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.
It has occurred to us at MTGPrice that 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. As such running this weekly series breaking down what we’ve been buying and selling each week and why. These lists are meant to be both complete and transparent, leaving off only cards we bought for personal use 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: June 7th – June 14th, 2015
Note: All cards NM unless otherwise noted. All sell prices are net of fees unless noted.
James Chillcott (@MTGCritic)
BOUGHT
Modern Mid-Term Plays
- 4x Dark Confidant @ $40/per
- 2x Modern Masters Booster Boxes @ $180
Quite a quiet week for me, as I was pretty busy with work and was on the road. Dark Confidant is one of the only Jund cards that hasn’t popped yet, and just reasserted itself as Top 8 worth with an appearance at the top tables of GPCharlotte. As such, Dark Confidant should easily regain $60 before the end of the year, so long as the deck keeps doing well or it finds a home elsewhere. In a meta where card advantage and low casting costs spells can get the job done, you can’t ever count Bob out of contention.
Dealers got to order one last whopping order of MM2015 last Friday, and now the product is officially OOP (Out of Print). Many dealers have overstock at present, and with a baseline cost of around $145-150, they may be willing to slide you a box under $190 if you don’t make a lot of noise about it. From here on out these boxes should start to regain ground slowly towards MSRP, and I fully expect them to be minor wins by Christmas. 2016 will also be a solid time to be selling them but only if we don’t see a MM2016 announcement around the end of the year (I’m betting we won’t.)
Corbin Hosler
BOUGHT
- 8x Night of Souls’ Betrayal @ $3
- 12x Eternal Witness @ $3
- 12x Glistener Elf @ $.30
SOLD
- 4x Serum Visions (PucaTrade)
- 4x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver @ $12
- 2x Sylvan Caryatid @ $8
- 5x Courser of Kruphix @ $7
Corbin says:
“Just clearing out some rotating Theros stock and some excess Serum Visions to lock in profits. Night of Souls’ Betrayal is making moves in Jund, and Witness and Elf are both steady risers.”
Note: The rest of the guys were quiet this week.
Bonus Tips:
- Despite all the prices increases lately, there are a bevy of great cards from MM2015 that are still available at attractive prices including Leyline of Sanctity, Splinter Twin and Spellskite. I expect all of these staples to regain lost ground by end of year.
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.
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I love all the articles on your web site and have really tried to be much more business like with my buying. The tracking products are awesome.
This week was a good week.
I picked up 44 Razorverge Thickets (24 at $3 each). (20 at $4) sold two playsets on ebay 34.99 and 36.99.
20 Blackcleave cliffs 12 at $4. then 8 at $7. sold one playset 43.99
3 Lion’s Eye Diamonds at $50 each.
1 Goryo’s Vengeance at $10
2 Raging Ravine Light Play at $4 each
1 Swords to Plowshare $2
4 Leyline of Sancity at $10 each
4 Splinter Twin at $10 each.
Best Buy 2 foil Nourishing Shoal @ $3 each in a bulk foil box.
4 Cavern of Souls at $22 each (sold on ebay for 149.99 within 36 hours)
I’m getting close to taking the plunge and start looking at some restricted and reserved list cards. I’ve been cherry picking a lot but futures buys will require a little more disposable cash.
Bought: (all from 1 seller to save postage fees)
2x MM15 Dark Confidant @€30
2x MM15 Karn Liberated @€33
1x MM15 Kozilek, Butche of Truth @€14,50
2x MM15 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre @€13,50
1x MM15 Hurkyl’s Recall @€2,50
1x Abrupt Decay @€13,75
Bought (PucaTrade):
2x MM15 Remand
2x MM15 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1x AVR Griselbrand
1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1x Domri Rade
2x Narset Trascendent
1x Tempral Mastery
4x Ash Zealot
1x Rest in Peace
Sold (PucaTrade) *points rounded down
4x Serum Visions @1100 pts – €5 cost
3x Inquisition of Kozilek @1300 pts – €4 cost
3x Deceiver Exarch @450 pts – €0.70 cost
1x River of Tears @1000 pts – quick flip €2.50 cost
1x Heritage Druid @1400 pts – €3 cost
With Jund and RG Tron being among the top decks in Modern, I decided to move in a few copies of Bob and Karn before they rebound in price. Abrupt Decay was added to complete my playset, while low price Eldrazis are for collection.
On PucaTrade Emrakul and planeswalkers are still for collection purposes, excluded 1 copy of Narset which will end up in my Narset EDH together with Temporal Mastery.
The only “speculations” are Ash Zealot and Rest in Peace, while the second has clear application as sideboard tech, Ash Zealot has a lot of potential in burn decks if Snapcaster strategies keep rising in popularity.
Regarding the cards I send away on PucaTrade, I am moving away to lock profits due to recent spikes:
– Heritage Druids. Despite missing reprint, this card is easily reprintable in elves themed commander or duel decks procuts.
– Inquisition of Kozilek. It may be reprinted in BFZ or ZendikarVsEldrazi. If so, the price will take a hit and go back from where it came from.
– Serum Visions. I bought 2 playsets at €5 x copy when MM15 was spoiled, then I moved to fast when Origins has a scry spell spoiled…
– River of Tears – with euro being so weak, there are quite interesting arbitrage opportunities. This is one of them. Prices in Europe and US have different trends and I am sending away cards with major spreads, while trying to get back cards with minor or no spread at all.
Eternal witness? How high you think it will climb to? It has quite a lot of reprints alr if I’m not wrong.
Bought
40 X Chord of Calling (RAV) for around $7
1 X Chord of Calling (RAV – Foil) for around $38
Don’t know which direction it will go but I think this card has a high upside. The gap between RAV and M15 version is very close.
Bought:
4 Snapcaster Mage 50$ for 3, 55 for 1
2 Elesh Norns 12$ each
1 Olivia Voldaren 6$
1 Tarmogoyf: 120$
1 Liliana of the Veil: 75$
1 Creeping Tar Pit: 12$
1 Damnation: 35$
4 Italian Bitterblossoms 20$ each
2 spellskites 15$ each
4 Oblivion Stones: $16.50 Each
Sold:
2 Olivia Voldaren: 10 each
2 Blood moons: 35 each
4 Oblivion stones: 20 each
1 Kozilek: 20