First, a bit of history. This is what version one of MTGPrice.com looked like, two and a half years ago:
Sexy, right?
We’ve come a long way but we’re hardly finished. Today, I want to announce some new features we added over the last few weeks. But before I do, let me point out that Fate Reforged Prices are now live!
If you visit one of the links above and are logged in, you may notice another column (you did sign up, right? It’s free!), thus:
The “You Own” column shows up on this page and lets you see how many of each card you own. Right now that’s zero, but if you click on the link, you can edit this to any number. This was a heavily requested feature for the “My Collection” tool and it’s now ready for everyone – no more entering card names manually, just visit the set page and go through your binder card by card.
Speaking of My Collection, the filters now let you sort your collection by one or more sets, so if you want to see all Blue Alpha and Beta cards over $10 that you own, just click “Filter” and then select these requirements.
That “Save Filter” thing at the bottom is a new ProTrader feature – I’ll get to it in a moment.
Next up is our new MULTI-COLLECTION feature – something that has been repeatedly requested. Now, instead of just storing everything you own in My Collection and everything you want in the Wishlist, you can make arbitrary collections like “long-term specs”, “short-term specs”, “Modern Delver Deck” and “Cards I loaned Larry last week”. This feature is fairly basic right now but you can see all the same data as in :My Collection” which means you can see things like current price, best buylist price, how much the price changed since yesterday/ last week, etc.
To create a new multi-collection, just click the “My Collection” drop-down and then “+create new list”. You can also choose any of the multi-collections you’ve previously created here – I’ve made one called “Specs”, for example:
The final free upgrade for this week is simple yet a long time coming: the Fair Trade Price for many older cards is now significantly more accurate. For a while (due to a lack of mint-condition copies for sale), the price of a mint Alpha Tundra was around $4. Now it’s a much more accurate $3000.
Does this stuff all sound useful? Great! Sign up for free and you can track your collection’s value over time, get weekly “mtgfinance” news and much more!
We also added several new features for ProTrader, our $4.99 subscription service. I already discussed these features and what we’re working on next at length in the ProTrader-only forums but as a preview, this weeks features were:
“Save filters” – remember that image up above where you could filter your collection? ProTrader’s have the ability to save as many of these filters as they wish and access them with a single click. This gets useful when you have a large collection, since you can quickly check to see which modern-legal commons over $1 that you own, or see how your complete set of Alpha changed in price since a week ago. This is especially useful to those ProTraders that own a store or deal online and need a fast pricing tool for their current inventory.
Clicking the “wrench” icon near the top-right will let you add many new data sources to your collection. Everyone has access to a few extra sources (for example, best buylist price and who is offering it) but ProTraders can customize the list extensively so they see (for example) the ChannelFireball and ABU price of every card in their collection automatically. Everything saves so that you don’t need to set them every time.
For those ProTraders with complete sets, an “Add complete set” lets you add one copy of every card in a set with a single click.
We’ve posted a detailed roadmap of ProTrader features on the forums. If you’re a ProTrader you can read the roadmap here.
If you’re NOT a ProTrader and are interested in what being one gets you, click this link and then click “Tell me more”.
We have a LOT of new features planned, both for ProTraders and free users. If you have any specific requests, please post them in the comments below!
I’m not going to lie. I have dragon sickness. I have an unhealthy obsession with my foil collection, I spend an inordinate amount of time procrastinating by checking out high end foils at the High End Magic Stuff for Sale Facebook group and every time I see an expensive foil can’t help but go full-Smaug:
From The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) by Peter Jackson
I may not have amassed a collection of shiny trinkets at the level of Smaug’s but I do love my foils. I think most Magic players have some sort of affinity for foils, or at least a good portion of those I am personally acquainted with. Besides the fact that foils exact a higher collectibility and price, we humans seem to be attracted to shimmery objects and there is a whole industry dedicated to purveying shiny rocks and metals. Well, at least Magic players know their shiny trinkets could provide more value beyond being aesthetically pleasing; you can’t tap a gold ring for mana or use it as your Commander.
From a financier’s perspective, there are reasons to favor foils over non-foils in terms of investment potential:
Foils Are Forever
I wrote an article about the shifting paradigm for speculating Modern cards two weeks ago and a few readers asked about the security of Modern foils as an investment with Modern staples being reprinted across a wide array of Magic products from Thoughtseize and Chord of Calling in normal sets, Remand and Wurmcoil Engine in supplementary products and Modern Masters is now an annual or biannual phenomenon. Every expensive card that is a staple in the format is at risk of reprint.
Investing in foils is a way to hedge your bets against reprints. Compared with non-foil copies of a card, foil copies suffer a smaller price drop when the card is reprinted. Lorwyn Thoughtseize was trending at $60 – $70 prior to being reprinted in Theros. You can buy one today at $35 a piece, even though the Theros reprint featured a different art. Foil copies of Lorwyn Thoughtseize took a hit from $200 to $175 when Theros reprints came out, and a further drop down to $100 last November, presumably due to the increased supply of foil Thoughtseizes in the market from foil redemptions (Magic Online redemption is available a month after a set is released on Magic Online).
Carpe diem.
However as of writing, a little more than a year after Thoughtseize was reprinted, a foil Lorwyn Thoughtseize now commands a hefty price tag of $240, higher than its pre-reprint price.
Normal versions of Ravnica Chord of Calling lost nearly five times its value from $40 to $9, whereas foil copies barely budged in price. Even foil Ravnica Lighting Helix which took a price dip when it was reprinted in Modern Masters back in 2013, rallied up to a price higher than its pre-Modern Masters price. Speaking of Modern Masters, foil Morningtide Vendilion Clique and foil Ravnica Dark Confidant followed the same trend when they were reprinted in Modern Masters. Though those cards were not the ideal comparison for the fact that they were reprinted as a mythic in a limited print run product, they illustrate the price durability of foil Modern staples.
The risk of reprint is further mitigated by the fact that supplementary products rarely contain foils. When Wurmcoil Engine was reprinted in Commander 2014, the non-foil Scars of Mirrodin version lost around 50% of its value, dipping from $26 – $30 to $13 – $15. Foil Wurmcoil Engine only suffered a 25% loss in value, probably due to the fact that there were no foils in Commander 2014.
Let’s look at another Modern staple:
Deja vu.
Compare the price trajectory between the non-foil version and the foil version; there was barely a drop in price for the foil version when Jace vs Vraska injected new copies of Remand into the market in March 2014.
Dizzying Heights
Foils have a lot more room for appreciation compared with non-foils. This effect is more pronounced in foil commons and uncommons that see play in Modern and Legacy. Compare the spike between normal and foil copies of Forked Bolt:
Killing Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancers and the occasional opponent since October 2014.
While a profit margin exists for speccing on commons and uncommons, its not as lucrative as speccing on mythics. Common and uncommon speculation is a low risk speculation; you do not put in much and do not win or lose much. Think of speccing on foil playable commons and uncommons as speccing on playable mythics. There is a higher entry price, but you stand to make more.
Foiling Out on the Cheap
Hopefully by this part of the article, I have convinced you that foils are better investments than those plebeian non-foils. However, we all know that foils are more expensive than non-foils.
I am in the midst of a multi-year journey to foil out my Modern and Commander decks and there are a few financial pointers I’ve picked along the way which may be of use to other collectors/players/dragons seeking to foil out their decks without breaking their bank account or just acquire foils for investment at a low enough price to see a profit.
Buy Foils When They Are Cheap
I know, it sounds like a protip. But it is one of those tips that are easier said than done. How many people got their foil Forked Bolts or foil Gitaxian Probes before those cards spiked? I know I did not. Signals were present prior to those cards spiking: Gitaxian Probe was a small-third-set card that was present as a playset across multiple archetypes in Modern and Legacy, but its foils were still selling for single digits up till March 2014. Forked Bolt was a UR Delver staple on Magic Online prior to its spike. Another common foil, Delver of Secrets dropped to $2 when Innistrad rotated, even though RUG Delver was already an established tier one Legacy deck.
Get in on foil common and uncommon staples in Modern and Legacy while they are still hovering around the middle of the single digit price zone, and if they are not at a risk of reprint in the short run. Mutagenic Growth is seeing play in Modern beyond Infect thanks to Shahar Shenhar’s Burn at the 2014 World Championship which ran four copies of Mutagenic Growth. While foil Mutagenic Growth is hovering at $5, I am not not inclined to buy it with Modern Masters 2015 around the corner. Foil Lingering Souls, on other other hand, seems like a good buy at $6 each, especially the FNM version which is going for just $2.43.
Getting into foils when they are cheap is not as easy as it sounds for the fact that most foil Modern and Legacy staples are already expensive. It feels counterintuitive to buy foil Abrupt Decay at $25 back in early 2013 as it was a card from a large set that was still being opened, or at $35 when it rotated out of Standard in the fall of 2014. Those were probably the best time to get your foil Abrupt Decays; today you would need to fog up $75 for one.
The only reason I have foil Steam Vents in my Modern decks is my decision in the middle of March 2014 to finally buy my playset of foil Steam Vents at $25 after weeks of deliberation. $25 for a foil rare from a large, bestselling fall set (every fall set seems to set new sales record these days) felt steep when I hovered over the confirm payment button. Two weeks later foil Steam Vents spiked to $45 – $50. Apparently, I bought one of the last playsets of foils Steam Vents that were available at $25 apiece.
That anecdote is not a humblebrag; it encapsulates a dilemma in finding the optimal time to pick up foil Modern or Legacy staples. There is always a lingering doubt if the price of a foil staple is already at its peak when its price is so high. The key is to override that doubt with good reasoning backed by solid data.
Abrupt Decay was played as multiples in a multitude of tier one archetypes in Modern and Legacy. Was $20 – $25 an appropriate price to pay for a top-notch eternal staple? Steam Vents was themost-played shockland in Modern and third most ubiquitous card in Modern when I bought foil copies of it at $25 (it is now the most-played land and second most-ubiquitous card in Modern).
Evaluate the price of Modern and Legacy foils proportional to the amount of play they are seeing. I bought my foil Delvers at $2 when Innistrad was still legal with the reasoning that there was no way a Legacy staple with Modern potential (back then Modern Delver had no boats to ride to valueland) could be below $5.
I agree with Cliff Daigle in his article last December where he mentioned that now is an excellent time to pick up foil Khans of Tarkir fetchlands. If foil copies of shocklands, which only is played one or two (at most three) copies in Modern decks (or as a poor Commander player’s duals) could fetch up to $40 – $50 apiece, is it possible that fetchlands, which are played three to four copies in every single format they are legal in are worth just $50? Is $85 – $90 too much for the blue ones when a foil Scalding Tarn is $182? If you are looking to assemble your foil playset of the Khans of Tarkir fetches, now is a good time to start.
However, if you are unwilling to pay so much for your Khans of Tarkir fetches, there is a way to get around it. Perfectly legal, I assure you.
Redemption
Yes, Magic Online is still bad. It still have a UX that harks back to the early 2000s. Besides being the sole place where you can get in as many reps on your deck as with bench-pressing at the gym (no way I can get 50 reps on my Jeskai Tokens playing four-round FNMs once per week) and where you can draft without wearing pants, Magic Online is useful to get foils on the cheap via redemption.
Magic Online allows you to manifest the intangible, digital cards you own into physical cardboard by putting in a redemption order when you have one of every card in the set you are redeeming. Basically if I have a non-foil copy of every 284 cards in Khans of Tarkir (284 is 269 plus fifteen basic lands as each version of the basic lands counts as a different card) and I purchase a normal Khans of Tarkir Redemption Request at the Magic Online Store, during the next downtime the 284 cards will be removed from my Magic Online account and physical copies of those cards will be sent to me. Pretty nifty isn’t it?
Redemption is available for both non-foils and foils. If I have a foil copy of each Khans of Tarkir card on Magic Online, I could purchase a Premium Khans of Tarkir Redemption Request, have those cards removed from my Magic Online account and a bunch of shiny Khans of Tarkir singletons delivered to my doorstep.
The cost of redemption is:
Total value of the set on Magic Online + Handling Fee ($25) + Shipping ($2.99 for delivery within the United States, $29.99 for international delivery)
The handling and shipping costs are set in stone, so the only variable is the total value of the set on Magic Online. There are plenty of reliable bot chains to buy singles from on Magic Online, but the one I use the most is GoatBots as they have one of the most user-friendly website to check prices, good availability and very competitive pricing. As of writing, GoatBots is selling a foil set of Khans of Tarkir mythics and rares for $341. The price of foil commons, uncommons and basic lands fluctuates, but they usually cost around $90 in total. That makes it $431 to assemble a foil set of Khans of Tarkir on Magic Online.
Cost of redeeming a foil set of Khans of Tarkir as of writing:
$431 + $25 + $29.99 (I live in Malaysia) = $485.99
Let’s compare the cost of redeeming a foil set of Khans of Tarkir with the cost to assemble a foil set of Khans of Tarkir in real life. MTGPrice.com has a useful Browse Sets feature (shameless plug) to view the price of all the cards in a set in a list, including foil sets. According to the foil Khans of Tarkir list, the price of a physical set of Khans of Tarkir is $860.34. Redeeming a set alone saves you a whooping $374.35 and that is with the extra $27 for international delivery.
The price of collecting a foil copy of each Khans of Tarkir fetchland in real life is $322.81. Let’s say you redeemed a foil Khans of Tarkir set at $485.99 just for the fetches and you sold off all the other foils worth $5 or more according to the MTGPrice.com list for a total of $323.06 (the redeemed set includes high value foil mythics and foil Monastery Swiftspear and Treasure Cruise. Oh and also a foil Dig Through Time which I hear is worth quite a bit). That means you have acquired your foil fetches for a mere $162.93, or just $33 per foil fetch, which is a steal considering that foil Polluted Delta and foil Flooded Strand each costs around $85 and the rest $50. Beat that, eBay. Oh, the redeemed foils are about as near mint as they could be – the redeemed cards come in a factory-sealed box.
From my experience, I found that playable foils are generally in high demand and relatively easy to move. You would still be getting your foil fetches much cheaper than market price if you liquidate your foils worth $5 or more at 70% the MTGPrice.com fair trade price, which is already an aggregated price.
I hope you readers and fellow foil collectors have found this article informative, and a way to hoard more shimmering trinkets without breaking your bank. Or vault, if you’re a dragon.
Overlooked summer set mythics are a good place to be if they suddenly find a home in standard at the top tables. Soul of Theros has been earning his bones for weeks now, as a top of curve finish assister in a 4-color Whip of Erebos brew that makes Siege Rhino’s and Hornets look very threatening indeed. The deck often runs the full 4 copies, because many of them end up in the graveyard where they ride the train straight to value town. If the fever spreads, the top end on this is likely around $5-6 but with how often the Standard metagame has been shifting this season, I wouldn’t count on it. If you had pack copies or copies you got under $2 sitting around, trading out for other staples is perfectly reasonable at this point.
Format: Standard/EDH
Verdict: Sell/Trade
2. Choke(8th Edition, Rare): $4.09 to $6.34 (+55%)
With the dominance of U/R Delver brews in specific and blue cards in general throughout Legacy and Modern over the last year, interest in Choke as a solid sideboard answer that slows their game to a crawl has been building. The card has only been printed twice, in Tempest and 8th edition, so it’s possible it will show up Modern Masters (2015) at rare, but otherwise this has a decent shot at pushing $10 within the next year or two given that blue shows no signs of ever giving up the trophy for most powerful color in magic.
Format(s): Modern/Legacy
Verdict: Hold
3. Hooded Hydra(Khans of Tarkir, Mythic): $1.66 to $2.07 (+25%)
It’s not clear whether Manifest is actually a standard playable mechanic, or even which colors it would use as accents, but if the deck proves to be real, Hooded Hydra is almost certain to be a big part of it. The key is that Hydra can flip up from manifesting as a 5/5 for GG, (possibly larger depending on how it ended up manifested in the first place), and then leave behind 1/1 tokens when it dies equal to it’s power and toughness. That’s a minimum of 10 P&T for a bargain basement price, and the scenario it presents is removal/sweeper resistant. Folks are clearly brewing, and the previously ignored KTK mythic now has a shot at mid-season glory. If it makes a key deck tech or a top table this month, expect it to hit $5-6 in a hurry but success is nothing more than a guess at this point so don’t sleep on the info if you choose to go deep. Personally, I think this card will get there sooner or later, so I’ve got about 20 copies sitting around acquired under $1.50.
The Sliver tribe has been enjoying a resurgence since the plethora of new options printed in M15 last summer, with both Galerider Sliver and Sliver Hive already having made some folks some solid money along the way. Sliver Hive peaked around $5 in late summer on casual demand, sliding back later last fall on KTK hype season disinterest. As less M15 is opened however, the card is selling out here and there, and steady casual demand should easily push it back towards $5 within the year, and $10 within 2-3. It’s also worth noting that Counter-Slivers is a very real Tier 2 deck in Legacy and the deck runs 4 copies of this card as a rainbow land with no penalty and bonus token making upside. This is a great long-term spec in every scenario that doesn’t include Commander 2016 or 2017 being tribal based with a Slivers deck.
Jeskai Ascendancy has been a pillar of the 2014-2015 standard format since it’s debut, and the card still has myriad applications in both tempo and combo decks across Standard, Modern and Casual so long as it stays un-banned, which seems likely at this point. It hit a natural low in December and should now oscillate between $2.50-4 heading into summer, being somewhat held down by the value of fetchlands in Khans of Tarkir. Long term, if left legal in Modern and Legacy the foils only get better as specs as more combo pieces get printed, so that’s where I’ve been stashing some cash.
Red/black dual lands are like the ugly cousin no one will ask to the dance. Without a deck in Standard that centres on black and red cards, and with little hope of play in older formats, this Theros temple is banking on little more than EDH demand for single copies. Get out of any extras, you only need these to play at the kitchen table and they’ll be $1.50 by mid-summer.
Format(s): EDH/Casual
Verdict: Sell
2. Anger of the Gods (Theros, Rare): $2.52 to $2.92 (-14%)
This underrated sweeper is at an interesting crossroads where the fact that it’s edging up on Standard rotation is facing off against steadily increasing relevance in a format that looks like it will enter spring dominated by token decks and the mid-range decks that battle them. I’d prefer to steer clear of extra non-foils and instead pursue foils on the basis that the card may stay relevant in Modern for a long while as a 1-2 copy main or sideboard role player against the low casting cost value/aggro decks.
Between Shaman of the Great Hunt, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, Mantis Rider and Flamewake Phoenix, red decks are going to have a cornucopia of options for mid-game threats to present. Until we know which builds are most effective at hitting the Top 8 of the big tourneys, I don’t want anything to do with a card like this that many players have already turned away from in many builds even before Fate Reforged goes legal.
Format(s): Standard
Verdict: Sell
4. Goblin Guide (Zendikar, Rare): $19.98 to $17.83 (-11%)
This is a great card and a major staple in both Modern in Legacy, but it’s near the front of the line to get reprinted in Modern Masters (2015) this summer so it’s time to get out if you’re not playing your copies and get back in on some $10 versions in June.
As with Sarkhan last week, this is a great Standard card with plenty of life left, just moving through a normal price cycle and probing natural lows. I’m interested in picking up copies in the $12-13 range if we get there as the regal vampire lord could easily hit $20+ again next fall. If there’s something to be learned from the trajectories of other mid-game ‘walkers like Kiora, Ajani, and Xenagos, it’s that they’re value is highly dependent on the metagame of the day. For now, I rate him a hold, but I wouldn’t go deep on him above $10.
Verdict: Hold
Quick Hits:
Contrary to the reactionary thoughts of many a player, Black Lotus and the Power 9 are holding their newly acquired higher price tags set after GPNewJersey across the industry. Lowest TCG on an SP Unlimited Black Lotus is now $4999, and StarCityGames is back to offering $4500 buylist on them. If they keep moving at these levels, I think that the whole group may test new highs in 2015 5-10% higher.
(Repeat) January 19th, 2015 is the next Banned & Restricted list announcement and banning of any or all of the following could make big waves and open up new specs: Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, Jeskai Ascendancy, Birthing Pod. Getting rid of all of the above in Modern opens up the format a ton, and it’s possible Cruise gets the axe as far back as Legacy. I don’t want to be caught holding many copies of that card in foil, so I’ve been selling out, but the rest I’ve decided to risk. Make your call and get ready for the fallout. Jan 12th Update: Birthing Pod took down GPOmaha today, but the top 8 and the field were diverse and interesting. If WOTC was looking for signals from this GP, Pod may be safe, and Treasure Cruise didn’t look any more dominant than would be bearable.
(Repeat) Likely MM2 reprints aren’t falling nearly as fast as they should be and I think too many people are underestimating the print run this time around. Get out while you can…these aren’t cards you want to be holding come June.
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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Welcome back everyone. I wasn’t planning on being gone this long but a great opportunity came up for me to get out of town and I couldn’t pass it up. I’m a sucker for value.
When we left off in the last article, I said I was going to talk about buy listing in the next article. Before we get to that though, I want to go over the last two trades I made in greater detail. I want you to see that there is a method to my madness.
I’ve already talked about the first trade. I traded some shock lands and a couple of cheap staples for a bigger stack of cheap staples, but for a few different archetypes. Most of you agreed with my end of the trade.
For reference here are the cards I traded for.
I’ve been reading a lot about how discard isn’t as good in Legacy as it was pre Treasure Cruise, but I think that Hymn to Tourach is still worth having in my trade stock. I use cards like Hymn to Tourach, Phyrexian Revoker, and Crop Rotation as throw-ins to balance out a trade. You never know when you might need a Revoker…
The Reanimator deck has been picking up some steam recently in the bigger events. A couple of my local guys have asked me about the deck and if I had any of the cheaper cards for it. Reanimate and Exhume are cheap and easy to trade away to people testing the waters of the format. Trading out $20-$30 of cards to pick up a small stack of cards for an eternal deck you might make is easy to do without regrets if you don’t end up building the deck.
Overall, this trade helped me diversify my trade binder. Having these cheap staples in my trade inventory should help me with my secondary goal of building my local legacy community while helping me with my primary goal of building the deck. A lesson I’m reminded of constantly is that my local trade partners don’t often get the cards I need for the Stoneblade deck. They tend to trade for the cards that they’re going to use in their deck project and not really worry about what they have in the trade binder.
I had a foil Lorwyn Ponder rotting in my binder. I couldn’t give it away. I had put it in my buy list pile. (I’m terrible at buy listing by the way, but I will talk about that more later.) I was checking out what was posted in a couple Facebook buy/sell/trade groups when I came across someone looking for a foil Lorwyn Ponder. He valued it at $50 in trade. That’s pretty good considering I had decided that I was going to buy list it to Channel Fireball for $30 ($39 in store credit) a little while ago. We talked back and forth and he offered a pair of Flooded Strands and a Batterskull for the foil Ponder. That seemed like a perfect trade for me. I get to trade a semi-expensive (it’s a common foil) card that is EXTREMELY hard to move into format staples that I could trade out the same day. After he doubled checked his cards, he let me know that he only had one Flooded Strand. He was using tcgplayer mid price for trade values. At the time (before Christmas) that left me with roughly $17 to snag out of his binder.
I want to take a minute here and say that Dave Meetze is the perfect example of someone you want to trade with. He sent me pictures of his trade binder, the whole binder, to go through to find the difference. He is one of the most professional people I have ever dealt with. He went above and beyond the entire time AND he sent first. Great guy.
Back to the trade though. He had a ton of stuff that I wanted to put into my trade binder but I needed to be efficient here. I had a great opportunity to add cards to my deck and my binder. I didn’t want to be greedy and loose all the value to the deck. I threw in the Sword of Light and Shadow from Modern Masters (I opened in a draft) with the foil Ponder for these beauties.
So let’s breakdown the numbers here.
Supreme Verdict x3 $2.50
Baneslayer Angel $12.00
Council’s Judgement $8.50
Stifle $6.00
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben $4.00
Flooded Strand $17.00
Batterskull $17.00
Gaddock Teeg $8.00
Total: $80 (rounding to the nearest $.50)
For my
Foil Ponder Lorwyn $50
Sword of Light and Shadow $28
Total: $78
Face value it looks like I made $2.00. But if we look at the tcgplayer mid prices today (1-5-15) you will see that I picked up another $10. So I’m up a little over $12 in this trade. The mid price on the Ponder went down $6 and some of the other cards went up a little bit. This is not an example of my awesome trading skills. This is an example of plain old luck by the way, not an example of my awesome trading skills( for the most part at least).
Out of the cards I got in the trade I will be putting a fair amount of them in the deck. Council’s Judgement, Batterskull, and the Flooded Strand. Looking at the other cards, Supreme Verdict, Thalia, Stifle and Gaddock Teeg are all cards I expect to increase in price over the long term. Supreme Verdict and Thalia are under priced in my opinion. Thalia sees a ton of legacy play and I expect to see it in modern eventually. Supreme Verdict is one of the best wrath effects out there. I know Supreme Verdict has been on everyone’s radar as a solid speculation target. Speculation isn’t exactly where I want to be right now. I need to maximize my trade binder’s resources. I can’t afford to sit on specs long term. That being said, I get asked about Supreme Verdict enough that I like having a couple in my binder even if they don’t see a huge price jump. That leaves Batterskull and Baneslayer Angel. I fully expect Batterskull to be reprinted in Modern Masters 2015 and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Baneslayer Angel in there as well. The risk of the reprints is something to think about but not something that would prevent me from picking them up. Batterskull has the grand prix promo and it is still $17. Baneslayer has two core set prints and it is $12. There is some risk but since I plan on using both cards in the deck I’m not really worried about the card loosing value with a reprint. Sure, I could wait and see, then pick one up, but without anything being confirmed I would rather have the cards in hand. Not to mention I prefer the first printings of a card I’m using in a deck. Let me know your thoughts on the trade in the comments. I would love to see what you have to say.
Now we get to talk about buy listing. Couple of quick tips to remember when you’re buy listing. First, always double check how many the store is buying. I’ve made a few mistakes when I first started buy listing. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way. Next is always make sure to squeeze all you can with the cash you’re spending to ship. Sometimes it makes sense to take a little less from a store if you already have a stack of stuff that you’re sending. I can fit a lot of cards in one of the $5.95 priority mail boxes.
Last article I talked about the Titania, Protector of Argoth for $2.99 with free shipping. My budget was able afford 10 copies. I made sure to look at the buy list prices before I pulled the trigger. Channel Fireball was paying $5 and would take over 150 copies. I looked through my stack of cards to see what else I had to ship them.
I came up with this list
Champion Lancer $2.50 cash $3.25 credit
Blinkmoth Nexus $7.00/$9.10
Ichorid $8.00/$10.00
Necrotic Sliver $1.50/$1.95 (6 copies)
Aether Vial $15.00/$19.50
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion $12.00/$15.60
Mind Funeral $1.00/$1.30 (2 copies)
Chalice of the Void $10.00/$13.00 (4 copies)
Add in the 10 copies of Titania, Protector of Argoth for a total of $145 cash or $189.15 in store credit minus the $6 to ship it.
Let’s look at what I have in the cards to see the actual profit of this venture.
Champion Lancer .25
Necrotic Sliver x6 .25 each ($1.50)
Ichorid $5.00 cash
Chalice of the Void x4 $6.00 each ($24.00)
Titania, Protector of Argoth x10 $2.99 each ($29.90)
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion Pulled out of a prize pack (3.99)
Blinkmoth Nexus, Aether Vial, Mind Funeral x2 were drafted by me ($30)
Total cost of about $95.
Cash profit of $44 after shipping.
Store Credit profit of $88 after shipping.
I love the idea of having $189.15 in store credit just for shipping in 26 cards. Average of $7.27 a card makes me pretty happy. I thought I would’ve moved the Chalice of the Voids by now but I haven’t had any luck. Taking $13 in store credit is close enough to what I would end up with after fees anyway. Stumbling across the Necrotic Sliver and Lancer in a local store’s bulk box helps the total as well. One of my favorite thing to do when I visit a store for the first time is to find these kind of boxes and scour them for these kind of cards. I love value!
What do you think I should get with the store credit? The’re selling a heavy play Revised Tundra for $180 and near mint one for $220. Should I buy some under-priced Modern cards? Leave your suggestions in the comment section so we can go over it next week.
I have put the collection I have assembled for the project into mtgprice.com’s collection tracker and it really is great. Being able to glance at your collection and get a quick idea the activity is great. It comes in handy when I go to an event just to trade. I’m working on putting in into a spreadsheet in google docs so I can try and get some additional trades going.
Next week I will be going over the value I have in the deck so far, a few trades I have in the works, the fallout of the Legacy IQ I’m going to play in this weekend, and something else that I don’t want to spoil. Really looking forward to that.
As always, follow me on twitter @somethingsays email me at mtglegacyhero at the gmail.
MAGIC: THE GATHERING FINANCE ARTICLES AND COMMUNITY
