Alpha Investments

https://www.patreon.com/AlphaInvestments/posts
https://www.youtube.com/ - Alpha Investments

............seriously?

Seriously...

I found this content creator about 4 months after he started posting?  I love his posts.  He talks about Magic the Gathering as an investment topic, and backs up his posts with real financial knowledge. This type of content was missing in a big way.

Now, I know you will tell me about MTGStock.com and MTGGoldfish.com but in my mind they were just tracking.  Their messages were mainly about MTG finance within the bubble of Magic the Gathering.  Rudy takes it a step further.  He talks about collecting as though it were any other financial medium, and this was missing.

How else can I explain this...

Let's say you wanted to investing for your future.  You save up some money and open an online brokerage account.  Then you start buying Mutual funds.  You keep putting more money into those funds over many years, and by the time you retire you have this nice lump sum of cash to retire. Then you read an article on how Mutual funds screw you for about 1/3 of all your retirement funds when you retire based on the fees they charge.  (Frontline: Retirement Gamble)

Rudy is the article.

Honestly that is the best way I can explain it.  I have tired to write and re-write this blog for about 30 min now.  But really, that is the advice he gives you.  I have been learning about investing for retirement, and 'investing in money that can make you money' for over 20 years.  I am not in the financial field for work, it is just a hobby that I have and it interests me, but the way he explains and shares his opinion about Magic the Gathering is very close to everything that I have read about saving and investing for retirement.

Why is this so important being a collector of Magic the Gathering cards?  In my eyes, it is just being smart in what you need to do with your interests in this world.  Now I know he is doing it for his financial gain, and he runs his Magic the Gathering as a business.  I on the other had, run my Magic the Gathering more like a collector.  I don't mind paying list prices for some items, because for me the only thing I worry about is having to sell my collection because of financial hardship and I need to keep my house.  Hopefully that will never happen, and my wife will be able to sell the collection with the highest cost basis when she sells it for a loss after I die.  Then she will not need to pay any taxes for all this cardboard.

I look for good deals so I can trade for missing items in my collection to fill out my collection, but I am not looking for a paycheck at the end of the day.  What I take in with purchases are either going to go in my collection, or on Deckbox to trade for things that I need to get in my collection.

What Rudy does, is he uses his leverage to buy in bulk to drop his cost basis as low as possible on any new set that comes out.  Then he will hold sealed product for at least 5 years in hopes that the price for that product will increase, and then he will release some onto the market to make a profit. He will also open some of the product, keeping all the foil cards, and sell the singles to make a profit over the long term.  He will then take those profits and buy Reserve List product to hold for the long term to make even more of a profit.  So really, the lower he can get the cards, the better for him because he does not look to turn the product around right away for the Standard Market, he will buy and hold for the longer term.

I mean one of his videos goes through how he will take a credit card, buy a bunch of product on this credit card to get the 1%-2% cashback on purchase.  Then he will buy something with some 15% deal with the same card.  So in reality what he just bought for $100 really only cost him $83 because of the 15% + 2% discounts.  If you could buy a Force of Will for $17 less, and still get that same card would you do it?  Logic...

He does all this, and he shares his information.  Now I don't think he shares everything about everything, but you get a good picture on how he does what he does.

OH, and another thing, if you support him on Patreon you can get in on buying some of the sealed product at wholesale prices that he gets from distributors.  That's right.  He gets boxes for less than $90 and passes those prices off to you.  Great example, Commander 2016 he was selling for $99.99 each and depending on your Patreon support you could get up to 2 sets of decks.  Pre-sale prices for this set was getting close to $160 for the set of 5.  I was able to get sets from my LGS for $30 per deck and a set of 5 for $150.

There is some hate for the guy, some people are looking to see how he is screwing people who follow him, or donate to his Patreon, but really all he is doing is investing the way he is investing and allowing people in on some of his ideas.  Even if his selling booster boxes of Kaladesh for $78.99 somehow hurts the Magic community, than a LGS's selling booster boxes for $100 - List price is hurting the community even more.

Let's take a look at it:

So based on his numbers of Patreons, he pulls in $11,240 a month.  Then he sells product to each of those Patreons if they wish to buy from him on a month.  Now, that $11,240 number seems like a lot, but that is gross.  That means on his taxes he needs to claim that as income, so best case let's say he pays 28% in taxes.  That means he really only brings in $8,092.80 in Patreon income after taxes.

Now based on his Patreons, and each Patreon bought their max that would be 5,424 booster boxes of his Dec 2016 deal.  That means he needs to spend $423,072 just to fulfil those orders if everyone buys something, and that is at $78 per box.  Even if, let's say he bought them for $75 a box and then sold them to his Patreons.  That is a buy of $406,800 where he will turn around and sell them for $423,072 with a $16,272 profit.  This is an intake, inventory, package, ship of 5,424 booster boxes to possibly 771 different addresses.  And remember he does not charge shipping to anyone on his Patreon list.  Not a single mention of shipping no matter the order.

Oh yeah, total scam...

So he will bring in $11,240 a month, be expected to spend $406,800 to get 5,424 booster boxes from many distributors, box up 771 different orders, and ship all those out all in a month just to make 771 people happy.  And this is all assuming he is getting the boxes for $75 a booster.  For that type of service I am hoping he is getting those boosters for cheaper and making more than $16,272 a month. Because if you think of it in those terms, with $16,272 + $11,240 = $27,512 a month Gross.  Fucking Gross!?  With those types of numbers, he is more than likely paying at least 35% tax.  So he is ending up Net $17,882.80 a month if everyone maxes out all their orders with him.

Just think of it, for someone to run a business spending pretty close to half a million dollars most likely on credit to get 5,424 booster boxes of Magic the Gathering, have the space to store that many orders when they come in.  Inventory all the product.  Take in all the orders, print the shipping labels, box up all the orders, pay for shipping, and get all those 771 orders out the door within a week of the first of the month when the deals start out.

All this happens for a lot longer than 1 month.  This is a multiple month project, where he needs to contact distributors to see if he can get enough product in to fulfil the "expected" orders that might come though.  Multiple distributors, sending multiple shipments to a location, then storing all that product for a matter of time to where he can even give the monthly deal.

This is all if everyone buys up everything.  What if he is thoughtful and does buy up enough for everyone to get everything they want, but not everyone buys their limit?  Then he is stuck with the product sitting there.  Math shows that $11,240 is only about 150 booster boxes at $75 a piece.  That is his wiggle room if you base it on him using the Patreon money for the float.  He can be off by 150 boxes to not have to hold any cash in inventory that he might not get rid of.

This blog went on for a very long time, and I rambled a bit, but I really wanted to point out the work, effort, and cost of trying to be nice to people that support him for the content he creates.  And for him to put out a deal like this even for a $3 profit per box while providing a price no one outside of an LGS could get without connections into distributors is just amazing.  Even if he did make $17,882.80 Net a month through a deal like this, it is totally worth it for us, his Patreons, and I am glad Rudy does this service for people who believe in his content.

Oh yeah, and he still makes pretty awesome content for his YouTube channel.

/hugs

Black Friday!

Now I normally hate black friday, and I never go out and shop, but for some reason I decided to go out and see what types of deals I could get.  There is a seasonal Black Friday shopping sale at an LGS I normally go to and love, then there was a LGS that was going out of business that I had to check out, and then I needed to make a stop at my LGS Mead Hall Games to pick up my Anthology Planechase.

First stop was the Air Traffic Kite and Game shop that was going out of business.  There really was not much I could find for deals, but they were selling things off at 20% discount.  The manager told me that they were going to be open until the end of Dec, so the deals were supposed to get better as the closing sale went on.  So I hope to make another stop closer to the end date to see if there is a bulk pickup I can do.

I was able to pick up 2 From the Vault: Lore for $31.99 each.

And a Anthology Planechase for $119.99.

Then I headed up to the Source Comics and Games.  They opened up at 10:00 AM, and a line out the door.  It was crazy.  They also did a deal where you could get an extra 10% off if you brought up a canned food to donate to the food shelves.  They also have a 10% off card for customers if you purchase the discount cards, and the card lasts a whole year.  I normally get the card every year. What they did is add the 10% discount from the food donation to the 10% discount card for a total of 20% discount on anything you buy.  On top of that, they had door breaker deals in the back of the store at even more of a discounted price.

This year, from what I could tell, they had booster boxes of the first Conspiracy and Eldritch Moon set at 50% discount!  I was checking out twitter while I was in the line and saw that posting, and when I got in that door I headed right in the back and picked me up 4 boxes of Eldritch Moon.

Eldritch Moon for $69.25 each.

I was going to grab more, but really that is a pretty big gamble to go for, but who can go wrong with that price.  Granted I only got 50% off of list price, and then an additional 10% off for my food donation.  So with all the discounts and after the tax it ended up being $69.25 each box.

Why Eldritch Moon?  First it is a small set.  I love small sets.  Not all of them, but I do find small sets and especially if they are at the end of the block, have a great return.  For some reason people usually don't buy a bunch of them, and they usually have some really good cards.

Rise of Eldrazi
New Phyrexia
Avacyn Restored
Dragon Maze (worst of them all)
Journey of Nyx (Still waiting but they have god packs)

My opinion, this set has better cards than Shadows over Innistrad

Liliana, the Last Hope
Emrakul, the Promised End
Grim Flayer
Tamiyo, Field Researcher
Selfless Spirit
Gisela, the Broken Blade
Thalia, Heretic Cathar

And those are just the high end cards.  SOI just does not have that type of card base that EMN does, and I really think those cards will go further that SOI or most of the Battle for Zendikar block.  I put EMN in the same category as Magic Origins.

Along with the EMN booster boxes I picked up some singles and packs for the 20% off price.

Finally I headed down to Mead Hall Games, and I already posted the Tempest booster box in a separate post, but I was also able to pick up my Anthology Planechase.  Why in the world would I pick up 2 Anthology Planechase?  Loyalty to Mead really.  I know I already picked one up for a discount, but I always pick up sealed product from Mead, and I am not going to change even if I can get another set cheaper somewhere else.  Now with that being said, yeah it was stupid that I bought the other one, but.... maybe I will open it for the planechase cards to use.

SDCC 2016

Yes sir, I was able to pick up one of these.

It has been a while since I picked this one up, but I think I had to get it off of Amazon from some collector that most likely picked a bunch up for $99 from the Hasbro site, but I am not lucky enough to go to SDCC and I have to pay the up fee these guys get after buying out the Hasbro site.

Now I don't know if that was the case, and I hope I picked up the set from someone who went to SDCC and picked it up, but I know more than not it was a MTG flipper and I just paid twice as much for this set.

But!  I have it, and now have a complete set of all the SDCC cards.

Ooooooooooooh Sexy!

Tempest Booster box!

That is right!  I splurged a bit on this one, but it has been on my wish list for quite some time.  I know the LGS I bought this from has had this product for a while now, and they asked if I wanted it a while ago, but hey I was Black Friday shopping and figured I would finally pick up this bad boy.  Honestly I was there just to pick up my Anthology Planechase, but saw they had a small pile of older booster boxes sitting behind the counter.  If you were wondering I picked it up for $850.00.

Yeah I know, it is a bit of a high price for the booster box, but I figured it is an item that I am never going to open, and it is going to sit in the collection until I sell it.  So with a 10+ year time horizon I figured the cost basis of what I spent will be fine at $85 a year at minimum.

I know, I mention cost basis and I am more of a collector but keeping those numbers in mind when buying does mean something.  I don't want to just splurge on everything, but keeping track of what I got it for will help when I sell the collection and taxes I will have to pay.

Fallen Empires

Here we have another older sealed booster box and I was able to pick it up from a LGS that was close to where I live.  Unfortunately that LGS is going out of business, and it really sucks since I just found them, but picking up this box makes me feel pretty good.

$160 was the price, and I consider it a good pickup.  Normally when I find a new LGS I like to buy some stuff to throw my support, and mainly see how they treat customers.  The only bad thing about buying this from this particular LGS is that they are going out of business.  The manager was very nice, and I think I spent a good hour in there talking to him.  It was a really great environment to play, they had a great playing area and a good number of boosters to pick from.  Their prices on sealed and singles was a bit high, but hey they need to stay in business.  Just sucks that they are closing shop.

Amazon Purchase

So I am trying to get a sealed booster box of every set that I am getting, because you know, why not. I was shopping around for some new wire shelving to expand my Modern collection, and decided to pick up some sealed product.  So in Nov I filled out my wishlist and picked up a good old box of Chronicles!  That's right, Chronicles!

Why the hell would I spend $300 on a box of Chronicles?  Same reason I put priority on Legacy cards and left the Modern cards for later.  So now, I am going to do the same thing and try and pick up those booster boxes, because who really knows how many are out there.

Is $300 too much?  It might be, but I really felt more comfortable with buying the box off Amazon than eBay.  Only time will tell if that is a mistake.

Long time no talk

It is almost a year ago since I have wrote last, and a lot has changed.  We got Kaladesh, Anthology Planechase, From the Vault: Lore, Eldritch Moon, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, Shadows over Innistrad, Eternal Masters, Commander 2016, 2 Duel deck, and a large amount of other small stuff.

My count last blog was 14,887 and I have been very hard at work in driving that down.

There is no real excuse outside of what type of priority I put on MTG Blogging in my life, and I am really hoping to bring that back to the front.  Magic in general has just been a chore as of late, but within the last couple weeks I have been able to get everything organized and sorted.  I was pushed out of my office, to a larger bonus room, and now I am in a different office.  Hopefully this will be my last move.

So I have been able to keep up with all the buys this year, but let's hope that WoTC slows it down a bit next year, because I am afraid I am not going to be able to keep up.

Oath of the Gatewatch
Duel Deck Blessed vs Cursed
Shadows over Innistrad
Gift Box Shadows over Innistrad
Eternal Masters
Eldritch Moon
Conspiracy: Take the Crown
Kaladesh
Kaladesh Starter Planeswalker deck
Duel Deck Nissa vs Ob Nixilis
From the Vault: Lore
Commander 2016
Gift Box Kaladesh

When I list it all out, it looks like a ton.  I even bought more Kaladesh Bundles then I normally would, and got suckered into those Buy a Box promos for Kaladesh for those 3 card packs.  I did get an Expedition with them, so I can't complain too much.  I am still kicking myself in opening them, I should have just left them closed as I did not need anymore of the cards.

Currently my number for my collection is set to 2,081 left to get.  I have adjusted the number a bit to remove Portal, Starter, Conspiracy, and Un-sets.  I am also not counting the Masterpieces because those usually take me a lot longer to get.  But with getting so close, I am starting to get my missing Portal, Starter, Conspiracy, and Un-sets.

I am still keeping out Alpha, Beta, Unlimited and Portal Three Kingdoms.  I hope to get those sets as soon as I can, but the priority is to get the playsets first.  I am also just trying to get a single set of any non-major release set, but with the change that I am trying to also get a playset of first release cards. For instance Conspiracy: Take the Crown - Sanctum Prelate, I just don't want to open sealed product to get them.  I keep opening newer sets, and I am hoping to be able to trade for them after I do open sealed product.