Oh Canada! Broke 1000!

Collection Count: 951

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with Canadians?  Why are their cards in such perfect condition? Why are they so perfect in trading, and have no mistakes?

So, I was browsing Deckbox like I do, and I was looking for a trader with enough stuff I needed to make it worth trading.  There is this Canadian trader with a lot I needed, but his rules were a bit stiff. I was thinking to myself, "Self, I am not sure I can get this guy interested in a trade, but let's give it a shot.  He is Canadian, and I am pretty sure I can make him a happy trader."

I send him the new trade notification, and send him a nice little chat.  Then I go through his inventory, document all the stuff I need, and add them to the trade.  He seems interested, and then goes shopping.  As traders go, I must say it was a real pleasure trading with this fella.  Very nice, polite, and on the same page as I am.  I am hoping that we can get some more trades done in the future after this one.

I should explain why I found it so pleasing to trade with him.  First, he wasn't just looking for the high end cards.  You could tell he really just loved the game.  His selection of cards he wanted from me was very "Odds and Ends" type of cards.  He was very excited to shop through my collection, and pick out stuff that he was interested in.  After checking out his tradelist I saw that he had a wonderful collection and I can only assume what he has that was not for trade.  It was just a down to earth trade, no drama or BS.

Let's get to what broke 4 figures!

7th Edition

8th Edition

9th Edition

10th Edition

Eventide

Future Sight

Champions of Kamigawa

Betrayers of Kamigawa

Saviors of Kamigawa

Ravnica

Guildpact

Dissension

Nothing very special, but a lot of bulk I needed.  Again, trade with Canadians!

Mind vs Might

FINALLY!

Yeah, it has been a couple weeks since these have been released, but I finally got one.  My normal LGS did not have them in, and I was looking to get this when they got them in, but then I stopped off at an LGS that is closer to my house and they had them there.

Small sidebar:
So since I have a much larger collection than anyone I know, and playing someone who is starting out with Magic the Gathering, it would be unfair for me to play with my cards and they play with their newly purchased cards.  So the deal is, I just usually match what they buy and we build some sealed decks and play.  On this trip I was actually buying a Fat Pack and some packs to play my family member that used to play a long time ago and he wanted to start playing again.  And it is a growing theme that I won't pull anything of value, meanwhile the other person usually gets all the value.  This time he got a MM3 Lilly, Goblin Guide, and Gamble.

Anywho, on this trip to the LGS closer to my house, I picked this up because my LGS is taking their sweet time in getting this in.  Somehow I have the feeling that they just don't want to pick up this product because no one buys it.  We will wait and see if they keep buying them.

There has been a change in manager at my LGS, and it has me a bit scared.  I am just not sure how much longer they will stay open.  I guess change is just something that is scary, but we will wait and see how it goes.

I have a reason!!!!!

These fucking things!  I swear these fucking things!!!

What in the fucking hell do you do with these things?  What are these fucking things?  These are the replacement boxes in the Fat Packs.  Why do I say replacement?  Well because, before these boxes Fat Packs used to come with wonderful fold up boxes that worked great as spacers in the big 4000 count BCW boxes to store cards.

I open a lot of Fat Packs, and never thought I would ever not have enough of the fold up boxes, but when they stopped including them in the Fat Packs I got very sad.  To add on to that sadness, these fucking things came with Fat Packs to keep the size and shape of the Fat Packs.

I was at a loss with what to do with these things, but I kept them around.  Granted, they have only been around for 2 expansions, so I really don't have a lot of them, but they are still there.

So I was reorganizing my commons because of the collection I just bought, and had to add all that bulk to the bulk I already have.  With this reorganization I left a lot of space so I could keep the Blocked cards together, but leaving enough space in there in case I bought another collection, and BOOM!

So now, instead of having to use multiple small fold up boxes, I just need to use a single one of these fucking new boxes.  So yeah, they are getting some use, and actually save me some materials in storage when I need them.  I still wish I had the small fold up boxes, but hopefully they will come back.

I know, I know that if I open up the Duel Decks I can get those small fold up boxes, but why the hell would I open up my Duel Deck sets?

I am actually looking at buying Dragon Shield sleeves for my decks now because they come in cardboard boxes I can use for spacers.

New Kid, New role at work, no time for MTG

Card Count: 1069

In previous post I mentioned that I had a new child on the way, but to add on to the complexities of my life I decided to take on a manager role at work, so my free time has gone down a lot.  The funny thing is I have found more time to go to my LGS and play some.  I have been playing with my cousin's husband and people I am meeting through work.  I just don't have time to do anything with the collection, so hopefully I can correct that and get caught up before Amonkhet.

With my cousin's husband (we will call him Saac from now on), he just started to learn how to play, so we picked up the same amount of packs from the same expansions so we are playing with the same pool of cards.  Then we are building decks and playing against each other.  We will keep those cards and continue to play with those same pools of cards until he learns how to play more.  Once he gets comfortable I think I will just build decks to play against each other until he wants to buy his own cards.  Really I am just hoping to get him up to EDH level of playing so we always have something to play at family functions.

So, while I was up at the store playing with Saac I put in my Amonkhet pre-order at my LGS.  This time we are sticking with the Kid plan and just picking up 6 booster boxes, and 4 bundles.  I know the plan was for 3 bundles, but decided to just pick up a case to make things easy by just getting a case of each.  The spoilers are making me itch to increase my order, but I really need to stick with this, and I figure that the post release prices should be ok to pay if things get crazy.

But I now have all the cards updated within Deckbox and within my spreadsheets.  What that means is I have the bought collection inventoried into my Master spreadsheet, and I have uploaded all the cards in the collection in my Tradelist on Deckbox.org.  So let the trading begin.

Funny thing is I already have trades coming in for the cards that I uploaded.

Another thing to point out while I sorted the new collection into my collection of rares and bulk, I have put all the valued tradable cards in black sleeves so I know when I trade away a bought collection card rather than my personal collection card.  I don't know if that is really going to make a difference, but I think it was a good idea just to know.

Through that process I uncovered some common / uncommons that I was missing, so the collection count has gone down.  I was pleasantly surprised because I thought I was finished adding to my collection count with my first run through.  Let's look and see what we picked up!

Sixth Edition

Seventh Edition

Eighth Edition

Commander 2009

Champions of Kamigawa

Betrayers of Kamigawa

Saviors of Kamigawa

So nothing really huge, but some good pickups that I don't need to worry about anymore.  Every little bit counts, and I am really really close to 3 digits!  I do have a trade in the works with another Canadian trader, and we all know what I think of those lovely Canadian traders!

More to come!

P.S.  It is a Boy!

Collection Time

I bought a collection a couple of weeks ago, for $700.00 and I just finally got through with sorting and getting an inventory of it all.

Card Totals
Cards: 17,149
Foil: 196

Card Value
Total: $5765.35
Rares: $2467.17
Non-Rare: $3298.18
Foil: $210.69

Collection Count: 1079

So it looks like the bulk of the purchase was bulk, and I really did not make a dent on the collection count.  I was able to pick up some Starter 1999 cards, along with some Portal cards, but nothing really impacted the collection.  This was pretty much known going into it, and I really did this for trading fodder.

Let's take a look at see what I got for the collection outside of what was already posted in the first blog post.  I will also review what I did get out of the rares for the collection.

Starter 1999:

Considering that I have not really been diligent in gathering these cards for the collection, and have only become somewhat of a priority for Phase 2, it was nice to pick these up.  Not all of them were in great condition, so I am pretty sure I will need to replace some of them, but it was a nice pick up considering I was not expecting to get anything like this.

Portal

Nice little Porta pick up here.

Portal Second Age

Some good pickups, but nothing really crazy.  Just some good cards to get to finish the sets.

Champions of Kamigawa

One single common I needed in the whole collection...  I was hoping for more.

This is a picture of everything that I pulled out of the "Bulk" in where the seller thought it was not worth anything.  As you can see there are some real gems in here.

Wasteland - Tempest
Gush - Mercadian Masques
Cabal Coffers - Torment
Urza's Lands - Multiple
Mirrodin Artifact Lands - Mirrodin

Considering that he wanted to just sell me the rares and what he thought was expensive, but I insisted that it was for the whole collection.  I think I made out with that decision.

With that I can equate this stack of cards adding up to $241.28.  It is a ruff estimate.  What I did was I took the amount of rares on the first sort, then I subtracted that from the subtotal of all the cards that were above $1 for each set.  That got me to $241.28.  In my spreadsheets I have a column for each set that will look at the card prices and then SUMIF when the card is above $1.  I have wrote about it in a previous blog, but here it is again if you are interested:

=SUMIF(C2:C602,">1",H2:H602)

Here are the highlights from the collection, that I am hoping I can turn pretty quick, but I am not very hopeful.  We will see though.

So really all that I am getting from this is a bunch of trading fodder, again which was expected, and a lot more bulk that I need to sort.  There is the possibility that some of the cards that I did pick up will spike at some point, but it is not hopeful considering most of the cards I got were from RTR and up.

All in all, I did get my money back from the investment considering I should be able to trade away the cards I did get.  There was a large amount of older cards that were in really bad condition, and it would be hard for me to trade them away.  There is a LGS near by that from time to time give out store credit for bulk.  $.50 per inch and I might be able to get something back from a lot of the bulk.

With the original cost of the collection, and getting some cards I needed for the collection, I consider this a good buy.  I still think I paid too much for the cards, but considering my time horizon, I still could make out with this trade.  I know, you are saying that I bought +$5000 worth of cards for $700 but in reality I maybe got around $1000 worth of valuable tradable cards.  Most everything else I will have to do a store bulk trade for store credit, or just wait for something to pop.

So now that the sort is done, I will combine what I have just got with the collection, add the cards up to the spreadsheets and then I will update the cards on Deckbox to get some trades in.

I will update what I get in future trades, and hopefully this will be a fruitful adventure.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Card Count: 1080

The Good

First trade I was really happy to complete.  It was from a guy I traded with before, and he was only looking for a single $2 card to complete his Magic Origins set, and I was more than happy to trade with him.  I let him know that if there was any trade he was trying to get done because he was trying to finish his set or something of that sort, I will do my best to get a trade done.  I love trading with collectors and find them a joy to work with.

So here we go!  What did I get for $2?

This is all stuff that I needed for the collection, but it did not add up to $2 so I added some other cards.

Play set of Piracy Charm from Planar Chaos, and let me tell you that this is a really nice card to pick up!  I can't believe this is a playset for $1!  All in all the trade was under $2, but I was more than happy to help this guy out.

The Bad

Found another jackass that I will never trade with again.  I normally don't shame anyone here, but seriously fucking ass.

Username: IzzetCharm

That is right, never fucking again.  What a fucking asshole.  There is so much about this that makes me to never trade with a new trader, it is insane.  The cards he sent were in crap condition, he did not send all the cards in the trade, and then tried to make it up by sending me a complete crap condition card.

So this is how it went.  I did the first trade with him, he sent first and sent me the wrong Birds of Paradise, but all the other cards were in great condition.  I made him aware of the issue and he tells me it was his mistake and he will send it out right away.  I am happy that he is understanding, but this should have been the first sign of a dickhead and I should have just stopped trading with him after the first one.

In the meantime he starts up another trade, and I was like great.  Good first trade, this should be sweet to find another repeat trader.  We figure out the trade, everything goes well, I confirm my side and hit Accept.  I had already sealed up the first trade so I needed to send the M10 Birds back with this new trade, so I let him know.  And since the first trade was done so well I shipped out the second trade cards toot sweet.

A day goes by and he updates the trade with "Hey man, looks like I don't have a $.50 card and a couple of the cards are not near mint.  How about I send you this awesome card instead?"

Then I reply back, pointing out that I was not complaining or trying to make him upset, and I was trying to explain that since he accepted the trade it is his responsibility to get me the cards in the trade, or the other trader can give him a bad trade score.  I knew he was new to Deckbox, and it is in the rules for him to get me the cards we agreed to.  All the cards he was looking for were in the mailbox, so he was getting what he wanted, and all I wanted were the cards we agreed to.  He could go to his LGS and and pick it up and send it to me, or buy it online and send it to me, but I wanted the cards in the trade because I don't need anything that is not on my wishlist.  I also informed him that LP cards work for me, so I could take them no problem.

Holy fucking shit, this guy....

Chaos ensued, and he literally went complet bat shit on me.  Saying that I was not flexible, and he was a cool guy for offering me something I did not want.  I was wrong because I did not read his profile where it said that some of the cards could be not NM and I should ask him about it.  He was awesome because he pointed it out and did not just send everything without my cards that I wanted, and to make it up he was giving me an awesome card, and that I sucked and I should really just take the cards he was giving me.  Saying that his $4 card was worth way more than the $.50, and he was such a great guy to be doing me a favor and how much I suck because I wanted what we agreed to.

So now I was in defuse the situation mode.  Just trying to calm him down to get the trade completed, since I already sent out all the cards.  My mindset was that the first trade went so well, I don't need to send tracking on such a small trade.  What could go wrong.  How wrong I was, and I was pretty much thinking that this guy freaking out could just say that he never got my cards, and I would end up having to send out the cards he was looking for and the M10 Birds just to get this over with if he wanted to be a real jerk and say he never got the cards.

At first I replied to him saying that he accepted the trade and all I wanted was the cards that we agreed to.  I did not care about the LP and those were fine and I am not sure he is seeing that it was ok if he sent me LP cards, but I really wanted the $.50 if he could get it, but I did not want the $4 because I did not need it.  Then after about 1 minute of thinking about it I did not care about anything with this trade, and I just wanted it over.  I could care less if he sent me nothing, I just wanted this trade to be over.

I went to his profile and edited his "Note" section to remind me to never trade with this guy, ever. Ever...

It is really cool on Deckbox.org you can write yourself these little notes about the traders that only you can see.  It is a great way to keep track of every trader, and Deckbox makes it very easy for you to hover their name to see those notes anywhere on the site when you see their username.

So my next chat reply to him was basically "Hey man, don't worry about it.  Send me what ever you think is fair.  I am good."

Fucking Goat Ass

His reply was something to the fact that I suck, and I am a stickler, and a bunch of stuff in CAPS. Asking me why I am being so unreasonable, more on how cool he was for being so awesome, then asking me what my problem was with the $.50, and bla bla bla...

Of course I at this point I am just staring at my screen, but I reply with "Whoa, it is not a big deal.  I am not sure how you are not understanding what is being said in chat.  Chat is a part of the trade, and I have agreed to your terms.  I did not know what he was still angry with, but we could talk more about it.  I am agreeing to what ever you want to do, it is in the chat, just send the cards."

Finally he calms down and says he will send the cards.  So here let's just look and see what garbage was sent to me, shall we.

So here is the Birds of Paradise that was the correction to the M10 one he sent by mistake.

Here are the cards that were in the second trade minus the 8th Edition Collective Unconscious that he did not have.  The Forbidden Orchards were LP, but one of the Reciprocates was definitely not LP and more Played.  Let's take a look.

There was major wear on the right side, and a lot of wear all around.

But let's wait, he did send me a pretty cool $4 to make up for the LP conditions that I was ok with, and the missing card.  Score!!!

Joiner Adept from Fifth Dawn...  As you can see the complete wear on the card.  I could not get $.25 for this card anywhere.  This is how he felt about the trade, and how bad he felt about making the mistake he did.  I am sorry but if you make a mistake, make the other trader feel like it is their fault and how cool you are because you are so cool, and then continue to justify the mistake with a punch to the nuts?  Yeah never trading with IzzetCharm again.

The Ugly

Oh yeah:

At least it was real...