Outpost 2000 & Beyond - Coon Rpaids, MN

Outpost 2000 & Beyond - Coon Rapids
http://www.outpost2000.com/

Grade: D

So I was out and about doing some Deckbox trading done, and I was up in the Coon Rapids area and decided to stop by a store I heard about on 'Magic: the Ameturing' podcast.  It was Outpost 2000 & Beyond, and let me tell you, I hope to never go there again.

What I did like about the store:
Plenty of space to play
Lots of space to park
McDonalds close by

What I did not like about the store (I am not even sure you can call it a store):
Not clean at all
McDonalds close by
They had a sign on the front door banning all outside food and drink
     - This just means they will charge you $5.00 for a can of soda
They had a single glass case with a bunch of binders with cards they are selling
     - There was no way to browse any of their cards without bothering the clerk
Their sealed product was very minimal
     - I only saw 1 opened box of each standard set, and nothing else
They has some comics all boxed up in racks near the front
Gaming tables for Warhammer type games were also in the front, but nothing crazy

I guess having a small exposure of product is not a bad thing, but it was just thrown together.  Just not sure what they were trying to do.

All in all, not impressed at all.  I think I spent a total of 3 minutes in that store.  Looked like they had a good showing for 3:30 on a Sunday, but it was mostly kids, Tweens, and teenagers.  It was a very basic beginner crowd for sure.  I spent more time trying to find the store than browsing the items they had for sale.

Now that I am writing this, I did a little more digging.  Looks like there is a sister store in Crystal. Looks like I am going to be stopping in to see if this store is any better.  And also found that there was a calender and Sunday at the Coon Rapids store is Pokemon day, so that explains the young crowd.

I will give an update on the Crystal store as soon as I go, and I hope I don't make it up to the Coon Rapids store again, but I am pretty sure I will, and will be disappointed again.

Update - Oh yeah, the website is nothing special.  They don't sell anything on there, and it looks like it just a bulletin board for the stores.  In fact, when you go to the products and click on the links, they send you directly to the vendor's websites...  So horrible...

Holiday Gift Boxes are back! - Mead Hall Games

They are back!  I dont know what it is about this whole gift box idea, but I love them.

1 2000 count box
4 Theros packs
5 card separators
2 sheets of label stickers
20 lands
1 foil special print card

Now you might think the best part of this whole deal are the packs, or the foil card, but oh no!  I consider the best part of this whole thing is the box itself.  You can hold up to 2000 cards in it, and they stack very well.  When you have a large collection, the hardest thing to do is keeping the small amount of important cards safe.  I had been doing some of this with Fat Pack boxes, but it go to be too overwhelming with how many boxes I needed to keep around.  Now I can keep all my trade stuff in a gift box, and all my foils in another gift box.

I have gone so far as to sleeve up all the cards I am looking to trade, and then storing them in this box. I will get more into the trading setup in a bit, once I get caught up with the sort and count that just got done.

I was hoping they would do this again this year!  So excited, I just had to pick me up two from the Mead Hall Games in Minneapolis when I stopped in to pick up some CUBE sleeves.

Commander 2013 - The Source Comics and Games

So it has been a couple of weeks, but I did go out and buy the new Commander set that was released in the beginning of Nov.  Was able to do a pre-order at The Source Comics and Games, swooped in on release day and picked up all 5 new decks.

It was pretty easy to do the pre-order.  I thought there was going to be a limited order, and I would miss it, but all I needed to do was call them up on the pre-order day and reserve myself a set.  No hassle at all.  The day that I went to go pick them up, it seemed they had a ton extra, but they were telling people they could only buy a single blue deck per person / per day.  So they knew what everyone wanted and limited what people could buy off of that, which is pretty cool in my mind.  I am a collector and really hate losing out on stuff because people over buy and sell on eBay.  The Source also sold at list prices, so that was another reason they limited people.

Love The Source!  The everyman store!

Done counting...

So, after all that I am 98% done with the count.  I still have Portal, Portal 2, and Unglued I need to sort, count, and organize.  But with the 98% I have counted over 160,000 cards, and I have sorted everything in the places they need to be.

I have started a new account on Deckbox.com, and I have my trade book all set.  I will wrtie a completely new blog for the Deckbox.com peice.  I have also bought a couple new items, and I will write a couple new blogs on as well.

I will send an update to this as soon as I get this all sorted. out.

Still counting...

So I have spreadsheet complete and I am still counting.  It takes a very long time to sort and count all your cards, down to the very last basic land...

Lets review how I have everything separated.

Collection
Standard
Standard is going to be split up by Block, and I am also going to keep the Core sets in different boxes. This will allow me to sort the block into the Modern stacks when it gets removed from Standard.
- Block > Color > Alphabetic
- Core > Color > Alphabetic

Modern
- Color > Alphabetic

PreModern
- Color > Alphabetic

Trade
Rare - I am keeping the rares separate for ease of access when I trade or sell.
- Set > Color > Alphabetic

Uncommon - I am keeping the uncommons separate for ease of access when I trade or sell.
- Set > Color > Alphabetic

Common - I am keeping the common separate because of the amount of cards I have.
- Set > Color > Alphabetic

Land
- Set > Color > Alphabetic

Foil
Set > Color >Alphabetic

I started by counting the foils first because I have such a small amount of those cards.

Then I moved to counting the Trade cards because they were separated by Set > Color > Alphabetically and I would not have to switch between Set Tabs when counting the cards like I will have to when I count my collection.  I started with the least amount of cards in Rares.  Then I moved to count the Uncommons, and off to the Commons.  I will be counting Basic lands last because they are basic lands.  I have more Common cards than lands, but who wants to count lands...

When I count my collection I am going to have to swap between Set Tabs because the way I have sorted my Collection was by Color > Alphabetically.  This will take the most time because I will want to make sure that my count is accurate because I will be pulling my needs list from here and posting it on my Evernote app.  (Evernote is an application that I have installed on my Mac, iPad, and iPhone.  It allows me to keep running list of cards that I need with me at all times for when I trade.  I will go through this more when I get to it.)

Column C: Pricing from the Prices.xlsx spreadsheet
Column G, K, O: Card count for the specific section
Column H, L, P: Contains the SUM of the card count of the section and the price giving me the total

I also kept the Column A sections for the totals for Collections, Trade, and Foil.  In each section there are total counters for each rarity type

In my previous blog I went through the Column A totals were setup:
http://dogonsiereht-mtg.blogspot.com/2013/08/set-tab-total-column.html


Please bare with my posts as I am going through 30+ 3200 count boxes and counting every single card. I started 3 weeks ago, and I have gone through Foil, Trade Rare, Uncommon, and Commons from (Alpha - Rise of Eldrazi).  I still need to count Trade Commons (Scars of Mirrodin - M14), Basic Lands, and my Collection.

Going through this process has also pointed out some design changes that I will want to make to the spreadsheet like finding a better way to account for what I have in my trade book, keeping a total tab with everything on it rather than keeping the totals on my Collection total tab, and adding the WotC special decks.  I am also trying to find a good way to keep my sealed product on a separate tab as well.

More to come...

Theros PreOrder - The Source Comics and Games

Today is the day of the first day to purchase pre-orders for the first set in the new Block.  I will be heading up to the Source since they have the best deal on any and all pre-orders.  They only charge $80 per box, but only for pre-order.  Outside of that they charge list price on everything after pre-order.

http://www.sourcecomicsandgames.com/

UPDATE:

Got my 10 pre-orders.  So the way the Source works is you pay for the pre-order and you get a small card, then on the day of the release they exchange the card for the box.  Now if you lose the card, then you are completely out of luck.  They do not keep any records of who bought what.

On the date of the set release they actually stay open Thursday night until midnight.  That way you can pick your new cards up at midnight the day of the release.  Now I know, you have the cards, so what is the point in staying up in line waiting for your cards when you can just pick them up in the morning.  It is pretty fun though.  Standing in line, talking to people, everyone excited about the new set.  Some nights when it is below zero, not worth it, but for the most part it is worth it.

I am a bit too old to stay up that late, so I just pick them up when the store opens, but I do miss standing in line.

Nugget of importance:
The Source usually sells out the first day of pre-order, but what people don't know is that they have a sister store that also does pre-order.  They only have 10 boxes to do the pre-order with, but if you do find that you missed out on the Source pre-order, give Uncle Sven's a call.  They might still have some boxes left.

Mead Hall Games - Minneapolis, MN

http://www.meadhallgames.com/

Grade: A-

What a beautiful site, and really good prices.  They also have a MTG social network setup called The Meadery.  I had been to the store once last winter, and they were still setting up.  They did not have much of a selection of cards, and everything they were selling was Standard.  As the days went by since the opening, they have been improving more and more.  It is quite a good feeling to see a store like this.  Most shops in the Minneapolis area are focused on 2 things, selling you stuff and getting you to come in the store to play.  This shop does that along with showing off simple delights to the eye.

The store is remodeled to the manner of a fine wine vendor.  Hardwood floors and the decor of simplicity.  When I first went to the store I had thought that they were in big trouble with the gaming space they did not have.  I also saw a huge t-shirt printing press, and was just confused how they would be able to support any tournaments here (Just read an article that the owner operator has many businesses, one being a t-shirt printer).

Now I have only seen pictures since I was there last, but they have improved it greatly since.  It looks like there is more of a selection of cards to choose from, and they support local graphic novel writers, and they finally got a sign.  I swear I drove around and around multiple times because they never had a sign, and I never would have thought of a shop under the apartment building...  Seriously, I thought my GPS was cracked out!

The website is just a piece of work.  Clean lines, easy to find the sets you are looking for, and just all around good looking.  You hit the site and they have a rotation of card art in a manner that I would have never thought of.  You just get a search bar right in the middle of the art.  Google-esk design.  Simple and to the point.  The more and more I visit the site, the more passionate I get towards my own MTG collecting.

I think the thing that gets me going the most is the social network.  Here, I can communicate with the local community, find trades, setup game nights, get great ideas for anything MTG.  Just by going to the site I was introduced to a podcast Magic: the Amateuring.  I have only listen to one of the podcasts, but I am already hooked.

Other stores are good, but these guys are really putting in the time to make something special and it shows.  They really care about what they are doing.  I am very impressed.  I have yet to spend a day playing down there, but I am trying to plan something soon.  I just need to get the trade book setup so I don't show up unprepared.

They do have an awesome calendar setup, and you can purchase tickets to the upcoming game nights.  What excites me is they have a Commander Thurs.  Just for EDH.  A whole night, just for EDH.  Amazing...  But like I said, still need to head down there to see what the people are like, and check out the atmosphere.  I am pretty sure I will do an update later on what comes of this adventure.