I don’t even know where to begin. I spent last week in Florida, enjoying a pleasant New Year vacation while largely disconnected from the MTG world, though I did check in from time to time.
I come home, and everyone’s gone crazy.
The Buyouts
First, I want to link to Jim Casale’s piece on the use of the word “buyout.” In most cases, it doesn’t mean what you think it means, and the negative connotation attached to the word doesn’t always ring true.
Take, for example, Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple. Sure, in the simplest terms they were “bought out.” But rather than plummeting over the next week as the race to the bottom began and people saw that the market manipulation couldn’t hold true, the prices actually held over the course of the week. That doesn’t happen unless there’s real demand for a card, and it’s another bit of proof that shows that manipulating the market is not as easily done as many like to claim. Anyone can buy out TCGplayer and move the price of a card for a day, but all that really matters is where those prices settle after a few weeks or months. Simply raising the TCGplayer average doesn’t make anyone a profit, and I’ve written before at length about The Myth of Making Money.
So where does that leave us today?
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Thanks for the tips for this upcoming season. Gotta love those commander cards right? I picked up a few Doubling Seasons as well as some foils early last year. I Put one in my commander deck and just recently sold my non foils for profits (ehh… almost paid for my foil in my deck I mean!)
The last Rav foil I have for sale is going to be pure profit if it sells this year, if not, I’m fine with holding it until it does. At this point I’ve paid for the foil in my deck and I’m sitting on a “free” foil.
If anyone is looking to buy their commander foils right now… Consider this approach and play the mid/long game (1+year).
1. Buy 2 foils and some non-foils of a popular, archetype style commander card (ex. Doubling Season). Make sure the foils are original print run foils! Make sure you are buying at low points and follow MTGPrice advice!
2. Sleeve up your personal foil, list 1 non-foil on TCGPlayer for the bare minimum price you are willing to let it go for. Put the rest of your copies in a spec binder and forget they exist.
3. When your first non-foil sells, list the rest of your copies for an increased price each time they sell. List your spec foil for whatever price you feel like because you can and you honestly think the foil is worth that much because you have a copy in your commander deck and you are emotionally attached to the pretty Ravnica foil artwork of the beautiful crystals that seem to hum when you gaze into their luminescent angular structures, causing you to travel through the space-time continuum itself ending up… whoa… Oh ya….
About a year or so later… Your beautiful Foil sells and you have a free foil in your commander deck and a couple twenties in your wallet. I know its not that exciting but that is Commander speculating in a nutshell. Enjoy the Modern spikes!!! Thanks MTGPrice writers for teaching me the tools of the trade.
P.S. I bought these on eBay as playsets, early morning bids early last year. Don’t take my Doubling Season example and go buyout TCGPlayer. Apply the situation to a card you have your eye on.
This is a very similar strategy to the one I outlined in “One for Me, One for TCGP” a few months back. It’s an excellent way for people not exactly interested in finance to subsidize playing Magic.