Why Craigslist is a terrible place to buy magic cards: Houston Edition 1

by tony guo

Craiglist is among the most frustrating places to buy magic cards.  Today I will go through some of the recent posts found on Houston Cragislist.  

Post 1:  Mesa means Money

I have 2 binders and 2 boxes of Magic the Gathering cards. look at photos to see just how many. First decent offer gets them. I'm open to trades. I want to sell all, not just a few. If you took your time to part them out, you could double your money.

link below is to photobucket there are 120 photos of the cards in there.

i have a list of about 640+ have small box full of cards havent inventoried yet
http://s1221.beta.photobucket.com/user/howlchr/library/magic

These are just the 10 most expencive cards per the site I have found so far. If you ordered all the cards i have from cardkingdom, it would cost well over $700

set : card name price on cardkingdom.com # i have
Stronghold: Mox Diamond $34.95 1
Urza's Saga: Serra's Sanctum $19.95 1
beta black knight $14.95 2
reviesed 3rd edition demonic tutor $12.95 2
5th Edition: Mesa Pegasus $12.50 4
3rd Edition: Wheel of Fortune $10.95 1
5th Edition: Angry Mob $6.50 2
Exodus: Oath of Druids $6.50 1
5th Edition: Mesa Falcon $5.95 4
Stronghold: Ensnaring Bridge $5.95 1

• Location: Woodlands
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

 Since when did Mesa Pegasus become 12.50?  And wow I'm glad he has a playset for trade.  I've dealt with this dealer, and he originally wanted 100 dollars which I thought that price was way to high.  Well I'm glad he found out that Mesa Pegasus and Mesa Falcon were so valuable.  

 Post 2: Commons for sale

25,000 common magic cards. Most are in in Mint/Near Mint condition, although some are in "played" condition. Cards range from Innistrad back to Revised. Also some Unhinged & Unglued. There are a playset (4) of many many individual cards and multiples of some cards do exist in quantity.


Asking $650

• Location: The Woodlands
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Again I've dealt with this person before.  His commons are sorted through with great care.  Meaning no brainstorms, no lightning bolts, just a whole bunch of crap....  

 But perhaps the most ridiculous 

Dec 9 - MTG Magic Black Lotus Unlimited - $1699 (The Woodlands ) collectibles - by owner

Dec 7 - Toyota Matrix XRS 2004 - $4500 (Sugar Land / Houston) cars & trucks - by owner pic

Dec 3 - """Sprint ..@ Galaxy III - $230"" - electronics - by owner pic

Dec 3 - ""iphone3gs 16 gb blk mint for trade unlk - $130""" - electronics - by owner pic

Nov 29 - black lotus unlimited mint - $1500 (the woodlands) collectibles - by owner  

 The guy posts a unlimited lotus (not nm by the way) and asks for 1500 on Nov 29.  He repost at 1700 on Dec 9.  Man, if he waits until the end of the year he can post for 2000.  Why would you repost for a higher value when you couldn't get the lower value, and still leave up the post.  His black lotus is maybe worth 1000, maybe...  

 

  

I have 300 dollars what should I buy?

by Tony Guo

I get a lot of questions on youtube, I have X amount of money, what should I buy.  

Rather than go into great detail in each email, I'll blog about.  It is such an innocent question.  And in legal terms you are shifting the liability.  If the price goes up, well congrats.  If it goes down, well its your fault.  

I typically hate answering this sort of question.  It takes five seconds to type the question, but a very long time for me to type back a decent answer.  

It's the holidays so why not.  

Modern is legit, which means modern cards are good to speculate on.  But only from Zendikar and after.  Anything before Zendikar, Bobs, Cliques, Gofys, thoughtseizes, etc, can and will be reprinted.  I've actively dumped my vials, cliques, thoughseizes, and Bobs even though I know they will go up a bit soon.  I dump them because I focusing on other modern cards.  

I'm very high on the Zendi lands, but who isn't.  Fetchlands are great to pick up right now.  If you wait, it will be to late.  

I love inquistion to Kozilek at 6.  I expect it to break 10 long term.  It is being used over thoughtseize or with it in many decks.  And guess what, no reprints.  It is the spell snare of its generation... (and I expect spell snare to be reprinted in modern masters).  

The simple truth is that a bottleneck will happen not just with the Zendi lands, but with most of the cards from Zendikar until New Phrex.  Why?  Because they can't be reprinted.  It is sooo elementary yet, dependent on patience.  

Fastlands from scars, inkmoth nexus, yadadada, same things I've been saying for a while.  They have seen a recent bump, but I expect some of the fastlands and the nexus to be at 10 soon.  

Sword of war and peace, sword of feast and famine, and wormcoil will also be important.  You can get each for under 10, and under 7 right now if you buy them in playsets.  

Going over to standard.  Jace is 17 on SCG games which seems low.  Troll is 4.  Detention sphere is 6.  And Vraska is 10.  Low very low.  And the online redemption sets haven't hit yet.  If there's a target to double in the future it is troll.  But I like all the above.  And the shocks.  I do see them bottoming out at 8 when the market is flooded from online redemptions.  However, short and long they will bounce back.  Remember Gatecrash only uses Gatecrash boosters for draft.  The shocks are a hallmark of the game and will remain that way for a very long time.  I don't mind sitting on them, watching them drop, buying more, and then making bank.

The number one rule for me is to speculate on cards I love.  This has the affect of me not being able to let go (see angelic destiny for an example).  But even though destiny is now a 4 dollar card, I still love it as much as I did when it was 15.  Same with Vraska and Troll....  I may move them, I may not.  But I know they will become movable at some point when they are in standard for double what they are now.                 

Online Trading: Trading on Youtube and Deckbox: Dos, Don'ts and Everything in Between

by Helios  

I have seen alot of trade videos and posts about Untrusting traders and while some of them are more than justified I figured Id offer some tips to people looking at how trading online should really be handled. 

1. NEVER TRADE CARDS YOU DONT HAVE AVAILIBLE
9/10 this is why your trades dont get to you on time, and 10/10 this is why people are clogging up your inbox with mail. Always double check that you the cards you offering and make sure they were not used in another trade. Nothing worse than settling a trade with someone and having to tell them the card they wanted most from you, you no longer have!

2. Always use DC# no matter whenever possible
Learn to use DC and Tracking. Be it with Paypal Shipping or USPS.com. More times than not, that 2.80 at the post office is LESS than the tax you'd pay at your local game store and when items get lost in the mail that 2.80 could have saved you A LOT more in replacement cards and legal fees. Granted if the trade is small, like under 15, regular mail is just. Once your start trading for more than that however your only going to be hurting if something goes wrong and you have to either replace the cards lost or give them something else, then your out more than you started with.

3. BE RESPECTFUL OF PEOPLES LIVES!
Some of people are single parents, some of us have lost everything in a Hurricane, most of us work, some have school, and a lot of us are not professional magic players or we wouldnt be trading only and would be sponsored by a store. If you dont hear back from them in 5 minutes or even a day or 2, they my just be dealing with life on life's terms. Harassment is just as serious as mail fraud. There is no harm in inquiring about trades but sometimes too much is too much. 

4. COMMUNICATION 

No matter what the issue it goes a long way to resolving problems and keeping the peace. Whether you are in the right, or are in the wrong talk it out work it out, and encourage working it out so both parties are satisfied. You may take some criticism, but life is about being and doing better, not settling for mediocre. If you post a Bad trader vid after they dont respong to 1 message, its not fair to smear their name. See if you cant resolve it peacefully without having the comment wars. Let people know if the day you send out and the day cards arrived. Keep people posted and you wont have to worry about them annoying you.

5. If you approach someone, Offer to send first.
Everypne has to pay their dues. You could have a 100,000 successful trades on another trading site but if your starting fresh, your a freshmen in High School. Respect is not given, it is earned. If your not comfortable with sending high value cards first, dont do a high value trade yet. Only send same time with some one who either is WELL established and has more than enough Refs OR someone who you have had good trades with in the recent past.  

6. Try and Insure that which cannot be replaced easily. 

You protect your investment by sleeving up every FNM to prevent someone from spilling their soda on your cards, why not spend the money to protect your investment that if lost you cant replace. This applies mainly to cards people cannot just walk to the LGS and get more.  These are your modern, legacy, HIGH end Standard staples exist more in peoples decks than in their trade binder. So getting new ones wont be easy. 

7. DONT OVERWHELM YOURSELF AND OTHERS WITH TONS OF TRADES
I am the guiltiest at this. Especially if you have a large collection and little time, DONT DO IT! You just make people frustrated including yourself. DO what you can and when you can. Try and make a spread sheet of what is coming in and what is coming out and make sure you dont overload yourself with trades. thats how mistakes happen and you either send people the wrong cards or forget to include some cards that were part of the trade. 

8. MAIL YOUR ITEMS OUT YOURSELF!
I can not stress this enough. TRUST NO ONE ELSE WITH YOUR TRADES! Go to the post yourself, get your DC# yourself. You can better know what happened because.... you mailed it.

9. Offer people serious trades

Always ask your self "Would I accept this if this was offered to me?" Nothing is more annoying than getting offers that are so far from fair its insulting. Try and make a deal that benefits the both of you. Its great if people are willing to trade down their cards but you should be aware that if you want someone's high end card, you going to have to trade a high end card. No need to shark people, especially new traders to the community.  

I sincerely hope this gives some insights and helps people. Many thanks to ALL traders on this site for what you have done for my collection and decks, as well as being a more prudent trader.

CHEERS!

Ethics of Ebay, MOTL, Trade in Real Life, and Youtube

By Tony Guo

Ethics of trading is not the most popular thing to discuss when your friends are all sharks.  But after a heated debate which included one of the largest traders in Houston and a store owner, we came to the general consensus that the ethical standards are dependent on where you trade. The following are opinions.

Ebay

We all agreed that on Ebay the price is the price.  Meaning, if you snag a collection for far less than it is worth, it is ethically fine.  Just because your auction did not sell for as much as it was worth does not mean you were sharked.  Ebay allows you to create your own market.  If you didn't do as well as you hoped, try advertising.  But do not blame the buyer since the nature of ebay is to bid the lowest you can to win. 

MOTL 

Not everyone in our group uses MOTL.  I had the most experience.  On MOTL trade references mean everything.  The website is 95% sharks, dealers, and "good deal" hunters.  Starting on MOTL means paying a premium.  On MOTL, because everyone is a shark, no one is a shark.  I like to test my negotiating and bargaining skills on MOTL from time to time.  

Trade in Real Life

I split this into three categories: Trading to your store; Trading to an experienced trader; Trading to a newer trader.  

Trading to your store:
My experience trading to stores is unique.  I lived in the same apartment complex as the owner of Groovy Geckos.  Graham was a close friend of mine.  I sold  him my entire collection for 30-40% of what it was worth.  And I do not regret it.  He helped me get back into the game during a difficult time. After Groovy Gekcos became Phoenix Games, I was a well respected trader known throughout the region.  I helped the store make rent by buying excess supplies (at a discount) and moving it on MOTL or online.  I didn't make  money, but it felt good to help the store.  A month after I left, Phoenix Games bankrupted and closed its doors.  

My current store situation is if they need a card from my binder (because they have a buyer or because they need to stock legacy) I trade it to them for typically 80% of what it is worth.  It actually is less than 80% when you when you compare buylist.  I recently traded a Jace for 35 loleth trolls.  I have a great relationship with Josh, the magic guy.  In the end, I am happy to trade legacy for standard if it helps my store.  

Trading to experienced traders
Here I can be very harsh.  While I condone sharking, I will be honest, I do it once in a blue moon when I'm not feeling particularly friendly.  I have a great memory for card values as well as an above average knack for speculating.  Sometimes I will stock up on a certain card.  Right not it is wurmcoil engine and Vraska.  The one thing I enjoy above all else is a smart trader.  I like comparing wits.  

Trading with new players
 Just this week I helped several new players complete their land sets for a fraction of the value.  One new player needed two sulfur falls (sitting at 8).  I couldn't find anything (a common occurrence with newer traders since sharks have already taken everything of value) so I took a Chandra and a Garruk which are my favorite planeswalkers.  Another new player needed a few blood crypts to complete his play set.  Again not finding anything, and this time (I only had 4 bloodcrypts) there really wasn't anything, I asked him to buy me popeye's chicken.  I do not mind gifting cards to new players, because they remember.  And when they evolve as players, they may shark everyone else, but they won't shark me.  

Youtube
 My experience on youtube is mixed.  I don't like that there are no admins to control trading and make sure bad traders are banned and do not create a new account.  I try not to trade with anyone who I haven't PMed excessively before.  I also do not post confirmation videos and ask the other person also not post a video.  Since I use tracking, confirmation videos add no value.  The bigger point is that some of the trades I do may look bad.... I speculate a lot.  By the time I get my half of the trade, the card may have already jumped.  On youtube, everything seems to be in present time.  And one of the most ignoring things is people analyzing trades.  Although it doesn't happen often, given the speculating nature of my channel, it looks extremely bad.  Essentially, I am telling people what cards to speculate on, and then asking them to trade them to me.  If I traded then speculated, it would look even worst.  Luckily most people in my current store do not know I have a blog and youtube. But on youtube, its hard not to notice.