Tag Archives: MTGFinance

PROTRADER: Credit Is King – Part 2

September 7, 2015 Sigmund Ausfresser 5 Comments

It’s working. I can’t believe it’s actually working.

Since writing my “Credit is King” article a few weeks ago, I have managed to turn about $170 into over $500 in store credit. This growth is a result of nothing more than taking trade-in credit from one vendor to purchase cards that a different vendor has a better buy price on (including credit). At first the task seemed daunting and improbabe, but after a half a dozen cycles across three different retailers, I can confirm that this strategy is 100% effective.

At least for now…more on that later.

But before I dive into the cautions of this approach, I first want to share some high level observations on the three vendors I use most frequently for this credit experiment: Star City Games, Card Kingdom, and ABU Games. By understanding a few valuable rules of thumb and observations, we can begin to piece together how this credit experiment has been so successful to date.

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Conjured Currency

The Reasons Why I Hate Magic Finance

August 6, 2015 Douglas Johnson 26 Comments

Yeah, you know me. I’ve been writing articles on Magic finance for almost two years now, so I’ve basically figured out every single thing there is to learn about this extremely delicate ecosystem we live in. I’ve written some of the greatest, quality-est stuff of the decade, and some of the lesser minds of the community have pretty much suggested that I’m the Batman plus Superman plus Goku of Magic finance, all put together in one currency-conjuring package.

I’m just going to assume that you read The Art of War: MTG finance edition that’s still hot off the presses from last week, so now that you know every gory detail about the millions of dollars that I rake in every day from my vast and expansive MTG finance network. Seems like a pretty freakin’ sweet gig, right? Gonna go out and start up your own MTG finance business like me, are ya? I don’t blame you, my life is pretty sweet. I sleep on a bed made of the finest foil Tarmogoyfs, delivered on a bicycle by Pete Hoefling himself. Every day, I buy sets of Alpha power from 48-year-old men who say stuff like, “Hey, I just found a bunch of this stuff in their basement, and was wondering if I could get a few hundred dollars for it all.” Every night, I listen to my own podcast. You know, the one I spend four hours recording, where I’m the only host. #MTGFINANCE

Well I’m here to let you in on a little secret. MTG finance isn’t all fun and games. It’s a ruthless and papercutthroat world out there, so only the strong, smart, and incredibly attractive can survive. It’s a ton of hard work every day, and it has some of the most grueling aspects of any job out there. You’ve seen the best parts of MTG finance, so now I’m going to show you what the other writers are afraid to reveal to the public. These are the things I hate most about working in Magic: The Gathering finance.

1. Alphabetizing/Sorting cards

When most people use “C/U” as an abbreviation for “common/uncommon,” they’re referring to bulk lots of non-rare peasant cards like Glistener Elf, Blighted Agent, Brainstorm, nonfoil Force of Wills—you get the idea. Personally, I don’t even touch filthy low-rarity cards unless they’re foil, and either Japanese, Korean, or Russian. And let me tell you, it’s a huge pain to constantly have to sort and alphabetize all of these absurdly expensive cards. Sometimes, I even run out of programs to watch on Netflix, and have to degrade myself to watching reruns of anime that I’ve already completed. As you can see in the first image, we have Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood playing in the background, with a freshly sorted pile of Russian foil Gitaxian Probes, Young Pyromancers, and other garbage.

The second picture is my top-tier professional sorting tray; only the experts have this type of smooth, black plastic. I would tell you where to get it, but you should have been paying attention to my previous articles, where I already told you where to find it. Unfortunately, this tray doesn’t hold nearly enough cards for my personal needs. The 42,000 cards beneath the tray are all foil Legacy and Modern staples that need to be alphabetized, and a small, peasant-sized tray like this isn’t going to be quite large enough to support my exquisite needs. Ugh. The thought of these cards touching a playmat to be sorted and sold is making me sick, so let’s just move onto the next annoyance that I have to deal with in my stressful existence.

2. Telling People Their Parents are Dead

Yeah, that’s an occupational hazard in MTG finance. What, you don’t believe me? I’m serious here.—100-percent serious. Alright, fine. Let’s go though a normal scenario that I’m sure you’ve been through. You talk to a guy about buying his collection, and he says it’s pretty small. He’s mainly a casual player that has only been casting spells since Fate Reforged, but he has about a hundred rares. Tsch, just another small collection. Doesn’t anyone have anything better? Whatever, let’s get this over with. Maybe he’s got at least one judge Force of Will that will make it worthwhile.

You meet up with the ~~peasant~~ guy at his place, and he pulls out his precious little fat pack box. The first card you see when you open the lid is an unsleeved, moderately played Spine of Ish Sah from the Commander 2013 product, and you vomit in your mouth a little. Not a good sign. After flipping through the rest of the fat pack box, you calculate that the most expensive card in the box is his Flamewake Phoenix, and that’s only because it managed to stay near mint. You look this guy in the eye and see his hopes, his dreams. You see his ears, ready to hear the words, “I’ll give you $30 for everything.” It’s such an innocent face, completely unaware that its entire world is about to be turned upside down. You have to breach the subject gently, ease into it.

“Look, Marcus… Some rares are worth more than others. Those are the ones that have a lot of demand to tournament players, and are the reason that players buy booster packs. Unfortunately, I… I don’t see any of those particular rares in here. There are a lot of rares in Magic that… that aren’t worth more than a dime. Even a lot of commons and uncommons can be worth more than those rares, and we in the buying and selling business tend to call them ‘bulk rares.’ I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but… all of these rares are bulk rares. I know that you loved them, and, uh, tried to take care of them… but there’s nothing we can do here.”

See? Exactly like telling someone their parents are dead. It’s another reason I hate MTG finance, but someone’s gotta do it. I have to be the buyer and seller that my small college city wants, and the one it needs. Let’s be real here: my bottomless money pit is needed by all of those looking to unload their collections to me.

3. Having Any Competition At All

As one of the high-rolleriest high-rollers in the business, it absolutely shocks me that I don’t have swarms of Magic players knocking on my door to unload their stacks of gem-mint Beta power. I mean, how come this poor soul gets to find a decent-sized collection through his connections? I’m pretty sure I live within eight hours of that guy, and somehow he didn’t bring the collection straight to me. I post Craigslist ads in my local area, have henchmen that distribute business cards across the tri-state area, and even occasionally post to Facebook groups where I’m using my oodles of cash to purchase huge collections at below buylist prices. For some reason, my potential customers still end up occasionally visiting other competing stores or financiers, and giving their delicious profit cardboard to people that aren’t me.

This is another tweet that leaves me sick to my stomach. Bobby is a great guy and also located on the east coast like myself, and yet he’s displaying pictures of quality Magic: The Gathering cards that I do not personally own. He’s making my MTG finance monopoly much more difficult to establish by undercutting my personal profits through sweet deals and quality salesmanship. If he would just ship that entire collection to me for below buylist prices, it would make everything so much easier, and MTG finance would be a much less stressful job.

Now some of you are probably thinking: “But High Arbiter of MTG finance, how are you going to sell cards if you buy all of the collections and cards in your area? Won’t that drop tournament attendance, reduce the amount of Magic being played, and put stores out of business?” Well, young and budding financier in training, all of those will almost certainly happen. What you’re forgetting to take into account, though, is that I’ll be able to sell all of those Magic cards that I buy to my secret underground network of vendors across the world, and I’ll make a lot of money. I’m switching the structure of my bed to be composed of foil copies of Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy to keep up with the “poor person” fashion style, and living this lifestyle can be a struggle filled with sacrifices and trials. Or something like that. Hold on, let me get the door. Pete is here with my Jaces.

**4. Selling Magic: The Gathering Cards**

Sometimes, I think about having subordinates who will aid me in the massive undertaking that is shipping out my card orders everyday. I absolutely loathe doing it all myself, because it involves actually looking away from the Netflix screen for a few seconds to write down addresses on envelopes, print shipping labels, and other boring crap. I even have to pull the cards out of my solid gold trade binders myself, like some kind of blue-collar animal.

While I obviously mentioned that I already have henchman distributing my business cards, I unfortunately cannot trust them with the task of handling my vast fortune of cards. They work purely through the motivation of fear and intimidation, and have every reason to try and rob me of my hard-earned profits. I cannot let them near my empire, and must handle this dark burden of shipping and packaging alone.

On another note, can you believe how annoying some customers get? They feel that it’s okay to waste my time by making “small orders” like a stupid Modern Jund list, or a foiled out Standard deck. Like, why even waste my time if you’re not going to drop $20K on Alpha power? If you want that type of peasantry, just shop at TCGplayer or something. Ugh.

End Step

Yeah, the End Step is still here. I’m not some god damn monster who’s just going to complain for this entire article and then not impart any actionable knowledge into your grasping minds.

Here. Sell these Magic cards if you’ve got ’em. If you were in on them before the Pro Tour, give yourself a pat on the back, and then sell them.

You know where to reach me. I’ll return at the same time next week, with some absurdly useful MTG finance tips. You’re welcome.

Ginger Ale

Strength of Languish

July 17, 2015 Houston Whitehead 2 Comments

By: Houston Whitehead

Since the exit of Supreme Verdict, players who enjoy resetting the battlefield have struggled to find an ‘always good’ sweeper. Crux of Fate and End Hostilities were too late at five mana, unless you’re the only dragon owner in a control mirror. Drown in Sorrow and Anger of the Gods just never seemed to get everything in games two and three. Now, I feel Languish is filling the void at the CMC we expect from a sweeper. Sure, it’s not the Damnation reprint everyone and their mother speculate during every spoiler season for the past year, but this should be powerful enough to asset in shaping the future metagame.

The list of creatures it kills is long and probably not worth talking about. The list of creatures it can’t kill are far more important. This could give hints on speculation-worthy rares for new Standard.

Languish doesn’t Kill, but rotates: Most Theros gods (if active), Doomwake Giant, Polukranos, World Eater, Reaper of the Wilds, M15 Soul/”Titan” Cycle.

Languish doesn’t kill, and doesn’t rotate: All Dragondlords (except Ojutai), Erebos’s Titan, Gurmag Angler, Siege Rhino, Tasigur, Archangel of Tithes, Sagu Mauler, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Surrak Dragonclaw, Woodland Bellower, and Ashcloud Phoenix (4/1 mode).

Clearly not a lot of speculation prospects listed above. Some have multiple printings, don’t have enough power for consistent Standard play, or are already expensive.

Thoughts on a Languish Standard format

Elves and goblins have a lot of hype but both easily fall to a well-timed Languish.
Abzan Midrange or Control will improve with the addition of Languish alongside metagame removal.
Green-based devotion strategies will fall out or favor due to their dependency on early mana dorks.
White devotion receives Tier 1 potential with Heliod and Archangel of Tithes at the top end of the curve. Brimaz and Wingmate Roc advance the board without over committing. Banishing Light and Chained to the Rocks (if splashing red) remove problems while also increasing devotion.
Black devotion receives tier 1 potential. I made many of these validations in last weeks article , Financial Five: Magic Origins. Erebos’s Titan along with the other returnable creatures help recover devotion without losing card advantage.

Focus Cards

Abzan Midrange/Control

Elspeth, Suns Champion ($6) – Even though she has two printings and will be rotating in a few months, she’s still a powerhouse. Languish encourages players to play larger creatures. Elspeth wipes out those creatures.

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes ($10) – Potential value without being affected by Languish and also fits in decks that want to play Languish.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang ($8) – You should already be picking up this card anyway. Surviving Languish is just added to the list.

Mono-White Devotion

Soldier of the Pantheon ($0.50) – Potential evasion & Lifegain to avoid force-blocking

Knight of the White Orchid ($3) – Increasing or quickly recovering devotion while continuing to curve out.

Heliod, God of the Sun ($2) – Easier to turn on with Origins printing Knight and Angel.

Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit ($2) – Rewarding you for playing creatures and might even pull a few creatures out of Languish range.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos ($10) – One of the best creatures to cast on an empty board. Best post-Languish play.

Wingmate Roc ($2.75) – A powerful top end to take advantage of your Nykthos.

Mono-Black Devotion

Despoiler of Souls ($1) – Recurring devotion plus reasons from last weeks article.

Bloodsoaked Champion ($1.75) – Recovering devotion plus reasons from last weeks article.

Herald of Torment ($0.25) – Bestow allows sweepers insurance, evasion, devotion assistance.

Master of the Feast ($1.25) – Survives Languish, blocks most dragonlords, evasion.

Final Thoughts

Languish doesn’t guarantee a defined Standard meta, but it does serve as an arrow pointing us in the right direction. From past experience, the influence of removal has on shaping the meta. It hasn’t always guaranteed a profitable spec, but it does happen an above average amount of the time. Clearly, the largest Standard card pool is going to increase my chance of overlooking deck potential, but we can learn a lot from past Standards. Look at the influence of Hero’s Downfall over the past year. Look at Lightning Bolt or Abrupt Decay and their influence on shaping the eternal formats.

Also, with the thought of rotation haunting the back of your mind, that doesn’t mean it’s time to dump anything Theros. Understanding the potential movement of Standard can set up optimal opportunities to dump rotating staples at key moments before they actually crash at the Battle of Zendikar release.

As always thanks for reading

@TNSGingerAle

Ginger Ale

Financial Five: Magic Origins

July 11, 2015 Houston Whitehead 5 Comments

By: Houston Whitehead

I might say it in every Financial Five article, but they just keep getting better and better at pricing cards. Though I applaud them, I think I still found some potential gems in Magic Origins worth speculating on.

Graveblade Marauder (TCG Mid $1)

I understand at first glance his stats are underwhelming. What justified his inclusion in this weeks FF can be wrapped up with one word. Deathtouch! Almost any creature in the format would laugh at a 1/4, but deathtouch puts the fear in both Dragonlord Ojutai and Silumgar, the Drifting Death. Though his ability begs to be built around, it’s really not that hard in Standard to put creatures in the graveyard. He even works well with Fleshbag Marauder and Satyr Wayfinder. The only roadblock I can forsee in his future is Deathmist Raptor. The dino’s synergy with Den Protector would be the only leash holding back Standard play. If you couldn’t already tell, this is my favorite card in the set. He’s currently at $1 but is begging to gain value if Deathmist decreases in play.

Funny sidenote: Did you know Graveblade is a font? Here’s proof.

Herald of the Pantheon (TCG Mid $3)

We are familiar with constellation decks from Theros block. G/B constellation was a tier one deck for a while and I think this will at least encourage some great minds to test this cards potential with that theme.

Playable discounted creatures in Golgari: Boon Satyr, Courser of Kruphix, Herald of Torment, Master of the Feast, Nyx Weaver, Spiteful Returned

All of the gods, but more so, the following; Athreos, God of Passage, Pharika, God of Affliction, Erebos, God of the Dead, Nylea, God of the Hunt

Currently at $3, it’s already pulling a small amount of hype in its direction. Gaining life ‘enchantmentfall’ shoudn’t be overlooked. The obvious combination with Courser is sweet, but the 2/2 body is its clearest drawback. Assuming you’re starting with the old G/B shell, Eidolon of Blossoms is a four of, but more importantly, another playset of 2/2’s. Blocking profitably is not going to happen often so finding a way to win without taking dragons to your face is the first puzzle you have to solve. On the surface, it seems too slow for Heroic decks. Plus, Hero of Iroas lines up better with the decks goals. With the Pro Tour Origins kicking off on July 31^st, I’d say all it takes is a deck tech to double it’s price.

Priest of the Blood Rite (TCG Mid $1)

If Satyr Wayfinder isn’t enough fodder for you Sidisi, Undead Vizier or Fleshbag Marauder? I present to you, fodder and a Dragon-destroying Demon token (except Atarka, of course). Unless you’re playing FNM, Encase in Ice is the only ‘Pacifism’ effect in the current competitive Standard meta.

Since you’re already playing Wayfinder, what else goes well with self-mill strategies? Whip of Erebos! Whip takes away the drawback, adds lifelink to your 2/2, and leaves behind a 5/5 flying demon. Together, they block Whisperwood Elemental and it’s first manifest creature well. My only concern is the number of copies worth playing in a list. It clearly works best in the self-mill decks (Golgari or Sultai) but at a non-mythic rarity, it’s hard to expect a large jump even after heavy play. Current price is $1 so a $4-5 price could come true if a whip deck finishes well in the next 2 months.

Hallowed Moonlight (TCG Mid $3.5)

This was actually the hardest card for me to add to the list. When it was first spoiled, It seemed way to narrow for my tastes and would end up being a meta call sideboard choice. It’s grown on me the more and more I think about it’s potential. It’s easy to think about when cards are good but will it be good more times than the times it’s bad. The fact that it’s a cantrip takes most of the sting out, but did keeping two mana up on your opponents turn put you behind? Probably not.

So what are the good times? It prevents reanimation, tokens, manifest, blinking, unearth, and Splinter Twin combo. Modern and Legacy benefit the most but Standard could justify a few sideboard slots. I feel U/W/R modern decks benefit the most. With Preordain and Ponder banned, these decks rely on cantrips to keep their hands full. Most of these strategies also play most of there spells at the end of the opponents turn. Problem is, rarity and lack of main deck potential turns this card into a long term spec. Think of it to take a similar financial path as Shadow of Doubt. $3.50 is the current price but I’d say you can pick them up off standard players for less during the Prerelease and release weekends.

Despoiler of Souls (TCG Mid $1)

I can’t help but look at devotion potential when I see this little guy. Grey Merchant of Asphodel (Gary) is one of my favorite cards from Theros block. Bloodsoaked Champion and D-Souls will obviously have great aggressive potential for Mono-Black Aggro, but the ability to bring back creatures to keep devotion high could lead to some explosive turns.

On top of those, Erebos’s Titan might not come from graveyard to battlefield but with devotion high, recasting him should be easy. D-souls easily fits in two known archtypes, encourages you to play with a playset, and is currently prices at $1. This price baffles me just as much as Graveblade Marauder. Yet another card that can only go up from here.

Wrap Up

If you can’t tell, black is my Magic Origins sleeper color. If I though other cards in other color had more potential, my article would be a bit more colorful. Alas, black is receiving additions in a variety of strategies and deck styles. Cards that support these strategies could also see a rise but I wouldn’t underestimate what Liliana’s newly tainted necromancy will bring to the next two months of Standard.