By Tony Guo
I take a lot of pride in my ability to build a magic collection. However, it hasn't been easy getting to where I am today. I made a lot of mistakes trading and speculating. I hope to pass some of that wisdom to you.
Worst 10 Trades:
10. Trading with Store Owners: Foil misty rainforest for sleeves
I don't know whether I can really consider this a bad trade, but some times the investment does not pan out. I often give really good deals to store owners in hopes that they will later reward me for my loyalty. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
Yesterday I traded a foil misty rainforest for some card sleeves, deck boxes, and a foil delver. When you trade to the store, you lose more than 50% of the value.
While it remains to be seen whether this was a good trade. It does leave a bitter aftertaste when you trade a 100 dollar card for supplies. I'm guilty of doing this very often. I like to support my local game stores and this is my favorite way. It is a bad trade in the sense I could get more from starcity games or just trading. But it is the type of bad trade I am most happy with.
9. Force of will for what?!
When coldsnap came out, people believed force of will would be reprinted. Instead of pouncing on this opportunity I got scared and traded away a playset.... that was a huge mistake. I traded them for a silver queen and a few other bulk rares.
Lesson: try to remain calm and rationale during specuation. I have lost a lot of value offloading when I panic. In hindsight, even if they were reprinted they would still be worth more than what I traded for.
8. The 200 dollar Craigslist Collection
While I was in college, I found an ad on craigslist for a magic the gathering collection. The description was sort of vague, but I could see a lot of older cards from the photo. I called the guy and we met in a subway station.
Long story short, he was very creepy and the collection was trash. He did not let me see it before buying and guilted me into buying the collection.
The most valuable cards in the collection were a few beta lands. Now I never buy collections without a very good description of what is in them. Try not to let people guilt you into trading. These trades are among the worst type you can make.
7. Silver queen for Avatar of Hope
The aforementioned Silver queen was traded for an avatar of hope. I was making an avatar deck and that was the last one I needed.
Lesson here is to never get carried away. Don't be afraid of saying no to stupid offers. I was guilted into doing the trade, since the guy said it was his favorite card (it wasn't; he traded it away the next week).
6. Foil tinker and Foil Tangle Wire for bulk rares
Long story short, I was consistently sharked by a few douches when I was in middle school (they actually had a wizards store in the mall that ran tournaments). They sharked everyone. This was my first real introduction to how cruel traders can be. When I look back at it, it is sort of sad. I don't feel sad for me, because I learned, I feel sad for those sharks.
The lesson is sharks never change. If you have been sharked once by a trader.... trust me they will continue to shark you until you have nothing left.
5. Selling Out.... The most recent time.
I sold my entire collection a year ago for 400 dollars cash and 200 dollars credit.... The credit ran out within two months.
What was in the collection? Two force of wills, a foil Akroma, four wastelands, a playset of windswept heaths, two foil eslpeths knight errand... and other stuff.
I am glad I sold to my friend who owned a store. He made back the 600 dollars in two weeks and made a significant profit. We still joke about how he threw in the 200 dollar credit to get me back into the game. I spent a lot in that store....
4. Buying a collection for 2,000 dollars on Craiglist
When I moved to Houston I saw an ad for an amazing collection. There were 10 dual lands and 8 force of wills. I did a intensive calculation and it seemed like a good deal. The guy originally asked for 10,000 dollars. I thought I was clever and negotiating him down to only 2,000 dollars.
Well.... it turns out the collection wasn't worth much more than I paid for it. When you spend that type of money, you really need to get at least buylist values. Outside the 10 duals and 8 force of wills there was not much else. I still have a ton of bulk cards from that deal and little hope of moving any of it.
3. Starting a new hobby by selling magic cards
I got addicted to cardfight vanguard which is a new card game. To fund this addiction I sold a lot of magic cards. Almost 1,000 dollars of magic cards at buylist.
It is impossible to buy at buylist, but when you want to sell.... it is easy as going to any tournament and finding a dealer. In fact random people on youtube will try to find you.
Also, never deal with someone who "owns a store" but can not verify this. Everyone on craigslist "owns a gaming store" and therefore is entitled to buying at low prices to meet overhead... give me a break.
2. Selling out for the second time....
Same story. Different cards. Similar price.
I sold 5 force of wills, 5 lion's eye diamonds, a mox jet, and 8 duals, among other lesser stuff for the low low price of 750 dollars.
This was when I was in high school, before starting college. I didn't think I would want to continue to play magic without my friends. As fate would have it, my floor at NYU had two extremely good magic players... so yeah...
1. Selling out for the first time.....
Again Same Story... but much worst.
Like I said, I've been playing since beta. I opened probably 30-40 beta boosters and a whole bunch of unlimited. I am not sure exactly how many duals I had... since no one really cared about duals. But I probably had at least a few beta duals.
I did remember a certain beta mox sapphire I had. Back in the day, we didn't use sleeves... so the condition was probably very poor... but still.
I sold all of this during middle school for a shocking price of 400 dollars which was more than I paid for the boosters....
Lesson: don't sell your collection ever...
By Tony Guo
Another week... another article. But let us backtrack to the previous article about Speculating to power, or 100 dollars to power.
Again, these are the two rules.
1. You may spend up to 100 dollars cash (includes shipping) to buy cards from a big online store. These are your starting cards you must work with.
2. You may not shark when trading. A dollar or two difference in cards is allowed. But anything over 20% ruins the speculating nature of this "exercise." You may also sell cards (obviously not at your lgs store...) for what they are worth.
Rule 1 is far less important than Rule 2. The reason I included Rule 1 was to make it sort of a challenge. If you want to spend 10 dollars and speculate to power then that is okay too. If you want to open a booster pack and speculate to power, the principles are exactly the same. If you break Rule 1 it wouldn't be the worst thing.
DO NOT break rule 2. You are absolutely not allowed to shark. It ruins the whole point. The point is that you can speculate and not rip people off and still get your piece of power.
I urge you to join. It will be fun. I promise. :)
Okay now a discussion about the cards I ordered. First off I ordered from Wagicalplace.com. They are family owned and operated, and I have been using them for 10 plus years. I've never had any major trouble with them. And they were extremely responsive when there were minor issues. And no, I don't get anything for posting since I'm a noob blogger/youtuber.
Anyways, as one youtuber mentioned, the cards I ordered are rather strange. That is until you look at my margins.
Let's look at my binder.
1 FDF R Artificer's Intuition (Foil) $ 1.20 $ 1.20
2 9EF U Gift of Estates (Foil) $ 1.50 $ 3.00
2 CSF R Fury of the Horde (Foil) $ 0.99 $ 1.98
1 TSF R Bogardan Hellkite (Foil) $ 1.49 $ 1.49
1 TSF R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 0.79
3 TSF R Magus of the Disk (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 2.37
2 TSF R Magus of the Mirror (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 0.98
1 TSF R Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 0.79
1 TSF R Sedge Sliver (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 0.49
1 TSF R Serra Avenger (Foil) $ 3.99 $ 3.99
2 TSF R Spectral Force (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 0.98
3 TSF R Stonewood Invocation (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 2.37
1 TSF R Tivadar of Thorn (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 0.49
2 SAF M Mayael the Anima (Foil) $ 7.49 $ 14.98
11 AR M Maelstrom Nexus $ 1.25 $ 13.75
7 AR R Wargate $ 0.45 $ 3.15
1 ZENF R Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle (Foi $ 2.49 $ 2.49
2 M11F R Leyline of Anticipation (Foil) $ 1.49 $ 2.98
2 AVRF R Silverblade Paladin (Foil) $ 7.99 $ 15.98
9 AVR R Deadeye Navigator $ 0.45 $ 4.05
4 AVR M Descent into Madness $ 0.49 $ 1.96
2 AVR R Soul of the Harvest $ 0.79 $ 1.58
7 M13 R Boundless Realms $ 0.49 $ 3.43
7 M13 R Faith's Reward $ 0.49 $ 3.43
2 M13 R Staff of Nin $ 0.49 $ 0.98
Now let's look at two prices (per card). Price in cash paid (first number) and current SCG price (second number).
Artificer's Intuition (Foil) $ 1.20 $ 3.49
Gift of Estates (Foil) $ 1.50 $ 4.99
Fury of the Horde (Foil) $ 0.99 $ 4.99
Bogardan Hellkite (Foil) $ 1.49 $ 4.99
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 3.49
Magus of the Disk (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 4.99
Magus of the Mirror (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 1.99
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 2.99
Sedge Sliver (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 3.99
Serra Avenger (Foil) $ 3.99 $ 9.99
Spectral Force (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 1.99
Stonewood Invocation (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 2.49
Tivadar of Thorn (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 1.99
Mayael the Anima (Foil) $ 7.49 $ 14.98
Maelstrom Nexus $ 1.25 $ 3.49
Wargate $ 0.45 $ 1.99
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle (Foi $ 2.49 $ 4.99
Leyline of Anticipation (Foil) $ 1.49 $ 2.99
Silverblade Paladin (Foil) $ 7.99 $ 19.99
Deadeye Navigator $ 0.45 $ 1.99
Descent into Madness $ 0.49 $ 1.49
Soul of the Harvest $ 0.79 $ 1.49
Boundless Realms $ 0.49 $ 1.99
Faith's Reward $ 0.49 $ 1.99
Staff of Nin $ 0.49 $ 1.99
Not it should make more sense.
Of course I should mention why I did not pick up thundermaw hellkites (there were 14 in stock) for 15 dollars. With the holiday sale, the hellkites were actually less than what SCG would pay you in cash for. You could have made 3 dollars per hellkite times 14, 42 dollars in cash.
And it turns out someone probably did just that. It was a very difficult decision for me to not buy the hellkites. For me to prove my point about speculation, I can't take the easy way out... which would be to spend vast amounts of money.
Speculation is an art. And a good one at that. :)
By Tony Guo
My last article, speculating to 1G was a little misguided. I went about it the wrong way. The main problem was that I did not have any skin in the game. I had not actually brought the cards. And perhaps most interesting, I did not really want to buy the cards. The problem with my model was that there was no flexibility to sell cards back to starcity games, hence there was not the liquidity I needed.
So... I decided to fix both problems. Speculating to Power now has two rules, and only two rules.
1. You may spend up to 100 dollars cash (includes shipping) to buy cards from a big online store. These are your starting cards you must work with.
2. You may not shark when trading. A dollar or two difference in cards is allowed. But anything over 20% ruins the speculating nature of this "exercise." You may also sell cards (obviously not at your lgs store...) for what they are worth.
And that's it. Oh the second problem of not having skin in the game is also solved. I spent 80.63 dollars and my cards will ship tomorrow from the vendor. I ordered from my favorite place.... They have sublimes for under 20 dollars and Thundermaws for 15, and currently it is a holiday sale.... I always get really sweet deals. :) I try to order from them as often as possible. Ask and I will tell.
1 FDF R Artificer's Intuition (Foil) $ 1.20 $ 1.20
2 9EF U Gift of Estates (Foil) $ 1.50 $ 3.00
2 CSF R Fury of the Horde (Foil) $ 0.99 $ 1.98
1 TSF R Bogardan Hellkite (Foil) $ 1.49 $ 1.49
1 TSF R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 0.79
3 TSF R Magus of the Disk (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 2.37
2 TSF R Magus of the Mirror (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 0.98
1 TSF R Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 0.79
1 TSF R Sedge Sliver (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 0.49
1 TSF R Serra Avenger (Foil) $ 3.99 $ 3.99
2 TSF R Spectral Force (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 0.98
3 TSF R Stonewood Invocation (Foil) $ 0.79 $ 2.37
1 TSF R Tivadar of Thorn (Foil) $ 0.49 $ 0.49
2 SAF M Mayael the Anima (Foil) $ 7.49 $ 14.98
11 AR M Maelstrom Nexus $ 1.25 $ 13.75
7 AR R Wargate $ 0.45 $ 3.15
1 ZENF R Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle (Foi $ 2.49 $ 2.49
2 M11F R Leyline of Anticipation (Foil) $ 1.49 $ 2.98
2 AVRF R Silverblade Paladin (Foil) $ 7.99 $ 15.98
9 AVR R Deadeye Navigator $ 0.45 $ 4.05
4 AVR M Descent into Madness $ 0.49 $ 1.96
2 AVR R Soul of the Harvest $ 0.79 $ 1.58
7 M13 R Boundless Realms $ 0.49 $ 3.43
7 M13 R Faith's Reward $ 0.49 $ 3.43
2 M13 R Staff of Nin $ 0.49 $ 0.98
I paid 80.63.
Let me know how you think I did. Or ask why I choose X card. I will let you know once I get the cards.
