Trade 7 - Trade before Tuesday Night Cube Draft!!! :D

This one dude, Kyle, started playing cube drafts with us on Tuesdays. He usually doesn't have any traders with him and when I ask him about trading he is usually only interested in very specific Legacy playables that aren't in my binder.

However, this week he said he's making a binder of creatures that he likes. I guess it's kind of like a "Hall of Fame" for his personal favourite creatures. I could dig that, it sounds like something I would do. He showed me the binder and I told him that I was interested in a bunch of cards. He has good taste in creatures. There was also a Sol Ring in the binder...Sol Ring isn't a creature...I guess that's why he was so eager to trade it.

I traded: Cabal Interrogator, Necrotic Ooze, Arcanis, the Omnipotent (REALLY DAMAGED) = $5.23

and I received:

Sol Ring ($5.99)

Total = +$0.76

According to Starcity prices, I didn't even come out ahead by a dollar. I disagree. Even though Sol Ring is a $6.00 card by SCG prices, it's still valued as a $10.00 card by most people. Even at my LGS they sell it for more than $6.00. I can definitely get more than book value for it...I hope.

I just told another friend about the "Donations to Something" challenge that I'm working on and he has a box of random commons/uncommons that he's going to let me go to town on. We'll see if I can find any old boarded mana leaks or maybe even some Top's or something.

STAY TUNED!!!!

Trade 6

This is a trade I made with Andy (the guy from craigslist that gave me all the free Unglued & Foreign cards). He's a really great guy and we made a lot of trades outside of the "Donations to Something" binder, but I did let him know that the trades we made from my personal stuff would have to be separate from the trades I made with the janky binder.

I actually told him that I share the "Donations to Something" binder with other people and that's why it needs to be separate. It's just a lot easier than explaining what I'm trying to do with the binder.

Anyway, here is the trade we made:

I gave up a Birds of Paradise, Cabal Ritual and an Innocent Blood ($5.97),

and I received:

Slagstorm, Dragonskull Summit ($6.49)

Total = +$0.52

WOO HOO!!! Yeah, the deal was pretty even, but that's good too. Anytime I don't get ripped off - I'm happy.

Trade 5 - Craigslist Trade

I posted all the cards in my binder on Craigslist and I got one person asking about trades.

The dude wanted the most expensive card in my binder, "Solemn Simulacrum". I tried to get a deal off of him, but he said he was just going by Starcity prices, so I made a trade that's exactly even.

I traded my Solemn Simulacrum ($9.99)

and I received -

Kessig Wolf Run, Mayor of Avabruck, Ob Nixilis and Aegis Angel ($9.96)

... I guess I lost 3 cents. lol.

I think that I am comfortable moving the Wolf Run and Mayor at about $5 each. There is no way I would ever get more than 10 for a Solemn, everyone knows its price.

Also, I don't have a Solemn now, so people are going to need to be more creative when looking through my binder, which is just the kind of creativity that I want to inspire.

Donation from random dude on Craigslist

So I met this random guy from Craigslist who wanted to give away some foreign cards/unglued cards. I was hoping for Unglued lands, but I didn't get lucky.

Oh well, these cards were still free:

NOTE: Most prices are the ones listed for the English cards, unless Starcitygames actually had the price of the Japanese card available.

JAPANESE:

Ancient Amphitheater x2 $1.50
Orzhov Pontiff x2 $0.98
Goblin Trenches x3 $1.95
Doomgape $1.99
Wydwen, the Biting Gale $0.49
Mass Calcify $0.99
Yukora, the Prisoner $0.49
Cabal Patriarch $0.49
Nostalgic Dreams $0.49
Quirion Dryad $0.99
Negate $0.25
Thicket Elemental $0.49
Aladdin's Ring $0.49

RUSSIAN:

Root Maze $0.99

Other noteworthy cards that I'm not going to bother pricing:

BB Italian Craw Wurm
BB Italian Ironclaw Orcs (beat up)
French White Knight
French Llawnowar Elves

42 Unglued Cards - No Rares, No Lands.

Total = +$12.58 (plus whatever the other garbage is worth. I'll trade it for whatever I can get.)

I'd rather have my bulk rares in different languages because people are more likely to be interested in foreign bulk than regular bulk. We'll see if I can move this stuff in the coming weeks.

Trade 4

I needed 3 of the cards that I traded for, for my cube...I can't carry around a bunch of binders all the time so I'll just have to trade with myself if I end up in a situation like this.

I'll try and make the trade from the point-of-view of the cube-owner and someone else has these cards that I need for my cube. Then I'll ask myself, "What would I be willing to give up for these cube cards?"

So I traded Mikaeus, the Lunarch, Kessig, Wolf Run and Dryad Arbor ($14.97)

and I received Solemn Simulacrum, Birds of Paradise (M11), Bloodlord of Vaasgoth, Chancellor of the Spires, Argent Sphinx, Pentavus and Sorin's Vengeance. ($17.43)

Total = +$2.46

I hope that I won't have to do this often, but I'm also not going to be silly and not put cards in my possession into the cube if it will enhance cube gameplay.

NEW CARDS - TRADES 1-3

I finally made some trades, yo!

1) I traded Price of Progress, Pyrostatic Pillar and Sensei's Divining Top ($13.97)

and I received:

Champion of the Parish (Chinese), Balefire Dragon (Chinese) and Mikaeus, the Lunarch ($13.97)

wow, this deal was dead even. However, I checked the value of the two Chinese cards in English. I'm sure they're worth more because of the foreign text. I did give up the most expensive card so I probably got ripped off the most. During the trade I was valuing the Pillar at .49, but they were .99 ... I think that they are probably pretty difficult to get rid of. I don't know how I feel about this trade, we'll see if it pays off in the upcoming weeks. 

2) I traded Sakura-Tribe Elder x 3, Circle of Protection: Red (8th FOIL), Temple of the False God and Savra, Queen of the Golgari ($6.20)

and I received: 

Kessig Wolf Run ($3.99)

-$2.21

Wow, I got taken to school on this trade. However, the only thing I might miss in the trade is the Sakura-Tribe Elders. Kessig Wolf Run just won worlds so I think I'll be able to trade it for something pretty decent. The problem with the card is that people only run 1-2 in a deck. I really didn't expect it to be so cheap, just after its worlds win. Live and learn, I guess.

3) I traded Razorverge Thicket, Champions of Kamigawa Foiled Island ($8.97)

and I received: 

Inferno Titan, Dryad Arbor, Arcanis, the Omnipotent (10th) ($11.97) 

We valued the Razorverge Thicket at $9.99 and that's how much I actually thought it was. My mistake. He got the most expensive card in the trade though so that's gotta be worth something. 

+$3.00

Overall, after these three trades I am +$0.79, but I gave up two of my most expensive cards. *CRUSHED*

Tomorrow I'm meeting some guy off craigslist who is going to give me some free cards because he doesn't want to bother selling them. Even if its just commons/uncommons it'll be fun to see what I can shove into this binder...and who knows, there might be another divining top in there too!!! 

Pictures of "The Cause"

So these are some hott pictures of my snazzy binder. XXX.

There's one page missing. It would only load up sideways, so fuck that page.

If you see something you like make sure to let me know and we will absolutely be able to work something out.

Donations to Something - More Donations!

My good friend Iby decided he'd be the first to donate to the "Cause". He gave me 20 more cards for my sad-ass binder earlier today. Let's see the haul:

Razorverge Thicket $7.99
Avatar of Woe $4.99
Memorcide $0.99
Birthing Pod $5.99
Stormgeist $0.49
Blazing Archon $3.99
Treva - IN JAPANESE! $3.49
Kuro, Pitlord (Foil) $2.99
Silvergill Adept $1.99
Necrotic Ooze $0.99
Temple Bell (Foil) $1.99
Death Wish $0.49
Ezuri, Renegade Leader $1.49
Savra, Queen of the Golgari $0.99
Skycloud Expanse (Foil) $5.99
Ethersworn Canonist $4.99
Veteran Bodyguard $2.99
Rakdos Augermage $0.49
Teneb, the Harvester $0.99
Phyrexian Hydra $0.49

Also, I forgot to mention these four, super-noteworthy cards that were already hiding in the binder:

Junkyo Bell $0.49
Edgewalker (Foil) $0.99
Player Rewards Tokens - Goblin $1.99
Player Rewards Tokens - Pentavite $1.49

Donations to Something

I'm a little late to the whole "Pack to Power" phenomenon that has happened over the last two years. Back in my day we used to just trade what we had for what we wanted without this whole internet jibba-jabba getting in the way. Now that everyone has access to prices from starcitygames.com trading has become a chore, people just trade cards based on the exact costs of the moment or they don't trade at all. There has been a serious shortage of people who trade for fun, but I wanna bring that back.

I asked a lot of my friends who have quit playing Magic to donate whatever they want to a binder that can only be described as a "Cause". I'm going to take all the cards donated and begin to trade for fun. I'm going to attempt to trade for value, but to be quite honest - if someone has a stupid card that nobody uses, but its in Japanese and someone painted a cock on it, there's a good chance I'm going to overvalue it. I'm terrible at trades. The idea is that I can't possibly harm my collection because this binder is going to be mostly garbage anyway. I am hoping that I can eventually turn this binder into something awesome, but I doubt I'll hit power. I'd probably settle for a playset of beta Forests.

Here's what I'm starting with...

$10.00 +

Sensei's Divining Top $11.99

$5.00 - $9.99

Sacred Ground (7th Edition Foil) $5.99
Undead Warchief (Scourge Foil) $5.99

$1.00 - $4.99

Ensnaring Bridge $4.99

Second Sunrise x 4 $3.99 ea

Time of Need (Foil) $2.99
Dragonspeaker Shaman $2.99

Furnace of Rath (8th Edition Foil) $2.49
Withered Wretch (Legions Foil) $2.49

Kitsune Mystic (Foil) $1.99
Wing Shards (Scourge Foil) $1.99
Lumengrid Augur (Foil) $1.99

Tendrils of Agony $1.99
Persecute (US) $1.99
Cabal Ritual $1.99


Circle of Protection: Red (8th Edition Foil) $1.49
Druid's Call $1.49

$0.00 - $0.99

Takeno, Samurai General x2 $0.99 ea.
Krosan Warchief x 4 $0.99 ea.
Innocent Blood x 4 $0.99
Wirewood hivemaster x 2 $0.99 ea.
Flashfreeze (Coldsnap) $0.99

Price of Glory x4 $0.99 ea
Pyrostatic Pillar x3 $0.99 ea

Sakura-Tribe Elder x 3 $0.99
Darksteel Pendant (Foil) $0.99



Cabal Interrogator $0.75
Withered Wretch $0.75
Temple of the False God $0.75
Chain of Plasma (Onslaught Foil) x2 $0.75 ea.
Reckless One x 3 $0.75 ea.

Orochi Hatchery $0.75

Kitsune Mystic x 2  $0.49 ea.

White Knight x 4 $0.49 ea
Whipcorder $0.49
Rashida Scalebane $0.49

Leonin Elder (Foil) $0.49
Arcbound Stinger (Foil) $0.49
Ashen-Skin Zubera (Foil) $0.49

Exoskeletal Armor $0.49

Centaur Glade x4 $0.49 ea
Stag Beetle $0.49
Warbreak Trumpeter x3 $0.49 ea

Yavimaya Enchantress (8th Edition) x2 $0.49 ea
Granite Shard (Foil) $0.49
Dragon Blood (Foil) $0.49
Doubtless One $0.49



Akroma's Devoted $0.35

Vengeance (Portal Second Age) - AWESOME ART $0.25
Grab the Reins x 2 $0.25
Catapult Squad $0.25
Wirewood herald  $0.25
Scrabbling Claws x2 $0.25 ea
Arcane Spyglass (Foil) $0.25
Memory Lapse (Mirage) $0.25

???

6 Portal 3 Kingdoms Commons in Chinese $ ?

Rampant Growth (Russian 8th Edition) $ ?
Llawnowar Elves (Russian 8th Edition) $ ?
Fellwar Stone (Russian 8th Edition) $ ?




So that's what I'm starting with and it is not pretty. I have that Sensei's Divining Top, but I think it almost ruins the binder. People are only going to want to trade for the Top or nothing. I won't know for sure until I start trading more frequently.

I tried trading this stuff with a couple people at my LGS, but the people were just not having it. I needed some more donations to get something going so I went over to a friend's place and he let me take any 20 cards that he didn't need. I'll show you what I got in my next post.


- Milo