If you’ve been following my recent tweets and articles, you likely observed my latest interests in MTG Finance. Namely, I’ve stepped up interest in cards associated with the Old School MTG format and I’ve focused more heavily on collectible cards. I even experienced some success flipping credit, yielding surprisingly positive outcomes.
There’s just one issue with all these growing interests of mine: they all require significant investment.
The rest of this content is only visible to ProTrader members.
To learn how ProTrader can benefit YOU, click here to watch our short video.
The last tough sell I had to deal with was with MM2 Goyfs. Over the two weeks my stores were running releases I let most players that I was reading with know that I was looking for a set, and ended up paying for most of them in cash.I like having a collection of cards that allows me to swap or loan decks to people, and over the past year I’ve collected enough that I can throw Burn, Affinity, Infect,Twin, Merfolk or Tron together fairly easily.
The problem with my goyfs was that life got in the way, and after a hit and run combined with the wonders if student loans, I had to trim more than I was expecting even after all the help I’d gotten this summer.
As much as goyf is a premier card in modern, its really limited to play in jund, junk and tarmotwin. I was still a significant investment away from those, so for the most part he’d just be sitting in a binder till I acquired them. He’d just been reprinted, and I knew that I got my playset for much lower prices based on people’s demand for side events, so I had the potential for profit, and I knew that my portfolio of investment was higher on modern than standard or edh, which are the two formats I’m more knowledgeable.
So I packed 4 in a bubble mailer and made about $6 on the trade. I’ll probably not own a playset of goyfs for at least a couple years now, if ever.
Wow, your story is very compelling. I really appreciate your opening up and sharing your experiences. It’s so painful to sell something expensive and recognize “I’ll probably never be able to justify buying this again”. But if our objective is really to raise cash and that is top priority, then we need to put emotions aside and sell the cards that make the most sense.
For you it was your Goyfs, which you weren’t using. And let’s face it, Goyf will probably be in Modern Masters 2017, so they’ll get a tiny bit cheaper eventually.
For me, maybe it’s time to sell my Bazaar. The card just spiked, so it’s not likely it rises even higher in the next 6-12 months. And since the card just sits in my binder unpalyed, it’s really tough for me to justify keeping it. It’s part of a collection, I suppose, but I can still enjoy the other cards in my collection without Bazaar.
Either I want to raise cash and I sell, or I decide the emotions are more important right now, in which case I cannot complain about lack of liquid funds. That’s the decision I have to make.
Thanks again for sharing!
Sig
I definitely enjoy collecting, and I love being able to slot cards in and out of the 75, and I enjoy being able to toss out three decks to my friends who enjoy magic and modern, but don’t have the financial ability I do.(plus, I like opening packs, and sharing a prize pool in return for lending a deck is a pretty great arrangement!)
But on the other hand, I’ve got student loans, bills, a car, tuition, and a stock portfolio. As much as I love playing and trading magic, its not yet a lifestyle I can dump a ton of my own money into. I used your arbitrage articles to make a good amount in my spare time this summer(ended up trading the spoils for the Affinity deck I use), so any value that sits around and isn’t getting me anywhere needs to be either important to me(my Planeswalker collection, EDH deck), or useful(my modern/EDH staples).
End of the day, a few pieces that look awesome in a binder were traded for something I or my friends enjoy, and pay for my couple of.modern nights each week. Cash is not always value, which is something we all seem to.have trouble understanding at times.
Very well said. I like your approach – you clearly have your priorities in front of you and you make decisions based on those priorities. I’m too scattered right now in my collecting. A few random Alpha rares, some Arabian Nights stuff, some old school cards, a Legacy deck. All these cards and no clear vision.
I like Old School a lot. Maybe I should rearrange my resources to go more heavily into that format. That might mean selling the Bazaar and grabbing some fun older cards that actually make a deck. This is something I’ll certainly think more on. You’ve given me a lot of food for thought, thanks!!
Sig
No offense to the author as he brings up an important question, but I’m surprised the editors would consider this “call to the readers for help” something to keep behind the pay wall.
I don’t think the value of RtR boxes is going up any time soon. My distributor still has them in stock at $78 each. I would get out of those first.
That’s really interesting data, hordling. It’s a bit of a bummer that these boxes are still so plentiful…just brutal for those who thought to invest. I guess I could sit on them another 5 years and hope to get $120 a box? Is there any way these go much higher than that this decade? Selling now would mean a rough loss but would give me funds to invest elsewhere. I’ll think more on this. Appreciate the input!
Nice article again, Sig! I’m looking for 1 nice condition Underground Sea if you are still looking to sell duals…
Thanks!!! I know it was a bit introspective and personal, but I think it’s an important topic many folks encounter. So I thought I’d share my thought process behind it.
No Seas for sale, I’m afraid. All I have left are an HP UNL Tundra and an HP UNL Bayou. I have 2 UNL Seas but they’re played and in my Legacy deck, and I don’t plan on selling the deck. Good luck in your search!