A Dedication to EBay Sellers

I am frustrated as I am writing this, and I want to get some things of my chest.

It does not take a genius to sell cards on EBay.  You simply follow the listing instructions.  You can choose to either put them in “Buy-it-Now” fixed sales or put the cards up for auction.  Accurate pictures, honest descriptions, and fair prices are all you need to have your cards to sell.

The pictures are very easy.  You can scan the card using a flat bed scanner, you can take a picture with your phone, or you can just grab images of cards from online and use them to post.  Really, there is no excuse for selling Magic cards without pictures.

Make sure to describe you listing accurately and with all necessary detail.  NM/EX+ should be a perfect card.  If you use the SP/HP/LP descriptors in the title, you need to embellish on why you give that particular card that rating in the body of the listing.  People grade things differently, but if you describe the damage or wear on a card, they won’t be caught off-guard.

The biggest mistake I see sellers make is setting unreasonable prices.  I am honestly not sure where some sellers come up with their prices.  You should never be able to buy cards cheaper from an online store than from EBay.  When I sold cards on EBay I would check 3 places.  I would check Star City Games, TCGPlayer, and completed auctions.  Completed auctions are the best indicator of what price you need to be at in order to sell.  If you see that a card isn’t selling at one price, list it at a lower price.  This is not brain surgery.

I haven’t bought anything from EBay in weeks.  After watching EBay for about a month, I finally conceded to buying several cards from online stores that were selling at 20-50% lower prices than on EBay.  I have listed the prices next to the card below.  If you want to sell these cards on EBay your price plus shipping should be at or below these values.  The cards I got were;

• Beacon of Tomorrows (Foil) 3.50
• Tolaria West (Foil) 5.00
• Hall of the Bandit Lord (Foil) 2.00
• Rings of Brighthearth (Foil)  3.00
• Planar Portal (Foil) 7.00

On a more positive note, one guy, who plays at Droms, was able to find a foil Mycosynth lattice.  I was more than happy to grab the lattice for trade.  Most likely I lost in this trade, but I haven’t seen a lattice for trade or for sale online at a reasonable price.  There are only 13 cards left to grab for the deck.  These 13 have no substitutes; I am playing with non-pimped versions of each of them at the moment.  That is all for now.

Thanks for reading!

Foreign Card Values

This last week, I bought a Japanese booster box of M11.  I paid about 50% more for the box than I would have for an English box of M11.  Opening the boosters created a commotion in the local card shop.  People crowded around the table, waiting to see what was opened and barraging me with questions about what each card was worth.  No one questioned the numbers I threw out.  This is because most Magic players have absolutely no idea how to value foreign cards beyond the idea that they cost more than English cards. There is no definite formula for how to value foreign cards.  However, you can maximize the value of your trades by following some guidelines.

                Not all foreign languages are treated the same.  In general, people in the United States want foreign cards in the following order;

1.       Korean

2.       Japanese – Russian

3.       Chinese

4.       German

5.       Italian

6.       French – Portuguese

7.       Spanish

The general rule behind foreign card values is that the language that has the fewest cards printed and looks the most different from the local language will be worth the most.  The United States are big enough that you can see card values change from state to state.  On the coasts, you can find Chinese cards for nearly identical values to English cards.  As you get closer to the middle of America, you see the desire for Chinese cards rise, as fewer people can tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese.  You can see the opposite happen for Russian.  More people on the coasts are interested in Russian cards compared to Middle America.  Russian looks similar to English, but a very low percentage of people can read Russian, even phonetically.

                The set a card is in also has a significant effect on the value of a foreign card.  There are four guidelines to deal this phenomenon;

1.       If a set just came out, people don’t want to learn what the cards do before picking up foreign versions.

2.       If the card is standard legal it is worth more

3.       The older the card, the more valuable

4.       Almost everyone hates white boarders

Pick up foreign cards at prerelease and release events if at all possible.  It takes about 2 weeks to a month for the majority of people to memorize the set to the point they don’t need to read the cards every time they play.  During this time, even people who normally seek out foreign cards are not looking for them.  Since the demand for the cards are down, the prices stay low.  You can pick up Japanese cards for equal or less than the same English cards. 

When cards are legal to be played in standard, they are worth more than when they rotate out.  Zendikar block and M11 Japanese cards are around the same price as foils from the same sets.  Japanese foils from these sets can be 10x or more the cost of an English non-foil.  Aside from standard, the newer the set the cheaper the foreign card is.  Extended season doesn’t last long enough for foreign cards to be effected significantly.  Exceptions to this are both legends and portal.  These blocks were overprinted in Europe.  If you see a European language legends or portal card, it is likely less expensive than an English version.

 I am not going to say much about white border cards.  Most people who collect foreign cards care about how their cards look. White borders look awful, so there are very few collectors who will touch a white bordered card regardless of what is inside those borders.

You should be aware that certain cards can be highly disproportionate to the English version.  Normally these cards are vintage staples.  Here are some cards that may surprise you;

·         Goblin Matron (150x)

o   English - $1-$3

o   Foil - $100

o   Japanese foil  - $150+

·         Myr Battlesphere (60x)

o   English - $.50 (Throw in)

o   Japanese - $.75

o   Foil - $2

o   Japanese Foil - $30+

·         Brainstorm (70x)

o   English - $1

o   Japanese - $8

o   Korean - $26

o   Foil - $29

o   Foil Japanese - $70+

·         Thirst for Knowledge (40x)

o   English - $.5

o   Japanese - $4

o   Foil - $5

o   Japanese Foil - $20

This week I picked up an Arcum Dagsson foil in a trade with a friend.  He got a Goblin Guide and a throw in that was probably valued at $1-2.  He gained value from the trade, but I did not have to pay cash, so I am perfectly happy with doing this.  I easily recovered this value at the GPT I went to last weekend in both prize support (split at top 4) and trades. I should be getting a new digital camera in this next week.  Check my Facebook page for pictures of the deck.  That is all for now.

Thanks for reading!

Altered Cards

The past few weeks have been slow for collecting.  If you are a friend of mine on facebook, check my status in about 2 weeks to see why. 

I was able to find an important card for my deck, Maze of Ith.  Maze of Ith is essential in a mono-blue deck, because of the lack of removal.  Many games I have lost, 1 v 1, because an aggressive general was able to swing through for lethal before I could combo off (my girlfriends Isamaru deck is especially good at taking down my deck in a dual).  The great thing about the Maze is that I got it for very cheap, less than $20.  The problem is that the Maze was heavily played, and heavily worn.

This left me with 2 options; I could hold onto the card until I found a better version, or I could get the card altered.  The first option would take less effort, but it would cost a significant amount of money.  Foil promo Mazes cost approximately $45.  They are nearly impossible to trade for.  Chances are I would have to let go of cash to get my hands on one.  Getting the card altered would be less expensive and the card would be unique.  The problem is, it is much more difficult to get an altered card.

There are four basic ways to get altered cards; buy, trade, commission, or alter the card yourself.  Buying an altered card is the most common way people get their altered cards.  There are plenty of specialized websites that will sell you lightly modified to heavily modified cards.  You can always try to trade for altered cards, but I do not recommend it.  The only people who are willing to trade away altered cards are the artist who altered them and people who want to gain massive value from the trade.  You can commission someone to alter the card.  I have never looked into this, but I have known people to pay the cards value or more to get a card altered.  The best person you can get to draw or modify you card is the original artist.  After all, they are the only person who can truly modify a card without offending the original card’s artist.  The most difficult option is to modify the card yourself.

I was planning on concealing who I got to modify my Maze of Ith.  The truth of is, I modified the card myself.  I already own an extensive set of acrylic paints from my history as both a miniature war-gamer and a commission miniature painter.  I have won several small competitions for painting miniatures, so I pride myself a bit on my skills.  So, I decided to tackle the modification myself.

I have done a few modifications before, which I have never shown anyone.  I have been practicing on junk commons and basic lands.  I practiced everything from making a card full art to slight color modifications.  After a few trial and error tests on some revoke existence cards, I decided what I wanted for the Maze. I decided on color shifting the card, and blacking out the background.  The color shift would make the picture make the picture pop out.  The blackout would serve to both hide the wear and tear on the card and would really let the alterations on the picture stand out.

If you are wondering how to modify cards, there are just a few suggestions that I can give.  It comes down to just being patient and layering paint.  The only thing difficult about modifying cards is the finish on the card.  The gloss forces you to put several coats of paint on to get the coverage you want.  I found that I spent more time waiting for my paint to completely dry than the time I actually spent painting.  You can avoid this by using prisma color paint pens, but I prefer to use brushes for blending colors.  You can also get around the gloss by drawing on the cards with a colored sharpie, then painting over the sharpie.

I will put up pictures of the Maze of Ith as well as pictures of the deck, as it stands thus far.

Thanks for reading!

Happy New Year!

The past few weeks have been relatively uneventful for the Arcum deck.  I have been busy at work and the holidays filled up most of my schedule.  I was only able to pick up 8 more cards for the deck.  I picked up all 8 cards from stores I had previously checked, and players I had already traded with.  I find that it is important to maintain relationships with players and stores.

When dealing with a store, maintaining a good relationship is simple.  If you spend money at a store on a regular basis, they will keep you in mind when they are buying stock.  An example of this can be seen beyond Magic the Gathering.  My favorite mixed drink is a Rusty Nail.  Unfortunately for me, most bars do not carry Drambui.  I ask for a Rusty Nail whenever I am at a new bar.  This last New Years Eve, my girl friend and I went to our usual club to celebrate.  Our favorite bartender greeted me with a, “Hey, we bought a bottle of Drambui.”  A combination of asking for something unusual, being a frequent customer, and tipping well paid off.  I rang in the New Year with a liver full of Rusty Nails, which was much better than it sounds.   Card shops will do the same thing.  They are more than happy to let me know when they have received cards that they know I will be interested in, as long as I buy product and don’t just freeload in their gaming space.  In the past few weeks I bought the following cards from my local shops;

• 2x Merfolk Looter (Korean)
• Hypnotic Specter (Korean)
• Gather Specimens (Foil) <- Going in the Deck
• Thousand Year Elixir (Japanese) <- Going in the Deck
• Thran Dynamo (Japanese) <- Going in the Deck
• Maze of Ith

Keeping up trade relationships with players is a little more difficult.  You have to do 2 things to have players want to trade with you; trade with them and play with them.  I keep several EDH decks, a standard deck, several extended decks, a legacy deck, and a peasant deck.  I bring all these decks with me, so that I can play with whoever shows up.  Players are much more likely to trade with you when you play with them.  It is important to make sure the people you are playing with are having fun.  When you repeatedly crush someone, they want nothing to do with you.  I am not saying to lose on purpose, just play casually with casual players.  I also trade with everyone who wants to trade.  It’s not really important that I get something I want.  It is more important that they get what they are looking for.  I would rather give up a few dollars in value every week than have no players who will trade with me.  In addition, I want my trade binder to be constantly changing.  No one wants to look at the same cards in a binder week after week.  The more rotation you have, the more likely people will be to look through your trades.  These past few weeks, I found the following cards in trade binders;

·         Karn, Silver Golem (From the Vault Relics)

·         Fact or Fiction (FNM Promo)

·         Hinder (Foil)

·         Tezzeret (Dual Deck Foil)

·         Basalt Monolith (Unlimited NM)

I have said nearly everything I could about EBay.  I still look every few days to see if there are any great deals.  Recently, I found a Korean Disk for the deck.

That is all for now.  I will start updating this more often now that the holiday season is over.

68 cards down, 32 to go. 

Thanks for reading,

Sean

P.S.

 I had thought no one was reading these blog entries, until I listened to the Scrubland Podcast today.  If you play Magic, and you haven’t listened to this podcast, you should start listening immediately.  Scrubland gives a fresh perspective on competitive Magic while being incredibly entertaining.  I have received deck advice from the hosts that has been responsible for me winning, and placing at several small events.  Their draft advice has also been excellent.  Go give it a listen.