares/cards to people just like me who are looking for the same types of cards, in the hopes that they will look at my needs list and send me cards.  I still don't like how you are supposed to setup your wants/haves but I do like the theory of sending and getting based off of what you send.

Still thinking about it, but I did get 400 points for setting up an account, and got 3 Zendikar (a) lands sent to me for doing nothing, so that was pretty cool.  And then when I finished my first trade I got another 100 points, and 2 more cards are headed my way.  So we will see.  But yes, still have not sent anything in return, but there is a guy looking for Homeland cards, so I might try and send some.

Online Trading - Pucatrade.com

https://pucatrade.com/

Puca Trade

So just saw something about this site on theMeadery and oh boy, not sure how I feel about it.  First off I don't think there is a lot of people on the site now, and it is really hard to see who all the traders are.  So I signed up for the site, and you get 100 points for signing up, than 200 points for giving them your cell phone number, and then another 100 points for setting up a want list.

The object of the site is that you get points for giving cards to other members, and you can only get cards based off the points you earn.  Each card is given a specific point value, and that determines how many points you would get or spend.

So if you start out with 400 points for just following their rules, and you put 2 cards on your want list that are worth 200 points each, and someone sends you those cards you would end up with 0 points, but have the 2 cards you were looking for.

If you have 0 points, then no one can send you cards, and you need to find people that need your cards, send them the cards, and then you get points.  With 0 points you need to find people to send cards to, so the next step would be to setup the 'Cards Have' part which will fill out your inventory, then you can go to the 'Send Cards' section.  This will show you people that have 'Card Wants' that match your 'Cards Have' and you can send them cards.  This will then increase your point total, and more people can send you cards on your 'Card Wants' list.

I am just not sure about this whole thing.  It seems like you can send cards and get points, but you really need to keep an eye out on what you have on your want list.  From what I can tell, everyone just has super crazy expensive cards on their want list.  There is no real way to look at what some people might want, or maybe no one needed the cards I was looking to give.

Honestly I am just not sure how I feel about this site.  I think in theory it is a good idea, but most of the people on the site just want the really expensive cards and it really does not have value when it comes to trading.  Maybe I am more of a traditional trader and I want cards for cards rather than building a pool of points for giving people cards in the hopes that someone sends me cards I am looking for.

What if I were to give a bunch a cards away and no one gives me any cards in return, and all I get are these points I never get to use.  Not sold on the idea at all.

Conspiracy Pre-Order - IDeal808.com

www.ideal808.com

So, what to do about this new set coming out....

I have no idea what to think about this set, and frankly I hope it does not sell a lot and they stop making sets like this.  It was hard enough to get Modern Masters last year, and now I have to get some of this to keep up the collection.  Now, I know I have a full play set of Portal, Unglued, and working on Portal Second Age, but I consider this set like those.  Do I get a full playset?  Do I treat it like Modern Masters and just get a single card of the set?  Well, I did pre-order 4 boxes from IDeal808 and I should have one more booster box coming from The Mead Hall Games, but really this set just makes me upset as a collector.

To me it seems like WoTC had such a good showing with Modern Masters that they decided to make a little more money with this set.  Now this set is not priced higher than normal packs, so I have a hope that they will be treated like any other set, but I have heard grumblings that it will be a short print like Modern Masters.  I really think that with the 4 sets a year to collect was good enough.  I mean come on...

Year sets:
3 Expansions
1 Core
2 Duel Decks
1 From the Vaults

And now I hear that they will be doing Commander Decks every year!!!!!  Man....

I have budgeted to get all this with the addition of 2 of the Holiday boxes, in which I hope they keep doing because I like the sticker/card separators/boxes, but if they keep adding an additional set to get I might have to consider just collecting 1 of every reprint and then a full playset for all the new cards.

Rant off: so I was able to pre-order a box from www.ideal808.com for around $115 and I dont know what the price from the Mead Hall Games is just yet.  It is coming out soon, so I hope they let me know what the price is going to be.

The set only has 210 cards, with 65 of them being new.  I will have to see how this set goes, I might have an update to this later once I open the packs.

Update: Looks like Mead Hall Games is not selling any of their boxes, as they want to get people in the stores for multiplayer drafts, so not going to be getting a box from Mead Hall Games.

Online Trading - Deckbox.org

Found it, love it!

www.deckbox.org

Seriously the greatest thing I have found for trading.  I know you can sell on eBay, and you can trade to stores, or carry all your trading fodder around and trade at the LGS, but if you are looking for the throw away rares, and looking to make trades that you would normally not find at a LGS, this site is for you.

The way it works is you post your tradelist, and then create your wishlist.  You start out with zero trades and you just start trading.  You can search for specific cards, and you can also just do a search for things that are on your wishlist.  The site does a wonderful job with matching up things on your wishlist to things on others tradelists, and then posts the matches on other traders profile pages.  This means you don't need to sift through all the pages of cards on other traders pages, and you can just hit the profile pages to see if there is a good trade matchup.

Now, if you are a new trader, you will most likely ship first.  Usually you will need to get to over 10 trades before people feel better about trading with you.  Now I have only really had a couple of issues with traders on the site, but nothing pointing to straight up evil people.  Most of the issues I have had were just not very organized people.  Most of the time you can tell who those people are by looking at their tradelist.  Usually when people have un-updated lists, or don't use the condition posting accurately, or don't update the editions the cards are in, then they are more than likely a bad trader.

Granted there are some people that have been on the site for quite some time, and they were early adopters where some of the options were not available, but the site has made it really easy to add and remove cards from your tradelist.  Hopefully I can get to more blogging and share my different ways I have been able to do this quite quickly.

The Forums for BTR (Bad Trade Reports) is very useful as well, and I highly suggest sticking with waiting 2 weeks before opening something up.  I have had issues with shipments not getting to me, I have had issues with my packages getting to other people, and I have had issue with tracking not showing up.

Either way, check out the site.  I have a lot more to share about this site, but just wanted to put this out there as I am trying to do more blogging, and will update some other posts.