Category Archives: ProTrader

ProTrader, Sigmund Ausfresser

PROTRADER: A Seller’s Market

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A week ago, I wrote about the ho-hum results of the Pro Tour. The professional players who made the top eight were incredible, with a vast history of experience and success. But the decks themselves were lackluster, to put it bluntly. Nothing on Sunday really excited me from an MTG finance perspective.

As a result, I was disappointed to make only tiny profits on the few Pro Tour purchases I actually did make throughout the weekend. Looking at the one-week interests on mtgstocks.com, it seems likely I’m not the only one starting at a financially inconsequential event.

Interests

This picture outlines the top movers over the past week. It’s true there are a handful of Standard cards in the list, but look at their actual price appreciation. Bloodsoaked Champion was the big winner, but do you think there’s much profit in buying copies at $2.33 and selling at $3.22? Doubtful. The same can be said for other top weekly performers, such as Hidden Dragonslayer, Secure the Wastes, and Crackling Doom. Put simply, if you hadn’t purchased these cards a few days before the Pro Tour, you weren’t really going to profit.

Count me in that camp.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

Accumulated Knowledge, ProTrader

PROTRADER: Götterdämmerung

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BRIEF INTRODUCTORY ASIDE: I want to first start off similar to the way the Thriller music video did, with a disclaimer. I do not believe that the following descriptions of events are likely, nor are they predictions of future events. Like a fire drill at school, this is more about being prepared for an extremely unlikely occurrence in the event it actually happens. Let’s all just hope that things never get to that point.

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ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.


 

Corbin Hosler, ProTrader

PROTRADER: Accountability – Reviewing Rotation Calls

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There’s very little more important to me than accountability in Magic finance. I write to help people afford this game, not to make myself rich—this is why I don’t speculate. Still, I obviously follow the market very closely, and that’s why I’ve been writing over the last few weeks and months about the cards I thought were good pickups as we neared rotation. With so many important cards leaving Standard, it was clear we were going to see some new stuff rise up to take those places, and even if the archetypes themselves have remained the same, we’ve seen new cards fill in.

Without further preamble, I’ll dig in with the first article I wrote on the subject, published on August 13, 2015.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.

City of Traders, ProTrader

PROTRADER: PT Khans of Tarkir Block Constructed

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By: Travis Allen

I’ve never been one for professional sports. I don’t know if it’s the toxic masculinity that I’ve never felt beholden to that is woven into the fabric of the pastimes, or if it’s instead my distaste for the veiled sycophantic jingoism that manifests as obsessive support, emotional and financial, for a team that owes allegiance to nothing more than your tax dollars. Whatever it is, I have a natural aversion to that particular brand of entertainment. I don’t watch ESPN. I don’t check scores. I don’t keep track of who is injured or what trades may happen. I didn’t even understand people’s exhaustion with Draft Kings and FanDuel until I saw ten minutes of a football game at my girlfriend’s parent’s house and was exposed to just how significant their advertising presence was.

LAS VEGAS - MARCH 19: In this handout provided by the Las Vegas News Bureau, the Mirage Resort Race and Sports Book in Las Vegas is shown crowded with basketball fans during NCAA March Madness Tournament March 19, 2010. in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Glenn Pinkerton/Las Vegas News Bureau via Getty Images)

Along with all the other things that I don’t experience related to professional sports is gambling. Of course, none of you reading this have ever gambled on sports games, because unless you live in Nevada or overseas, it would be illegal, so bear with me and just imagine it’s something you’ve done. Not having bet on games before, I’m unfamiliar with the emotional rollercoaster involved in the activity. Of course, I experience it in some capacity. After all, I bought $60 worth of Wingmate Rocs and Dragon Whisperers. While you could argue that speculation is gambling in its own right, it’s not quite the same. My hopes and dreams for Roc don’t live and die on one play of the game; there is no singular pointed moment in time that holds within it financial victory or ruin.

So when we did a fantasy Pro Tour draft this time around and I found myself sweating the outcome of Finkel versus PVDDR, a match that would determine whether I got second place or fifth, it was a novel experience. I found myself unwilling to watch them play, a behavior I know for a fact I’ve wondered aloud at when I’ve seen others not watch an event they’re financially invested in. I just kept working on the newsletter in silence, peeking at Twitter every thirty seconds for updates. When Finkel was finally victorious and I was locked for second place, a thrilling sensation washed over me unlike anything I get when a spec target quintuples overnight. All in all, it was an exciting experience, and it will be made all the more sweeter when I only need to pay four percent of a $400 dinner bill, rather than 14 percent.

Oh, also, Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar happened this weekend. Right. That’s probably what you would prefer to read about.

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expensive cards

ProTrader: Magic doesn’t have to be expensive.