24,833 to go

Couple of more trades came in, and I am wondering if I should start posting my trades and why I did them, but that might be too much.  But the trade I am really waiting for is the Unlimited commons coming from Canada.  I am always worried about trades from Canada for some reason.  I have only done 3, and all of them have gone very smooth.  I think it is just the fact that it is not cost effective to pay for tracking that worries me the most.

Here is the count
Mythic: 146
Rare: 7341
Uncommon: 8377
Common: 7932
Basic Land: 1344

I got 5 rares and 2 mythic rares in these last two trades.
1 M11 Mythic Rare
1 Zendikar Mythic Rare
1 Shards of Alara Rare
4 Darksteel Rares

One of the Darksteel rares needs to be traded out because it came in as Played, but since they were just throw in rares to get the trade more even I am ok without saying anything.  And it was a full playset, so it accomplished something outside of just getting a trade done.

Spreadsheet Update - Color / Rarity Needs

4. Number of cards needed by color
5. Number of cards needed by rarity

Through my counting and planning I wanted to know how many more 3200 count boxes I would need in order to keep the organization I have setup.  I had not completed playsets for each of the editions yet, but I wanted to know if the needed cards would be too much for the boxes I already have.

With this feature enhancement I can look at the Cards Needed columns, look at the Type, and sum those number counts that I needed.  Then I could gather all the needed numbers from all the edition tabs and compile them in a single spreadsheet to find the totals.  From those totals I could separate the Modern from the Legacy cards, and figure out how much space I would need to store all the cards together.

I also wanted to validate how many more Mythic Rares, Rares, Uncommons, and Commons were needed to fill out my playsets.  So in the same formulas I did the same thing but looking at the rarity.

Here is the new spreadsheet, and we are going to be looking at Column A and B with Rows 42 - 59.

W stands for White
U stands for Blue
B stands for Black
R stands for Red
G stands for Green
D stands for Gold
C stands for Colorless
A stands for Artifact
L stands for Land



M stands for Mythic Rare
R stands for Rare
U stands for Uncommon
C stands for Common
L stands for Land
T stands for Token



Cell A42: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"White",Z2:Z602)
Cell A43: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Blue",Z2:Z602)
Cell A44: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Black",Z2:Z602)
Cell A45: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Red",Z2:Z602)
Cell A46: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Green",Z2:Z602)
Cell A47: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Gold",Z2:Z602)
Cell A48: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Colorless",Z2:Z602)
Cell A49: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Artifact",Z2:Z602)
Cell A50: =SUMIF(W2:W602,"Land",Z2:Z602)

This should look into the W column and check the color of the card, and then SUM the number of cards needed from the Z column.  So for each category I am able to see how many of each color I need. And since we are sorting by Vintage/Modern/Standard, then by color this will allow me to total up all the counts for each of the Vintage/Modern/Standard sets to see how much space I need when filling up the boxes I have.

Cell A55: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"M",Z2:Z602)
Cell A56: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"R",Z2:Z602)
Cell A57: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"U",Z2:Z602)
Cell A58: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"C",Z2:Z602)
Cell A59: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"L",Z2:Z602)
Cell A60: =SUMIF(X2:X602,"T",Z2:Z602)

This should look into the X column and check the rarity, and then SUM the number of the cards needed from the X column.  So this will basically let me know what I need to concentrate on when trading.  I have my need lists in Evernote, but as I am trying to concentrate on Modern blocks and Vintage sets I want to make sure that I look at the sets that I need rares in.

So for instance, Worldwake I only need Mythic Rares, so I am not as worried about that set as I am the other sets where I need more of the rares.  The issue was that I just had a total number of cards that I needed per set, but I really didn't know what that meant.  So not I can see that Worldwake total at 296 and out of that number I really only care about 17 Mythics, and 5 Rares.

Or I can see my Mercadian Masques total is set to 64 more cards needed, but with this new enhancement I know that 58 of those needed are basic lands.

You will be able to see more from the Total and Collection tabs when I get there.

**EDIT**

I needed to add some Cell configurations and decided to edit this blog to incorporate the changes.  Just in case someone wants to follow along and build their own spreadsheet.  This way they will not need to go back and edit all their Set Tabs with this new information.

Cell A65: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"M",AA2:AA600)
Cell A66: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"R",AA2:AA600)
Cell A67: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"U",AA2:AA600)
Cell A68: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"C",AA2:AA600)
Cell A69: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"L",AA2:AA600)
Cell A70: =SUMIF(X2:X600,"T",AA2:AA600)


This will gather price totals for all the cards that still need to be bought, and separate those totals out by rarity.

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.

24,840 and Counting

So today I go a Big trade, a Middle Trade, and a single card trade in the mail today.  I am now down to 24,840 cards needed.  All the cards I got today were Rares and Mythic Rares, so all in all it was a good day.  I was able to remove them from my deckbox.org Inventory because I dont trust my entire Inventory on that site, I removed the cards from my Evernote notebook, and added them to my spreadsheet inventory.

I also tried to start my Mac application, but did not get far...

For the best note, I was able to complete my playset of Nemesis!  I love completing playsets, it allows me to just move on to the other sets that I do need.  Most of the cards that I got today were from Prophecy to Scourge, and I did take a big chunk out of my Coldsnap needs.

Looks like I still have 4 more trades waiting to come in, but making progress in total.

Mythic Rare: 148
Rare: 7346
Uncommon: 8377
Common: 7932
Basic Land: 1344

Vintage: 9136
Modern: 16006

I am still trying to get all the Pre-Modern cards first while working back from the most recent sets in Modern.  I just need one more Scars of Mirrodin to finish that set, Rise of the Eldrazi I need 9 but are all mythics, Worldwake is mostly commons and uncommons, and Zendikar is rares and mythic rares.

The next closest block that is complete is the Shards block, but that is pretty slow going.  I only need Rares and Mythic Rares from those sets.

For most of the sets, I plan on buying Fat Packs and Booster boxes for the common/uncommons.  And I have found that I need to go to LGS for the basic lands.

More later!

25,576 to go

So I thought I would document my travels into trying to complete my collection.  Currently I am at needing 25,576 more magic cards.

Why 25,576?

I am trying to get a playset of all the Core and Expansion sets.  With the exception of Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Arabian Nights, Legends, and Antiquities; where I am just trying to get 1 of each because I am not a millionaire and I still need to save for my retirement...  :-)  Also, I am not going to start on Starter and Portal Third Age because again I am not loaded, and the only reason I have Portal, Portal Second Age, and Unglued is because those were released when I was playing back then.

Now if you have been following my poor attempts at writing blogs on how I have my collection setup, then you know of my spreadsheets, and how I have everything laid out.  You also know where my LGS are, and some of the things I have purchased.  So now I am just trying to add more of a reason to write, because writing this blog without a purpose is getting dry to me, and I need something to flavor it up.

So here we are 25,576 left.  From deckbox.org I have some more cards coming in.  I found this wonderful couple in East Grand Forks, MN that was willing to trade me bulk rares for sealed product, so I am trying to get some of my loose packs (Not in a sealed booster box) for those rares.  I figure it is a good trade off, where they can get rid of rares they don't need or use, and I can get rid of packs that I dread opening because I dont want to sort them...

I am hoping to get 500+ cards this weekend from trades that I have done this week.  I also received my first purchase from deckbox.org which finished my Fallen Empires and Revised plays sets, so that was pretty exciting.  I also got 2 more cards closer to my Legends set, but the Cleanse was a bit beat up more that I would like, so I will most likely try and trade for a better one later after I complete phase 1.

Phase 1, yeah I should go into the phases that I am trying to complete, so...

Phase 1: Get Playsets for all the Core and Expansion sets
Phase 2: Get all the Duel Decks/From the Vaults/Beginner sets
Phase 3: Trade the not NM/M cards for NM/M cards
Phase 4: 1 Sealed Booster Box of every Core and Expansion set

Of course that will change, and I already got all the FTV sets and I am only missing 1 Duel Deck, but you get my drift.

Oh and I forgot, I think I am only going to get 1 of the reprint sets IE Modern Masters.  I only say 1 because if I am going to try and get the play sets of the originals then there is no need to get a play set of the re-releases.

I am still on the fence with Conspiracy, but I have my pre-order in and I am waiting to see what that is all about.

Commander and Planechase I already have a full set of those as well, with Commander 2013 being the only set that I kept another full set unopened.

Spreadsheet Update - Verification

3. Verification of cards in inventory vs cards in my trade inventory

So I hit an issue with having cards in my collection and then cards in my trading fodder, but my collection was not to the playset count of 4.  This feature enhancement is to validate that the collection count in Column G, if set lower than 4, Column O is empty.  Column O is the sum of Column S and T, which represent cards that are extra in the collection and cards that are in my trading book.

If the collection column has a value of less than 4 and there are no extra cards in the trading fodder it should result in "Good".  But if there is a value in the collection that is less than 4 and there is cards in the trading fodder, then the output would be set to "Fix".  But on the same hand if the collection column is set to 4 and there are cards in the trading fodder column it will also be set to "Good" because the playset would have been filled.

Column G: Has a value
- This is the total number of cards that are left in my collection.  The goal is to have a playset of 4 cards.

Column O: =S2+T2
- This column is used to add the amount of cards in the extra cards, and the amount of cards in the tradebook.

Column S: Has a value
- This column is used to keep track of the extra cards in my collection.

Column T: Has a value
- This column is used to keep track of the number of cards in my tradebook.

Column U: =IF(AND(G2<4,O2>0),"Fix","Good")
- This column is used to verify that Column G is less than 4 and Column O is greater than zero, and if that is true then Column U would be set to "Fix". If those values are not set than Column U is set to "Good".

From the example, you can see that there is a single instance of "Fix" where the collection total is set to 3 and the trading fodder is set to 2.  This means that there are cards in my trading fodder while my collection is still not set to 4.  Once I move a card from my trading fodder to my collection then it will be set to Good.

Spreadsheet Update - Tradebook List

2. Cards that I have in my tradebook

So here is the new spreadsheet again.  Now we are going to be looking at Columns S, T, AC, AD, and AE. I needed to keep track of the cards that were for trade, but also what I was keeping in my tradebook. This also helped when I was using the columns to populate what I put on deckbox.org, but the more I used deckbox the more I wanted to put all the rares I had along with uncommons that were worth more than $1.00.  I still use this for what I keep separate in my trade supply.

Ok, column S listed as "Ex" stands for Extra.  This is the count of the cards that are extra in the collection so therefore considered trading fodder.  But with the problem of bringing every extra card with you to a LGS in hopes to get a trade is a bit much.  That is why we are using column T listed as "Bk" which stands for Book or Tradebook.  This way I can keep track of my trading fodder that is worth being in a tradebook.  If something were to happen and the tradebook was stolen then I would not have to count everything over again to figure out what my inventory is.  I would only have to count what is in my tradebook fodder and not have to count everything over again.

If you now look at AC, AD, and AE.  This will give us the count, name of the card, and price total that is in the tradebook.

Column AC: =IF(T2>0,T2," ")
- This will look to see if there is a count in Column T which is the tradebook count and then populate the Column AC with the same count.

Column AD: =IF(T2>0,F2," ")
- This will look to see if there is a count in Column T which is the tradebook count and then populate the Column AD with the name of the card.

Column AE: =IF(AC2=" "," ",AC2*C2)
- This will look to see if there is a count in Column AC.  If Column AC is blank then Column AE will be blank, or if the Column AC is not blank then the count should be multiplied by the price and totaled.

Cell AE: =SUM(AE2:AE602)
This will get the total of all the prices of all the cards in the tradebook and total them up.  This will show the total price of all the cards in the tradebook for that specific edition.  This will be important on the Total tab to see a complete price total for all the cards in the tradebook.

The only reason I have done this was to split off the more valued trading cards from the extra cards of the collection.  I am using the same formulas as I did in the Card Needed columns where if there is a count I will populate the cells with the information, and if there is not a count I will leave the cell blank.