I just (“just” meaning two weeks ago when I started writing this) picked up my fourth Foil Jace the Mind Sculptor from the post office. Some people (Especially Joey from Yo MTG Taps) are curious about how I get my hands on the hottest mythics in Foil.
To be honest, I am not sure how to write this article. My trades have a lot to do with the reputation that I have crafted through countless hours of trading, selling and “talking shop”. Building a reputation is an important aspect of going-infi* and gaining access to sweet trades. I won’t go into detail on the topic of building a rep, but it’s worth noting how “being accessible” makes trading for big dollar cards easier.
Reputation is only half the battle. Once you get the opportunity to trade, you need to have the stock to make it happen. I knew that my best chance for getting foils was to have non-foils to trade back. Here is what I traded for my non-foil Jace the Mind Sculptors on pre-release weekend.
First Jace – I traded and Elspeth Knight Errant for a Jace the Mind Sculptor and something that I don’t remember at the moment.
Second Jace – I traded three fetchlands, one Lotus Cobra and a Nissa Revane.
Third Jace – I packed it. That was easy.
Fourth Jace – I traded 2 Rafiq of the Many, 4 Rhox War Monk, 3 Finest Hour, and one Jenara, Asura of War.
At this point I was happy to have a set of Jace TMS before the set officially dropped. I knew that eventually I wanted to get four foils but I didn’t expect to get them all in the same week.
It’s Looks Glorious!
I was sitting on my couch enjoying a bowl of frosted Mini-Wheats when I got a text message. Here’s what it read “Guess who packed a foil Jace..” It was my buddy from CT (Hi Ben!). The pit-bull came out and immediately I fired back, “Trade it to me for a Regular and some stuff”. Ben joked with me, “Yeah, you know you want it :-p It looks glorious!” Lets, fast-forward, (past the begging), we finally decided on this.
My:
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Day of Judgment
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Esper Charm
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
His:
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor (Foil)
Thanks Wienburg!
One Jace down three to go. Then my phone buzzed; another text message- this time it was my buddy Ben Wienburg (Hi Ben!) – Are you noticing a pattern here? I was on the fence about venturing out to a game store in Cincinnati, I had a long week and I was looking forward to chilling out at home with my TV and a bowl of frosted mini-wheats. That’s when Ben pulled out the big guns, “There’s a kid here with a Foil Jace. He wants to trade it.” Freakin’ Ben knows which buttons to push; my mini-wheats would have to wait until I got back. I hopped into the Batmobile and jammed down 71 to “The Game Place”. I met the guy at the counter and we made the trade.
On a side note it was a great store for trading. I set up shop at an “off-to-the-side” table and traded for the next three hours. Here is what I gave for my second foil Jace.
My:
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Celestial Colonnade
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Basilisk Collar
His:
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor (Foil)
Don’s Magical Sundry of Love (and Magic Cards)
Don is a fellow twitterite (@thesundry) and the owner of Don’s Magic Sundry. I have shopped at his online store because he does not limit the quantity of cards that you can buy. This is great for a price hounds like myself who like to buy the next hot card, before it’s hot. Don posted a message on twitter about opening a Jace and I responded.
After some direct messages we started to talk numbers. Don enlisted me to help him with his digital card collection (pretty cool concept) and I enlisted his help in my hunt for the hottest playset in standard. Here is what we came up with.
My:
Quicken
Polymorph 9th
Exalted Angel
Angel of Despair
Uril, the Miststalker
Dark Depths
Windreaver
Cabal Therapy
Jareth, Leonine Titan
Reflecting Pool (Tempest)
Future Sight
Rubling Slum
Orzhov Pontiff
Research // Development
Ghost Council of Orzhova
Life from the Loam
Akroma Angel of Wrath
Destructive Flow
Watery Grave
Ant Queen Foil (Foil Promo)
Joraga Warcaller (Foil Promo)
His:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor (Foil)
Basilisk Collar (Foil)
2x Stoneforger Mystic (Foil)
The last one is always the hardest
I knew that my buddy Alex had a foil Jace TMS. He opens an obscene amount of cases for each set. I can count on him to have great stock for any new set. I highly recommend his list for low priced foil, rares and boxes.
As you can imagine- there’s not much that I have that Alex needs, but there is one thing that always talks and that’s money. Before I show the last trade I want to talk about money.
Let’s face it, not everyone has money for these kinds of cards. I would be full of crap as a Magic financier if I simply took out my debit card and bought a foil Jace TMS. What hope does a broke college student have if I (with my connections and my trade stock) have to resort to spending my hard earned cash?! The solution is simple, spend other people’s hard earned cash; sell some cards. I sold a handful of cards on MOTL (below MOTL pricing) to fill up my paypal account and then I made this offer.
My:
2 Marsh Flats
Arid Mesa
Scalding Tarn
Natural Order
Sinkhole
+ $60 Paypal
His:
1 Jace, The Mind Sculptor (Foil)
2 Basilisk Collar(Foil)
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant (Foil)
Alex graciously accepted and my fourth foil Jace TMS was secured. Did you notice that I scored a foil Elspeth? This was to replace the one that I traded for my first Jace. This brings up an important point; I traded the Elspeth out of my collection (not my trade stock). Sometimes this is necessary, you need to look at the numbers and not get emotional about a card, if the numbers make sense then go for it.
I hope this has been an interesting look inside the world of trading for foil Mythics. If you have any questions feel free to hit me up! Thanks for reading.
*Infi= When your magic habit is self sustaining or the measure of my skills.
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