Trades 22-24

I've been on a roll with the trades lately. There have been plenty of online trades and even a couple in-person trades. I'm getting a lot more comfortable approaching people for trades. I rarely come out ahead by any stretch of the imagination so most of my trading has been speculative in both future pricing as well as looking for cards that are in a higher demand.

The first two trades that I made were done during Tuesday Night Cube Draft at 401 Games. One of the employees there, Miguel, has been following my journey and like to help out by throwing me some value in the trades that we make. He's awesome like that. I also think that he feels sorry for me when he sees my binder, some people might consider what I'm doing to be the Magic equivalent of panhandling.

The first trade I actually made though, was with a group of kids playing Magic without sleeves. I asked if any of them had traders and they all looked at me like I was from a different planet. Some people just don't talk the talk. One guy literally handed me his sideboard and said, "Uhmm, sure, I can trade stuff out of my side-deck if you want." The cards were in BRUTAL condition. I found a Ravnica foiled Mountain that I was interested in...it was in pretty good condition compared to the rest of his cards and he was willing to let it go.

He thumbed through my binder and ended up picking "Innocent Blood" for his "Savra, Queen of the Golgari" deck. I said that I valued the Innocent Blood at a little higher than the Mountain and that's when he said that he had "one other Shiny card"! He busted out a little box from his bag with more cards in terrible condition. His other shiny card was Darksteel Ingot from Darksteel. I was interested.

Trade #22:

My Wirewood Herald (it searches for Savra) and Innocent Blood. ($1.50)

for his:

Foiled Mountain and Beat-up Foiled Darksteel Ingot ($3.00)

Total: +$1.50

The night progressed and eventually Miguel showed up and told me that he was building a pauper cube. He insisted on checking my binder because there was nobody as pauper as me. He found a whole bunch of shit, unfortunately all of the cards he found were common.

He let me trade-up.

Trade #23:

My Foiled Wing Shards (Scourge), Kird Ape, Dauthi Slayer, Dauthi Horror, Arc Lightning, Memory Lapse (Mirage), Icatian Javelineers, Fireslinger, Man-O-War, Bonesplitter, Unearth, Innocent Blood. ($6.80)

for his:

Zendikar Plains and Solemn Simulacrum. ($8.75)

Total = +$1.95

He was nice. He knew he was losing value and letting me trade-up, but he did it anyway. Sometimes the generosity of Magic players will surprise you. :D

The last trade I made was through Youtube. This was a kid that I've traded with before. He put me on his "Magic People I look up to" list on his youtube channel. If that doesn't make you feel good then I don't know what would.

Trade #24:

My Garruk Wildspeaker ($5.00)

for his:

Glacial Fortress, Nephalia Drownyard and Foiled Civilized Scholar. ($6.00)

Total = +$1.00

I figured that by making this trade I'd be getting a free foiled Civilized Scholar. That has to have some value if Necrotic Ooze becomes a thing.

Anyway, I hope to post more trades after the prerelease this weekend. I hope to trade for all the goods, yo!