Thoughts

Total Trade Count: 207,629
Total Foil Count: 3,765

I am going to start to try and talk about my life more in these blogs, just so I have something to talk about.  I just don't see the value of just posting the cards in my collection without something interesting to talk about.  I mean, some people might want to just look at cards in my collection, but I need to make this more interesting.  The one purpose of this blog is to provide a running ledger of my collection, but I really need to have something to talk about in these blogs.

So today going to talk about goals.  Let's review my Magic the Gathering Goals.

1: Playset of every Standard Released Set from The Dark and up
2: A Single set of AAL and all supplementary sets
3: Complete Sealed Booster Box from Revised and up
4: Sealed product collection of all supplementary releases
5: Bucket List ABU complete sets Sealed product of more rare sets
6: Get rid of all my extra cards, and add the least amount to my bulk

I have OCD and I work best off of lists, so I tend to make lists of everything I want to do and that gives me some control and purpose of my days.  It allows me to gain control of what I NEED to do, and I can stay focused on those lists.  There is an added bonus to getting something done, but really it is a way for me to get up and move throughout my day knowing what I need to get done.

In my MTG life I have been able to complete #1, #2, and #4, while getting really close to #3.  I do not expect to get to #5 until after I retire.  And #6 we are in the middle of right now.

But with that I need more than just MTG lists in my life.  I maintain multiple spreadsheets to gauge my retirement, and also a daily budget.  I keep track of everything.  I mean everything!  It has helped me in knowing what I can spend, and what goals I can accomplish without stressing myself out.  I know that I can pay for my child's schooling, as well as be able to buy groceries every week.

I would say that my budget has lead me to be able to be comfortable with having a child.  There is no way to really plan for a baby, or to really be ready for a baby, but there were somethings that I did in order to make life less stressful for me.  My wife could care less about the planning of everything, but I needed to take responsibility for how I was going to be after the baby came, and there were steps I needed to take in order to get there.  I would also like to add that my freaking out still happened, but I would hope that it was to a minimum.  I mean, my wife is still with me, so it has not been so bad that she could not stick around.

But one thing I needed to do was get rid of all our debt.  That was pretty much my main goal before thinking about having a baby.  I came from a broken home, and financials were the main cause for the break, so I wanted to be able to provide my wife and baby the comfort of not having to worry about the day to day costs of living.  It also allowed me to have the flexibility of moving money from savings to spending without too much worry.

I save a lot.

One thing that I did not expect is the change of priorities.  I am not talking about saving, or budgeting, but the well being and health of myself.  I am an older first time father and some would say that I was not in horrible shape, but I was not healthy.  Having my son was a nice wake up call for myself, and I set a goal of running in a marathon by the time he turned 1.

Fast forward to his first birthday and I was no where near being able to finish a 10K, but it did set me on a path to getting more healthy.  I can now run a 5K without any real struggle, and I am working toward being able to finish a marathon at some point.  I really do think that everything started to change when we had our child.  At the beginning of the year, on New Years Day I decided to attempt to get a perfect year with consideration of my Apple Watch.

Rewind a bit, when my wife told me we were pregnant I went out and bought an Apple Watch.  The thought was to really use this new toy in getting in shape so that I can be around to see my grandchildren.  Time went on and I was able to finish that 5K, but I was very stop and go with working out.  I found it to be very difficult to maintain a workout schedule due to injury and straight up being out of shape.  I kept trying to find a schedule to working out that worked, but it was pretty difficult to maintain anything.

So, back on New Years Day I looked at my wife and said I was going to get a perfect year with my Apple Watch, and really make it a goal rather than just working out a couple times a week.  On the Apple Watch you get three rings that you can accomplish every day.

Move Calories burned
Exercise Minutes
Stand Goal

The watch will keep track of all your calories burned, but the move ones are more important because you are actually moving.  Then you need to exercise for at least 30 minutes each day, and stand for 1 minute each our for 12 hours a day.  Easy right!

I could do that, those are 3 very easy goals.

At first the rings were closed pretty easy, but now that I am 3 months and 6 days into it, my watch keeps pushing that limit to see if it can break me.  I swear that now that it sees all the completed days of rings being closed it is trying to see if I am really up to the challenge.  I really think that with the daily goals, I will be able to make the prefect year, but the stupid watch throws these monthly goals in there.

The Monthly goals started off pretty innocent, but now that the watch thinks I am in pretty good shape it is trying to kill me.  Now I have no real goal of getting a perfect year with all the monthly goals, but fuck you if I am not going to try.  Like the January goal was to hit my Move goal 20 times in the month.  Then February was to exercise for 830 minutes for the whole month.  March hit me a little in the face with closing all my rings, which was not that hard because I was trying to do that anyway.  Then fuck you April showed up.

This was not the kick ass April O'Neil from TMNT, oh no.  This was "so you want to get a perfect year?" asshole April.  I am so scared of this goal that I almost do not want to finish it because of what next month is going to look like.  In April I need to burn at least 28,100 calories.  That is 937 calories a day.  Right now, my Move Ring goal is 770 a day, and I can average around 850 a day.  This means I need to work out more that 80 more calories a day in order to hit this goal.

I know it does not sound like a lot, and I am thinking that next year around this time I will be laughing at that tiny goal, but it is good to have these goals to better my life.

Taking my OCD and using it in my favor.  Creating these lists to maintain my life and being about to workout different ways of thinking of things in order to make my life a little easier.  It might be more to do, or more work that needs to be put into maintaining all these lists, but it is bringing my better purpose in my life.

Without the lists of MTG cards I needed I would have not found a better way to spend money, and I would not take so serious budgeting.  Without my wife and child I am not sure I would be out of debt.  Without the thought of needing to grow old for my family I would not be on this path of staying healthy.

I still do get hit with those dark days, and it is impossible to take me away from my computer because things are not lining up.  Or I spend countless hours looking for a single thing because it was not where it was supposed to be.  But all in all I have been able to maintain my life through these lists, and if those are in good standing I can look at enjoying more of the life we are building for my son, and really enjoy life the way people should.

Goals are a good thing, and I think everyone should try and set some for themselves.

Here are some more of those Player Rewards Promos that came in.  I love CardSphere!

Nice little pick up here!

I am really getting close to getting all these lands, and I am surprised that there is not more of a demand for these.

And these stupid Planeswalker deck cards.  I seriously hope they cancel these decks after War of the Spark.  I am really starting to hate this product.  Just cause they have new printed standard cards, I am trying to get playset of them, and it really sucks.

So yeah, I am hoping to share a bit more of things that I am going through, and tie it to MTG collecting.  Hopefully next post it will be spicy with a new purchase, and how I got there.

Sold my Collection

April's Fools!

Yeah, I did not sell my collection, but I had to do some type of April Fools joke.  I was going to put in my notice at work, but that would have been going to far.

Total Trade Count: 207,674
Total Foil Count: 3,765

I have been getting some of the new cards in the mail, so I thought I would put a new post up.  It is nothing crazy, just some basic lands from the Guild Kits and some Player Rewards Promos.

Here are a ton of the basic lands from the Guild Kits.  As of the writing of this blog, I only need 13 more basic lands from 3 different Guild Kits.

Got these two, and I have to say my favorite is the Disenchant, just cause I am old school.

Then there are these two, but I could care less about them.  Just happy to add them to the collection.

I think the art on this one is a bit out there, but another nice add.

This one came in with a little bit more damage, but I did not want to complain about it.

This one was a bit cool to get, not going to lie.  It is a nice to have this in the collection.

I dont care what anyone else says, I love this card.  I have an Unlimited playset, and I just love them.  I used to play a Red / Blue vintage deck, and this card was just great.  I know the prices have come down a lot since there are so many other direct damage cards out there now, but back in the day, this was a big deal.  Serra Angel in one shot!

These are the posts that annoy me the most.  I just hate putting up pictures of cards that come in, as it makes me feel like I am just bragging but who could really brag about these cards.

Bonus Money!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bucket List
The Dark
Portal
Starter 1999

Highly doubt:
Unlimited
Arabian Nights
Antiquities
Legends

How is it going?

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

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

So that put me is an off mood.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ravnica Allegiance Update

Total Trade Count: 208,503
Total Foil Count: 3,792

Total Cards Needed Count: 917

It has been a while since I have updated the blog, and it is getting harder and harder to keep writing the blog.  The simple updates just seem tedious and I am trying to find some more meat for the blogs.  I guess I just don't want to put out content that says, "Look at me, I shipped out 100 more cards..."

As I think of what else to share on here, I thought I would post what I got with the new set that was released.

So, Ravnica Allegiance just came out, and I am starting my new budget rules.  This means I am only picking up 2 Booster Boxes, 2 Bundles, and the Planeswalker decks.  I am only going to be opening up the Bundle because I like the boxes they come in.  I can also get a spin down life counter, and that basic land pack.

It is pretty amazing that they are switching it up a bit.  They are not putting any basic lands in the packs, and WoTC has replaced them with Gates.  So I was only able to get the basic lands from that land pack.  In that land pack, they also added a single foil of each land, so that was pretty cool.  They have also just release a single art for each land, which is really odd and makes me worry a bit.  I just like to see all the different art for the basic lands, but it also makes me wonder if we will see a spike in basic land if they are making it even more difficult to get.

When the set got released, I ran up to my LGS and picked up my pre-order, and then only opened the Bundle.  I am keeping the other Bundle for the collection, one Booster Box will go into the collection, and the other Booster Box goes into the "Trade Later" pile.  I was really hoping to hear something about the Mythic Edition boxes, and I did not want to open a Booster Boxes up if they were going to release another round of the Mythic Edition ones.

Remember, I am trying to get rid of all my extra cards, and I want to avoid adding more cards that I no longer need to my inventory.  My thought was to pick up the Booster Boxes at the LGS for the collection, and then get the Mythic Edition box to open because of those special foiled out cards that I would be cracking packs for anyway.  Lucky for me, they did another release of this product!

There are a ton of Vlogs on YouTube about what happened the first time Hasbro tried to sell their product on their online toy store, and you can also find a bunch of videos on what happened when they moved it off to the Hasbro eBay store, so you can go out and see all that info for yourself.  I am just happy I could get this product, and was able to get them at MSRP.  There is some signs that the value of this set will be less than that, but we have never really cared about that with the entire collection in mind.

And so for the content of this Blog, I opened 1 Bundle and 1 Mythic Edition Booster Box for my set.  That is a total of 34 packs.  10 from the Bundle, and 24 from the ME box.  All in all it is going to be an add of 624 cards total.

360 cards for the ME Box
150 cards for the Bundle packs
80 cards for the land pack
34 cards for the tokens from all the packs.

I ended up getting 581 cards for the collection, 10 foil cards, and 19 cards in the bulk pile.  There were also 14 cards that were put into the Mythic Edition set with 8 Foil Planeswalker cards and 6 tokens.

The important part in all this is that we only got 10 cards that we did not need with opening those 34 packs.

Now, for the interesting part, I am going to need to get 586 cards to finish out my playset, and that adds up to needing $989.23.

Mythic: $512.45
Rare: $403.72
Uncommon: $55.16
Common: $13.53

The pricing is all being taken on Feb 4th, 2019, and as we all know that after rotation the prices drop.  What we are trying to prove out here is that in buying the sealed product we need, and only opening the products we are looking for things we need out of those specific products, we will be able to save close to $500 each release.

Booster Boxes: $240.00 for 2 boxes
Bundles: $77.40 for 2 Bundles
Planeswalker Decks: $32.24 for one of each
ME Booster Boxes: $537.60 for 2 boxes

Thus far we have spent $887.23 on sealed product and have only cracked $307.50 worth of product in order to get our sets that has netted us $583.15 worth of cards we do not have to worry about.  Remember that we only cracked the ME Box for the special Planeswalker cards and that set alone is around $376.56 at this point in time.

So that means, right now we are in the green when it comes to costs.  The sealed product will be kept that way, so in the long run it will only increase in value.  I do understand that my cost basis for the sealed product is not very low at all, but being able to buy them at my LGS keeps that place in business, and I can continue to have a place I trust to play and buy things from.  And in the long game, that $30.00 I could have saved per box from an online retailer is just not worth it to me right now.  I do know that if I were to still buy in bulk, and try and pick up more sealed boxes, my LGS would cut me a better deal.  But now, I am only picking up 2 sealed Booster Boxes, and they need to make their margins.

I know, you are all saying if I just bought a Booster Box from an online retailer and cracked all those packs, I would be sitting pretty close to where I am at right now with the RNA set, and it would have only cost me $90.  But that is where you are wrong.  I would not have a complete set of the Mythic Edition card and tokens, and I would be looking to have to spend over $300 to acquire all those cards.  That would have put me closer to $400 for the same amount of product for the sets.  This way, I am sitting where I am at now, and I have sealed product left over for the collection.

If you look at the fact that I used to spend close to $1040 for 10 Booster Boxes, and 4 Bundles, and after cracking all the packs I would still need close to $400 worth of rares to finish the set.  I would also be left with close to 2500 cards I would need to get rid of.  It was a never ending cycle of buying new product, increasing cards to my bulk inventory, and still needing to spend more money for more cards to get to where I needed to be.

This way, I am only picking up sealed product that I need for the collection, and then having to go out and pick up the cards I need rather than being left with a bunch of stuff I don't need.  I have found the chase to find the cards is worth more than just buying an ass ton of crap and still having to chase after cards I need.  And hopefully I get to save some money.

So right now, as it sits I need $989.23 worth of cards in order to finish out my playset.  That is 586 more cards.  Let's just wait to see what that dollar amount is in 2 years, and in the meantime I will be saving up that amount so that I can just send my LGS a list of cards I am looking for so they can fill it out with as much as they have.

Also, with CardSphere I plan to pick up a bunch of stuff with the trading balance that I keep building up to with getting rid of that bulk stuff that I have sitting around.

The best number out of it all is that we only added 19 cards into the bulk pile.

Happy New Year!

Cards Sent: 125
Amount Sent: $174.26

Total Trade Count: 208,849
Total Foil Count: 3,790

Another year, and another send.  Getting down there with cards being sent.  This on took me a little longer to send because this week is a really busy week for me at my place of work.  I am usually held up in a conference room watching my network to see if things blow up.  A ton of conference calls, and a ton of data gathering, but I was able to pick out these trades to send, and this is that update!

I am really just trying to get at least one send a week, with at least 15 packages, but it is going a lot slower like I keep saying.

My balance is getting close to $2500, and it really is moving slow.  Most packages are pretty close to $3.00 and that is the lowest price match I am looking at.  I figure I am making at least $2.50 per send, and I really just want to get the cards out of my house, so yeah lots of stupid little sends.

I really think that once I get below 200,000 cards I will be a lot happier.  I did try and look to see if I could do a larger bulk send, but there really was not a good one to pick up.  Just a lot of speculators that have Rares and Mythics set at really low prices.  I figure those are just people trying to give folks options to cash out, but really it I think it is traders wanting to have them on their trade list, but it is not a priority on their needs, so they keep the prices really low.  That way, if they do get the cards that is great!  But then it is still on their want list, and they just don't care if they get the cards any time soon.

I have been doing this with the Planeswalker deck first prints, but at really low prices.  I am also doing this with in print sets and the Mythics I need.  I am pretty much setting the price to rotation prices, and those are a lot lower than market prices.

Just going to slide this in here too.  I did get a bunch of cards from Core 2019!  These are just Planeswalker deck cards that I am still looking for, and I really do not think I am going to keep going with playsets, but for now we will keep trying........

2018 Review!

Holy shit what a year...

I am having issues with trying to write this review.  It was such a weird year for Magic the Gathering cards.  We saw some reversals of product changes, and a lot of products going away being replaced with some releases that are wanting for value.

Let's just start out with the Expansions.

We are going back to the single Core set in the summer time and 3 Expansion releases.  That was a welcome return of the Core set as the reprints in Standard were much needed.  They also got rid of the whole concept of 2 set Blocks, and now the Blocks can consist of any number of sets dependent on the storyline content.  We saw the Rivals of Ixalan set which ended the 2 set blocks, and went right into Dominaria which was a stand alone set in a block.  And we also saw the return of a 3 set block with Guilds of Ravnica.

I do think the way they are going to handle blocks is going to benefit everyone in the game, and it will open up the content for any new storyline.  This will help out the sets, and instead of thinking of spreading out the cards into 3 or 2 sets, they could get everything they wish to get done in a single set, and that set could be a very powerful set.  We might be seeing more condensed storylines, and sets to match the movement.  Hell, we might actually see a saga block that spans 5 sets!  I just think this is one of the better moves WoTC made, and it will increase the value of the game in total.

They also came out with a new product that was released only on the Hasbro website called the Mythic Edition series.  These are booster boxes from a single set, but mimic the Master releases where they contained 24 packs, and the MSRP was close to $10 per pack.  The difference here is that they were identical to standard expansion release packs, but the box contained 8 special packs that had a single Masterpiece type card.  Each booster box was identical in concerns with these 8 special packs, but all the other cards in the packs were just like a normal set booster pack.

I for one hope they continue with the Mythic Edition booster boxes, as it will save me a lot of money with just buying the single booster box to get my Masterpiece set, and then I can keep the other cards for the playsets I am trying to get.  This will take us to the story of the Hasbro website.

Hasbro Website

So let's just take a small amount of time and go over this quickly.  We all know the Hasbro site sucks, and will always suck.  For them to release a new product on the site like they did was only asking for problems.  All you need to do is try and get a SDCC set release from the site, and you will know what I am talking about.  Good thing is, they are no longer going to try and sell Mythic Edition boxes on the site, and let's hope that is the case and we see these booster boxes in the LGS's.

SDCC

This came out again, and I was surprised it actually did.  I am not really sure how much longer they are going to keep going with this product.  Right now we see 6 sets total, but really I think the Mythic Edition releases are going to replace this set.  Just because it is a set of special release Planeswalker cards, and that is what the Mythic Edition release is.  Just not sure what they are going to do now.  Honestly I am just happy we did not see another Hascon set release.

Discontinued

We saw our last Duel Deck with Elves vs Inventors, and frankly I am happy they stopped this product.  Unfortunately they came out with the Global Series product that is pretty much the same thing as Duel Decks but with worse cards.  No idea what they are trying to do with them.

We also saw the last From the Vault set in 2017, but this year it was replaced with the Spellbook Series.  I did end up picking up some of this, but I honestly like FTV more.  The Spellbook cards are nice and all, but it is really just another way they are going to be able to reprint Planeswalkers and other cards in a set type manner.  I picked up enough to have a playset to use, and 1 to keep sealed, but I am pretty sure the next release I will only just pick up 2.  One to open, and one to keep sealed.  They really need to step up the cards that they do put in this product, really it is just more junk product with junk cards.

The last Masters sets for a while, supposedly.  With the release of Masters 25 and Ultimate Masters this year, and it is going to be it, and frankly I could not be happier.  I know, they priced out the Ultimate Masters product, and they added those Box Toppers, but let's all just be happy they are stopping this product.  Now, Box Toppers are just Masterpiece cards, and there is a huge question with what they are going to be replacing this product with, and I can honestly hope that the Mythic Edition cards will be replacing these products.

New Products

Let's just start out with talking about what Mythic Edition could end up being.  This is supposed to be the power collector chase product.  WoTC has come out and said this product is not for everyone.  I honestly think that with each set release they will put this type of release out as well, at least for a while.  Collectors will be able to pick them up from Amazon, and the pricing will be full MSRP.  The only issue I see is that they will be running out of cards to put in the Masterpiece slot, just like they lost it with Masterpieces.  I know they are only releasing 8 cards per set, and right now they are all Planeswalkers, but this is only going to work for a short time.

The bigger problem is how are WoTC going to be releasing reprint sets.  Modern Masters was the perfect avenue for that, and now they are gone.  They came out with the sets that did not contain any cards on the Reserve List so they could have a format that would allow re-printable cards in an eternal format.  They are just doing a small cycle of reprints every Standard set, that is released in a full set with a specific limited release booster box.  That does not make sense.  The only way I could see this making any sense is they start to release sealed product that is a specific game, and you would use those cards in just that game.

Enter Explorers of Ixalan and Game Nights.  Take the draft format out of it, and just build specific games that would contain all the reprints needed, and give each of those games a set symbol.  Like Game Nights, those cards are not allowed in Standard.  You control the print run, and the MSRP.  Every player is guaranteed the cards that are needed in the print run, and you could sell a lot of product.  Consider putting very powerful cards into decks as 1 of's, or 2 of's and players will be buying multiple sets.

But let's face it.  No one bought Game Nights or Explorers of Ixalan.  I did, and I opened one and kept one sealed, but I am an idiot that wants to collect things for no other reason than to collect them.  But I could see how they would be able to keep releasing reprints into the community with these very specific games, but make them legal in eternal formats.

We talked about the Spellbook product, and I am pretty sure this one is not going to make it past three printings.  They will kill it just like the foiled out deck series.  I can't even say that it was a good idea.

I might as well talk about the Global Series decks, and I honestly cannot see another release of this product.  I do not think it was bought much at all, and I am pretty sure they are just going to kill it.

Challenger Decks...  I can honestly say that these will go the way of the dodo bird as well.  It was spicy at the time, and you were able to pick up a bunch of cards right before they rotated out, and they had some spice in the decks.  There were a lot of playable cards they put in them, but I can honestly say that these Standard Precon decks will not see another printing, and will go the way of the Modern Event Deck.

Battlebond was a great set, and just another stand alone draft type product to fall in with Conspiracy and the Un-sets.  I could see them trying to keep going with a product like this, but honestly I see them moving toward just the specific game types like Game Nights.  Drafting is nice, but I really see them moving toward Arena for the drafting experience.

Move it along

Commander 2018 was released and it was the same old.  The product now is becoming stale and WoTC is running out of ideas.  They will try and release a product that is not too powerful to mess with other formats, and it will just get to the point that the reprints are not going to be worth much and the product will more than likely die.  Why would other EDH players spend their dollars on this product if there is no value in the decks?  EDH players need to spend their cash on cards they need, not a bunch of trash that is going to go no where.  Granted, there are some good cards in the sets, and in time the value of the set will increase, but WoTC is not doing a good job with what they are coming out with.

Anthology also came out, and I really think EDH players spent their dollars on this product.  There will be 2 more years of the Anthology releases and I am pretty sure they will discontinue this product.  What, do you think there will be an Anthology FTV?

Gift Box can go fuck itself.  Stupid product.

Accomplishments

- Phase 3 - Sealed Booster Boxes
We are in full effect, and I was able to pick up a ton of product through CardSphere and just selling power to pick up sealed product.

Purchased:
Judgment
Scourge
Dissension
Guildpact
4th Edition
Future Sight
6th Edition
8th Edition

CardSphere Trades:
10th Edition
Time Spiral
Magic 2010
Morningtide
Planar Chaos
Lorwyn
Planeshift
Unhinged
Champions of Kamigawa
9th Edition
Mirrodin
Invasion
Ravnica: City of Guilds
Apocalypse
Betrayers of Kamigawa
Torment
Darksteel
Ice Age

CardSphere Fat Packs:
Magic 2013
10th Edition
Lorwyn
Zendikar
Scars of Mirrodin
Planar Chaos
Worldwake

It was such a successful year when it comes to sealed product, I do not know what I did all year.  I know I was super busy at work, and I just have no idea how I was able to bring in this much sealed product.  CardSphere alone I traded out at least $9665 worth of cards to be able to bring in just the sealed booster boxes and fat packs.

I mean I did almost trade a full set of power through CardSphere, and I did withdraw over $3000 dollars from the site to buy other sealed product, but holy cow.  I still need to trade out a Time Walk, Mox Sapphire, and Black Lotus to get them all, but I sure am trying.

Sealed Booster Boxes Needed:
7th Edition
Portal
Homelands
Coldsnap
Urza's Legacy
Urza's Destiny
Mercadian Masques
Nemisis
Prophecy
Fifth Dawn
Saviors of Kamigawa

That is all I need left for Phase 3 to be complete.  I do have older boxes to trade, and I am hoping to be able to move a Revised booster box into finishing the Urza block.  I should be able to just pick up the other boxes here and there when I have saved up enough cash for them.

- New Goal
I also started my new goal of trying to get rid of all my extra cards, and see how low I can get the bulk inventory down to.  I started the goal at 208,971 bulk cards, and 3,782 foil cards.  And right now I am sitting at 208,942 with 3,792 foil cards to get rid of.  I know, for the most part I am going the wrong way, but I did add around 1,134 cards to the bulk with my Ultimate Masters pickup, but that was the last of it's kind and I am now into buying only cards I need.  I am no longer going to crack mass amounts of packs.  I will more than likely open up a single Mythic Edition booster box per set, and then a fat pack, and all those cards should go directly into my collection.  After that, we wait until after rotation to pick up anything else.

I honestly just want to see if I can hit that $10k mark in CardSphere and max that out.  Once that happens I will start to withdraw those funds to finish out my sealed product I need.  If I have anything left over, I will just use that for Standard cards I need on CardSphere.

The goal is to try and get around 50% of the bulk value that I currently own, slowly.  I would like to see how close to $40k I can get in liquidation of all my extra cards.  I think once I get really close and things start to really slow down, I will just try and Craigslist the bulk as a collection to someone local to me.

Prediction time!

2019 - 3 Expansions, 1 Core, 1 Spellbook, 4 Commander decks, 1 Anthology set, 2 Precon Games, 4 Challenger Decks, 3 Mythic Edition, 1 SDCC, 1 Stand alone set

I do not think they will make another Global Series deck, and there will be another stand alone set.  But everything else will be pretty much what was setup with the new Ravnica set with a Mythic Edition release per set.  There will be some new special reprint set, I just don't know what that will be.  What will happen though, is Arena is going to be the driving force to most of WoTC from 2019 and out.

- Arena
This will be a focal point to where Magic the Gathering is going to go and the way Magic is setup now, there is a very long runway.  It will continue to take off, and more and more people will move to their platform.  This in turn will get people playing more paper Magic the Gathering.  I do think there will be some spikes in prices because of it, and we will get even more reprints to control the after market.

I really think the releases will be Standard focused to match what is going on in Arena, and then the Eternal formats will just need to fend for themselves.  Everything will revolve around what is being done in Arena.

- Precon Games
I think there will be an uptick with these types of products, and they are going to be moving away from selling packs outside of what they can provide in Arena.

- Speculation Market
2018 was a year of speculation in Magic the Gathering cards.  The price swings were real, and the water level was elevated pretty high.  Towards the end of the year, the bay started to empty out, but some of the prices stayed pretty high.  I am not too upset about it, but some of the sealed product really took a jump up.  I am hoping around the end of next year, I can pick up most things I am still looking for at cheaper prices.  Being a collector, I was not really effected by the changes.  I was able to move some older cards at much higher prices, but those gains went into higher prices on the sealed product I was looking to pick up, so either way it was a wash.

I did not really make out with the upswing of prices, but I do hope to be able to take advantage of the downswing when it happens.  I just need to make sure I have that purse of money available for the deals that might show up.

- Honestly
I really do not see much new coming down the pipe while they try and concentrate on Arena.  Most cash will be invested into development with Arena, and they will no longer be looking to enhance supplemental products.  They will keep the collectors happy with the Mythic Edition products, but with Masters sets going away I can see them pouring those resources into Commander decks, Challenger decks, and then everything else is going into Arena.

There will be an economic down turn, and sales will be down across the board with Hasbro, but with Arena they will be able to bring in cash with low overhead, and that will only increase the vision into that product.  They no longer need to worry about printing more cards to get people to buy more cardboard.  Now they just need to figure out how to port older sets into Arena and put their focus on that.

I am not trying to predict the end of paper MTG or anything like that, but I can really see focus for the online eSports really coming on hard.  There will still be the need to go to your LGS and hangout and play, but for the competitive player, online will be where it is at.  I could even see at some point walking around with your tablet and going to your LGS and playing with your decks on there instead of bringing your paper to play with.

In Conclusion

My year end Magic the Gathering spend: Around $17k
- It was a 55% decrease than what I spent in 2017, so my new budget is working.
- My 2019 spend will be less than $10k I hope.

There was a lot accomplished this year, and a new goal that was established.  I spent over $500 on stamps alone.  This was the first full year on CardSphere and it really is a wonderful site.  If MTG Arena really kicks off, and there is an influx of new players, I can only guess how much farther I will see the collection go.  Next year, the liquidation will be real, and I only hope I can keep up.  I just really hope there is an influx of players that want to collect complete sets!