Category Archives: James Chillcott

PRO TRADER: MTG Fast Finance Podcast: Episode 44

MTG Fast Finance is our weekly podcast covering the flurry of weekly financial activity in the world of Magic: The Gathering. MFF provides a fast, fun and useful sixty minute format. Follow along with our seasoned hosts as they walk you through this week’s big price movements, their picks of the week, metagame analysis and a rotating weekly topic.

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Black Friday Sales Round Up: Magic the Gathering


Well it’s that time of year. Time to cuddle up by the fire with your holiday sweater on, half conscious from turkey coma chemicals, while you chuckle at the fools who don’t know how to use the Internet to buy things on sale.

For Magic: The Gathering speculators and players in need of some savings, the holiday season from mid-November to the new year is often a pretty great hunting ground, with plenty of sales going on and plenty of folks looking to turn cards into cash fast so they can finance presents and travel plans.

Here’s a round up of the Black Friday sales going on at various online vendors that you might be interested in, with some highlights of the sweetest deals:

CardKingdom

  • $15 in store credit for every $100 spent until Monday, Nov 28th at 11:59pm Pacific Time

ChannelFireball

The CFB sale has been going on all week, so it’s a bit picked over on the singles side, but there are plenty of solid deals still up until Monday night.

Collector’s Cache

Image result for planechase anthology box set

CoolStuffInc.

Image result for acidic slime promo


FacetoFaceGames

  • Coupon code BLACKFRIDAY2016 FOR 10% off all TCG singles until Sunday at 11:59pm EST
  • FTV: Lore: ~$60 (after currency conversion)

Ideal808

  • 8% off singles orders $50-$99
  • 12% off singles orders of $100-$149
  • 20% off singles orders of $150+
  • Free shipping on all orders over $50

StarCityGames

TCGPlayer.com

Image result for eternal masters booster box

10% store credit on all singles purchases until midnight (EST) Nov 25th

So that’s that. If you’d like to share a really sweet deal you found online, hits us up in the comments below!

What We’re Buying & Selling This Week (Nov 24/16)


By James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

One of the most common misconceptions about folks involved in MTGFinance is that we are constantly manipulating the market and feeding players misinformation to help fuel achievement of our personal goals.

Though we dole out a good deal of advice, most of you ultimately have very little insight into when and why our writing team actually puts our money where our collective mouths are pointing. To further illuminate our collective process, we’re running this occassional series breaking down what we’ve been buying and selling and why. These lists are meant to be both complete and transparent, leaving off only cards we bought for personal use and/or without hope of profit. We’ll also try to provide some insight into our thinking behind the specs, and whether we are aiming for a short (<1 month), mid (1-12 month), or long (1 year+) term flip.

Here’s what we we’ve been up to this week:

Buying Period: Nov 15th – November 23rd/2016

Note: All cards NM unless otherwise noted. All sell prices are net of fees unless noted.

James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

BOUGHT

Arcum Dagsson

BOUGHT (Pucatrade)

SOLD

Relentless Dead is a powerful zombie that hasn’t found a home yet, but as a mythic I’m picking them up here and there as good deals present themselves. Zombies are a deep tribe, and sooner or later the demand for the best ones always appears. No rush on this card, but keep an eye out for dropping inventory levels and make a move down the road.

[Editor: Same note as last week, same story.] Eldrazi Displacer is a card that has found multiple homes in Standard and Modern, and has a bright future as a unique role player in casual, cube and EDH. There are still foils available around $10 but the inventory is VERY low for a recent rare and I think this easily tops $20 a bit down the road.  Spell Queller is a card with a similar profile that is powerful in both Standard and Modern, and it shouldn’t be too long until the sub-$15 foils dry up and the card sets up a new plateau over $25.

Arcum Dagsson was a Jason Alt pick this week over in his EDH article on this site, and lo and behold, they’ve now dried up. The card is good with Breya from Commander 2016, and folks are brewing and speculating here, likely in equal measure.

I was happy to get a Spell Queller foil on PucaTrade, though I’ll need to argue down the point value with the mods.

On the sales side, I got rid of a few straggler cards from the Super Collection I bought 18 months ago.

The rest of the guys were quiet on the buying front this week, though I suspect Travis snagged a few foil Gitrog Monsters on SCG today.

So there you have it. Now what were you guys buying and selling this week and why?

James Chillcott is the CEO of ShelfLife.net, The Future of Collecting, Senior Partner at Advoca, a designer, adventurer, toy fanatic and an avid Magic player and collector since 1994.

MTGFinance: What We’re Buying & Selling This Week (Nov 16/16)


By James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

One of the most common misconceptions about folks involved in MTGFinance is that we are constantly manipulating the market and feeding players misinformation to help fuel achievement of our personal goals.

Though we dole out a good deal of advice, most of you ultimately have very little insight into when and why our writing team actually puts our money where our collective mouths are pointing. To further illuminate our collective process, we’re running this occassional series breaking down what we’ve been buying and selling and why. These lists are meant to be both complete and transparent, leaving off only cards we bought for personal use and/or without hope of profit. We’ll also try to provide some insight into our thinking behind the specs, and whether we are aiming for a short (<1 month), mid (1-12 month), or long (1 year+) term flip. Here’s what we we’ve been up to this week:

Buying Period: Nov 1st – November 15th/2016

Note: All cards NM unless otherwise noted. All sell prices are net of fees unless noted.

James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)

BOUGHT

Leovold, Emissary of Trest

BOUGHT (Pucatrade)

SOLD

Leovold, Emissary of Trest is a popular EDH general that happened to get printed in a set (Conspracy: Take the Crown) that was sandwiched between other major releases and wasn’t opened much, despite the ongoing print run. Speculators took a run at the card about a month ago, and I managed to snag some local copies to go along for the ride. It’s already closing in on $25 so prospects for profit are solid.

Eternal Scourge won a Modern GP recently, as a two-of in the rogue Skred Red deck. The card is interesting as a recursive threat with some degree of open ended combo potential and the price was low enough for a foil rare that I was willing to throw it in my long shots box.

Eldrazi Displacer is a card that has found multiple homes in Standard and Modern, and has a bright future as a unique role player in casual, cube and EDH. There are still foils available around $10 but the inventory is VERY low for a recent rare and I think this easily tops $20 a bit down the road.  Spell Queller is a card with a similar profile that is powerful in both Standard and Modern, and it shouldn’t be too long until the sub-$15 foils dry up and the card sets up a new plateau over $25.

Kaladesh Masterpieces are not the most likely investments given how things have gone for the argubaly more popular BFZ Expeditions, but if a few of them are going to spike down the road, they are likely to be the ones that a) look great and b) are needed as 4-ofs in Modern. Mox Opal fits this profile well, and I can see these hitting $140-150 not too far down the road. If Affinity gets Arcbound Ravager in Aether Revolt Masterpieces, more of its players might get the idea in their heads to pimp out their decks.

The Puca acquisitions were more about outing points than chasing great deals, but all of them have a solid shot at some profit down the road.

On the sales side, I mostly moved out of specs that had tripped my profit targets and were liquid enough to support some of the buys I wanted to make.


Travis Allen

BOUGHT

Panharmonicon

Travis says:

“Panharmonicon is the EDHiest EDH card to ever EDH. Foils are still sitting right around the $10 mark, which they’ve been hanging out at since the Pro Tour excitement died down. This will slot into nearly every EDH deck from here until the end of time, and regardless of how many times Wizards prints it, it will rarely show up as foil. Pair this with the release of the Commander 2016 decks this week, which have done two things. They’ve invigorated excitement in a format that doesn’t really need help, which has been noticed anecdotally by players in my local group that don’t regularly play heading out to stores to pick up their sets. C16’s release also brings with it Deepglow Skate, the second-most EDH card to ever EDH, which conveniently works alongside Panharmonicon as well as one could possibly hope. Supply on foil Panharmonicons is higher now than it basically ever will be. Pick these up at $10 today and be glad when they’re $20 in a year or two.


Jason Alt

BOUGHT

Umbral Mantle

Jason says:

“Kydele generates infinite mana with it, and it was already creeping up before that. Low supply, difficulty in reprinting it and a new impetus for using it should all culminate in a sharper increase in price.”


Cliff Daigle

BOUGHT

Cliff says:

Planning to hold the TKS foils for 9-12 months, targeting a $30+ exit. Panharmonicon foils should top $20 in a year or two. Taigas went into my EDH decks.”

So there you have it. Now what were you guys buying and selling this week and why?

James Chillcott is the CEO of ShelfLife.net, The Future of Collecting, Senior Partner at Advoca, a designer, adventurer, toy fanatic and an avid Magic player and collector since 1994.