If you are looking to make money through trading cards and fuel your habit then you are in the right place. Before we jump into values, theories and resources – let’s start at the beginning.My journey into magic is a bit awkward. Magic has always been somewhat of a conflict for me. With so many important things in life, the question always stirs beneath the surface, “Why does Magic deserve my time and energy?” I think deep down everyone wants to answer this question in some way. Being a man of principle (or at least thinking myself one) I would like to say that every moment of my life is spent bettering the world in some way – but I can’t say that for Magic. I have to accept that at the moment magic is purely for leisure and has no value outside of self-fulfillment. If I can't "better the world" with Magic, the least I can do is to keep magic from crushing my wallet; I get extra points if I can treat my wife to dinner or buy necessities with profits originating from my binder.
Three Packs A Day
I started playing magic with the release of Future Sight. Unlike many of you, my magic career only spans a short two years. Anyone who is familiar with my collection is surely asking, “How the heck did this guy amass so many cards in such a short period of time?” The answer is simple; I am an easily addicted over-achiever. When I do something, I focus 110% of my energy into it and push. The next question might be, "How will you amass so many cards, if you are not some freaky over achiever like me?" That answer is also simple; I will teach you what I've learned through my adventures, if you stay tuned.
Naturally I began my plight like everyone else; buying booster packs. It took three boosters packs a day curb my appetite. My wife was getting worried- I was spending hours weeding through card boxes for commons and uncommon and hundreds of dollars on booster packs. Thankfully at the time I was running a graphic design business in addition to working my day job, which helped pay for my habit. I knew I couldn’t go on spending so much money on Magic. I was sure that there was a better way but until I knew what it was, I continued in the same pattern.
Tired of Losing
My store didn’t have FNM. We played every Thursday night and two weeks out of the month were Legacy tournaments. I couldn’t win a game to save my life. These guys had all been playing a lot longer than I had, their decks were better and their collections dwarfed mine. I was sick of losing and I was ready to do something about it, but there was a slight problem – I had very little money to work with. I made an agreement with my wife, "I would only spend X dollars on Magic per week" , I don’t remember what the amount was but I remember it was small- maybe ten dollars per week. I liked being married (and still do) so I planned on keeping my promise. All I had was my binder, which should have been jam-packed after buying three packs a day for months –right? WRONG!
Taking Inventory
I was the new kid on the block, part of the initiation ceremony was that the good player got to pillage my binder and give me crap cards in return. The binder in it's current stat would not be much help, but I did have decks. I had two decks for Standard, on for Extended, and one for Legacy (kinda). I knew that these decks would be my trade fodder to get what I wanted, but first I needed to find out what I wanted.
Threshold or Bust
The goal was to win in Legacy. I searched the internet for the "best" Legacy deck. I found a list for Threshold and printed it out. I went through my binder looking for card that went in the Threshold deck and put those cards aside; I think I had one Tarmogoyf and a couple of Brainstorms. I searched the common boxes to find Werebear, Portent and other miscellaneous cards. The deck was filling out but I needed some of the big ticket items. It was time to put my decks to work.
Force of Will - Let’s Get Serious
Luckily one of my friends had two Force of Wills for trade. I traded him my whole Relentless Rats deck (complete with 22 Rats and 4 Thrumming Stone) for both Force of Wills. I would do that trade in a heartbeat now, but then it was tough, stores were selling rats for 2-3 dollars and it was my pet deck. This trade brings up an important point. You need to check your emotional attachment at the door. Being emotionally attached causes you to overvalue your cards and makes trading difficult, which stifles your ability to meet your goal and limits your opportunities for a "good" trade.
Once the rat deck was gone I broke down all my decks and put all the rares and good uncommons in my binder. I built mono-red burn for all formats, twenty mountains and forty common and uncommons. I ran this deck because it was cheap and it didn’t take from my “inventory”.
This is My Binder, There Are Many Like it but This One is Mine
As I won tournaments (yeah -mono red can “get there”), I opened my winnings (booster packs) and stuck the relevant cards in my binder. I started checking prices for the cards in my binder and the cards that I wanted. Trading became a must at every tournament; I traded with everyone I could. My focus remained steadfast, I was looking for Threshold cards or cards that I could trade for Threshold cards. I familiarized myself with the “Hot” cards at the time and traded for those as I could, I knew that these would be fodder for some of the bigger items. My binder started to look pretty good.
[Story Break] Next time we will talk about my visit to a new store and my acquisition of Force of Will number three. Before I get out of here, let’s flesh out the first three steps to going infinite and make them relevant to you as the aspiring master-trader-card-dealer-extraordinaire.
Make a Goal
When I started playing magic I wanted to play every deck. I would keep cards in-case I ever wanted to build “X" Deck. This is where making a goal helps. It will force you to purge the “unnecessary cards” and give you something to work with. A goal should be specific. Being specific helps you examine important things about yourself that will help you in the future. Without expanding on each topic now, here are some questions you should ask yourself.
What is my style of play?
Why do I play Magic?
Which formats do I enjoy most?
What is my Psychographic Profile? (See Here and Here)
We will expand on these questions and why they are important later. Let’s talk about purging.
Purge
This is a hard one for some people, but it has to be done. Remember my Rats deck? If you don't, then there is something wrong with your brain- you just read about it three paragraphs ago. Search your entire card collection and take every rare and HOT common/ uncommon that you are not playing in a deck and put them in a binder. This is your equity, your product and your path to going infinite.
Don't fret, this is also only temporary. After the money starts coming in, you can afford to stash a playset of hot cards for yourself. There will be room for that later but to start you'll need all the resources that you can get.
Build
We will talk alot about building in this “column” (or whatever you want to call it). For now the key point is this, know the price of your cards. Check the prices on Find Magic Cards and on Star City Games. Make trading a necessary part of your tournament experience. This will give you opportunities to build. I can write pages on this section, and eventually I will- but for now I will leave you with one nugget to think about. Know your card prices well, but when trading let the other guy value your cards.
Thanks for reading.
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