I agree with Misclick, it is utterly HUMILIATING and especially infuriating to be stolen from, trust me, i've been there, back when I played Yu-gi-oh, I had half my deck stolen from me in less than 30 seconds when the kid's friend caused a ruckus and slammed into our table... I found some of the cards, but not all of them, and trust me, I was ashamed to call the thieves my friends.
Same thing happened to me. We were playing, decide to swap decks to have a fun game. I get my deck back, go to sleep and wake up the next morning. I look at my deck to see that all of the foils are gone. All of them. This person I was playing with was a "friend" that lived across the street. Needless to say he isn't my friend anymore.
OP: You should ask the owners if they have any cameras. Then perhaps you could see who stole your property and demand it back from that person. Just a suggestion.
Recently I had a New Tezz, Karn, and a few NPH Rare Artifacts that I lost after trading with a guy.
He wasn't in our game and the pile of cards that he stole from were in a stack and not in my trade binder.
I made the assumption that everyone was a swell and decent individual, but let's not kid ourselves.
So my rules of thumb for now on are: 1) Trade with the person and keep em in your sights. 2) Afterwards - make sure you keep your things in sight.
If I have to pop out for the minute and my friends are out too, I usually ask the store owner if she can watch my stuff, and I leave it under her table.
If not, I ask a friend.
Having been stolen from by friends, co-workers, and good customers that I would consider at the very least a good aquaintance.
Ah, that is so disgusting
Stealing is awful, I will never understand these people. It's such a terrible attitude to have, but it's even worse if it's been done by people you trust.
The only good thing that can happen to a thief is getting taped
I don't understand why people feel the need to steal. Its like walking around with an object of paranoia. Its not worth the effort put into the guilt or the pain caused to the owner of the item.
One point of view to consider is that the item may not have been stolen. It could have been dropped, misplaced, or any number of other things. (How many times have people found their 'stolen' cards stuck behind a different card in a binder or sleeve?)
As a store owner I'm always amazed at what I pick up off of the floor of the play area after people have gone home. What is even more amazing is the surprising few people that actually come looking for their stuff after the fact. I'll hold onto stuff for quite a while, but unless it is an entire binder or the like, most people never ask--they automatically assume it was stolen and would never consider that they might have lost it.
Once I found a deck box with a nearly complete ravager affinity deck plus some assorted other cards tucked in. It went behind the counter along with all the other junk that people leave behind. This thing went unclaimed for months until I was having a conversation with a random customer. He says something to the effect of:
"My friend had an entire deck stolen from him at an event a while back."
"Yeah, that sucks, you really need to keep an eye on your stuff at all times. What kind of deck was it?"
"It was an affinity deck, AND he had just traded for four mox opals that were in the box."
"Wait...was the deck in X color sleeves and the opals in Y color sleeves?"
"Yeah, why??"
"Uhmm, call your friend and have him drop by. I have his deck right here. He left it on a table one day."
So, not to suggest that this is what happened to the OP, but folks, do keep in mind that not every case of missing magic cards is thievery.
I've left the game with Letter bomb that Unhinged thing shuffled into my deck.
We all need to be careful/aware.
Once, my collection of misprint/miscut/crimps were bindered in a generic black binder (never again) and it got switcherood for some other collection in the same binder.
Once at a prerelease in Oakland, somebody took my Food Chain goblin deck out of my backpack, that was my extended deck that season...
ive stolen a force of will before...........hold on, i have more
so this guy gets back into magic and someone jacks his force of will, i see this.
i go to trade with the guy who stole it and when he looks away, i jack it back.
he accuses me of theft a little while later, but by then, the force was back with its original owner.
so, yea it was wrong, but in the end i did a good deed. but, the good doesnt justify the means
involves the lgs but not cards a couple months back i dropped my wallet must have slide out of my pocket while playing had my entire months card budget only 80 bucks well long story short got my wallet back but no id no credit card no money found it in the garbage at the front door sucks bad now wallet stays in the car and i only bring money /trade when dealing with the owner
Last friday a bunch of us were in our LGS playing EDH (like normal) and new people were there, so naturally we invited them. finally after all the games were over and most people went home, we realize that cards are missing. I lost my Booster Box full of M12 Commons and Uncommons, my friend lost an M12 Gideon Jura, and another friend was missing a Sword of Feast and Famine, Progenitus, 4 Scalding Tarn and 4 Arid Mesa. we wanted to hunt down those suckers
Spearo though he was one of your friends, which is why he was so trusting.
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Stealing is awful, I will never understand these people. It's such a terrible attitude to have, but it's even worse if it's been done by people you trust.
The only good thing that can happen to a thief is getting taped
Agreed, it was disgusting. I will say that I have learned a great deal from those incidents, and have heightened my security as high as I can given that I dont actually own the shop itself, working with the owner to improve other areas. I never quite looked at my friends the same way again after the day in high school that my cards got stolen and 2 of my other friends straight up lied to me about the person not having the cards. After that I only considered the 4th friend from our group any sort of a true friend. These days I would say I trust them insofar as I wouldnt think they would try to steal again or anything of the sort, but I will still take precuations to avoid any potential issues regardless. Of course none of them play magic anymore so it is what it is, and I only hang out for any length of time with the 4th one that didnt steal from/lie to me.
The Co-worker was someone at the shop I sell at back before the current 100% owner took full control over the shop and the other person left after some disagreements. I know the person stole from the shops he worked at in the past, though not directly (ie: Oh, Ill open this pack, if its good, Ill pay for it and its mine, if its not, well its the shops pack and the shops cards.) When several hundred dollars worth of my cards came up missing, and he was the one working at the time, I was suspicious to be sure, I can never verify for 100% certainty that he took them, but I know Ill never trust him again with my cards. Once the current full owner took over things full time, I never had another card come up missing in the same way.
That said, there was one incident where a customer stole from me at the same shop after we had moved. He is someone I have known for years, was more of an aquaintance than a friend, but was someone that I got along with just fine. Due to a partial mistake by the owner with not being able to see the full product area one day that I wasnt there, it was found out that the customer in question managed to sneak back behind the counter and steal my stack of dual lands where he must have seen me put them away earlier that week. We wouldnt have known it was him, but he was stupid enough to sell them at a large event downtown to a dealer in exchange for a ton of cash and a black lotus. There was enough evidence to be assured that it was him who did it, and he was promptly banned. He tried to fight it since we didnt have irrefutable proof, but we werent about to let something like that happen again, and he was banned, permanantly. He bashed myself and the shop after that online, but eventually sold off his collection and doesnt play magic anymore.
Basically, there are two people I trust outside of my family (parents and brother) and thats that 4th friend (he had hundreds if not thousands of opportunities to steal from me and never has, so I definitely do trust him), and the current shop owner, because he has had the same, and never has, though even then that took me a while to 100% trust.
To be safe though, you simply shouldnt trust anyone else but yourself with your cards. Its sad, but youll never have to worry about having anything taken if you keep your stuff with you, and you dont give others even the opportunity to be able to take the cards.
Sorry for the long post, but I suddenly felt the need to elaborate my own previous instances of theft further.
My experiences with magic have been interesting with theft. I'm used to yugioh which has gotten a more recent reputation of high level theft in that game over the past couple years. It's no surprise the surge of yugioh players moving to magic that the theft in that game is pouring over. Not to discredit yugioh with the generalization as magic has definitely had its thieves throughout the years, but with the recent price booms over the past couple years it seems like something more common and to be more vigilant.
Oddly enough i've never had any issues at large events when trading and carry a somewhat pricey binder on me. I know a lot of thief tactics used at these events, but knock on wood so far everyone has been pretty trustworthy and i have zero losses.
What I tend to do that helps prevent theft is to leave anything high end i don't care about trading (duals, jaces when i had them, forces, goyfs, etc) before leaving for the event. I also leave any decks I don't need at home. If I'm going to a PTQ i leave my legacy and edh decks behind. Yeah, those formats are played, but it's not worth the risk to carry around in hopes i'll run into a few guys looking for an extra man to play some games. If it's a sealed event I may leave all my decks at home. I've entered sealed tournaments with nothing on me except pen and paper, but now that i do a lot of trading, i can't leave my binder behind, and sealed events are the easiest to trade at with no pressure to get cards for the current or next deck you play.
get yourself a Ultra-Pro Zippered Gaming Case. in can hold your deck boxes, trades, die, etc. Or find a durable recycled bag and store your decks and trades in there (thats what I do right now). And make sure it never leaves your sight. If you have bad experiences of having things stolen when you step out to go wherever and do whatever leave it with you.
I don't play out too much, but when I do, I don't bring things I don't need with me. It makes it hard to trade, but usually I don't want to trade anyway. I can always arrange another time to trade after we talk about the deal I guess.
Recently, I saw a guy with a trade binder with a bunch of FOW, a few moxes, etc. When people asked about trading for them, they were not for trade. If they are not for trade and not in a deck to play that night, why bring them with you. The only reason I can think of is to show off to others that you have the cards.
Plains - John Avon - 230
Island - Jung Park - 235
Island - Vincent Proce - 237
Swamp - John Avon - 238
Mountain - John Avon - 242
Forest - John Avon - 246
I actually lost a stack of commons I got from a grab bag. Oh well, they were ones I was going to throw in anyways.
There was a 2-for-1 rare box at the same convention. I don't know if anything was stolen, but I'm suprised it's owner was so trusting. I told quite a number of people about the box and I felt pretty bad about making him constantly retrieve the box.
To be safe though, you simply shouldnt trust anyone else but yourself with your cards.
Sorry for the long post, but I suddenly felt the need to elaborate my own previous instances of theft further.
No worries, man.
I think it's an interesting (yet awful) story to hear and feel sorry you that made this experience.
Fortunately, I never had any cards stolen from me. I've been playing mostly with the same ~8 people over the last couple of years. Not all of them are real friends, but most of them and I have no reason to fear anyone of them would steal my cards.
Of course once in a while a card would end up in the wrong deck (e.g. Control Magic), but due to different sleeves it always gets noticed and the card is returned to its owner. There are no ill-intentions, and feels good to know that.
That being said, I would always watch my cards when going to a tourney or a shop. A good deal of them are altered and I really wouldn't like to loose them.
I also think that a considerable deal of people will jump at the opportunity to get their hands on other people's property, if given the chance. That's why I always lock my stuff up when I have strangers in my appartment.
I once went to a party and a girl had her valuable camera stolen she was taking pictures with all evening. One moment to another and it was gone! Turned a lot of happy faces into sad ones and left everyone wondering who the thief was. Along with the financial loss, that`s what makes stealing so terrible: It damages your trust into people.
Now that I am writing about this I recall loosing my mobile at work two years ago. I still don't know if was stolen or if I lost it, but the uncertainty bugged me a lot and made me asking myself "Would colleague xyz steal from you?"
Ah well, knowing that a customer, co-worker or friend actually stole from... that is just awful.
ive stolen a force of will before...........hold on, i have more
so this guy gets back into magic and someone jacks his force of will, i see this.
i go to trade with the guy who stole it and when he looks away, i jack it back.
he accuses me of theft a little while later, but by then, the force was back with its original owner.
so, yea it was wrong, but in the end i did a good deed. but, the good doesnt justify the means
If you saw him take the Force of Will, and you took it back and returned it to the owner, then how is that wrong?
Same thing happened to me. We were playing, decide to swap decks to have a fun game. I get my deck back, go to sleep and wake up the next morning. I look at my deck to see that all of the foils are gone. All of them. This person I was playing with was a "friend" that lived across the street. Needless to say he isn't my friend anymore.
OP: You should ask the owners if they have any cameras. Then perhaps you could see who stole your property and demand it back from that person. Just a suggestion.
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He wasn't in our game and the pile of cards that he stole from were in a stack and not in my trade binder.
I made the assumption that everyone was a swell and decent individual, but let's not kid ourselves.
So my rules of thumb for now on are: 1) Trade with the person and keep em in your sights. 2) Afterwards - make sure you keep your things in sight.
If I have to pop out for the minute and my friends are out too, I usually ask the store owner if she can watch my stuff, and I leave it under her table.
If not, I ask a friend.
Executive Infiltrator of [House Dimir].
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Ah, that is so disgusting
Stealing is awful, I will never understand these people. It's such a terrible attitude to have, but it's even worse if it's been done by people you trust.
The only good thing that can happen to a thief is getting taped
My gallery of altered cards
As a store owner I'm always amazed at what I pick up off of the floor of the play area after people have gone home. What is even more amazing is the surprising few people that actually come looking for their stuff after the fact. I'll hold onto stuff for quite a while, but unless it is an entire binder or the like, most people never ask--they automatically assume it was stolen and would never consider that they might have lost it.
Once I found a deck box with a nearly complete ravager affinity deck plus some assorted other cards tucked in. It went behind the counter along with all the other junk that people leave behind. This thing went unclaimed for months until I was having a conversation with a random customer. He says something to the effect of:
"My friend had an entire deck stolen from him at an event a while back."
"Yeah, that sucks, you really need to keep an eye on your stuff at all times. What kind of deck was it?"
"It was an affinity deck, AND he had just traded for four mox opals that were in the box."
"Wait...was the deck in X color sleeves and the opals in Y color sleeves?"
"Yeah, why??"
"Uhmm, call your friend and have him drop by. I have his deck right here. He left it on a table one day."
So, not to suggest that this is what happened to the OP, but folks, do keep in mind that not every case of missing magic cards is thievery.
I've found creatures I picked up with my control magic type cards.
I've found weird pacifism type cards in my decks.
I've left the game with Letter bomb that Unhinged thing shuffled into my deck.
We all need to be careful/aware.
Once, my collection of misprint/miscut/crimps were bindered in a generic black binder (never again) and it got switcherood for some other collection in the same binder.
Once at a prerelease in Oakland, somebody took my Food Chain goblin deck out of my backpack, that was my extended deck that season...
so this guy gets back into magic and someone jacks his force of will, i see this.
i go to trade with the guy who stole it and when he looks away, i jack it back.
he accuses me of theft a little while later, but by then, the force was back with its original owner.
so, yea it was wrong, but in the end i did a good deed. but, the good doesnt justify the means
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicySpearo though he was one of your friends, which is why he was so trusting.
This is my Trade Binder I check it and update it everyday
Agreed, it was disgusting. I will say that I have learned a great deal from those incidents, and have heightened my security as high as I can given that I dont actually own the shop itself, working with the owner to improve other areas. I never quite looked at my friends the same way again after the day in high school that my cards got stolen and 2 of my other friends straight up lied to me about the person not having the cards. After that I only considered the 4th friend from our group any sort of a true friend. These days I would say I trust them insofar as I wouldnt think they would try to steal again or anything of the sort, but I will still take precuations to avoid any potential issues regardless. Of course none of them play magic anymore so it is what it is, and I only hang out for any length of time with the 4th one that didnt steal from/lie to me.
The Co-worker was someone at the shop I sell at back before the current 100% owner took full control over the shop and the other person left after some disagreements. I know the person stole from the shops he worked at in the past, though not directly (ie: Oh, Ill open this pack, if its good, Ill pay for it and its mine, if its not, well its the shops pack and the shops cards.) When several hundred dollars worth of my cards came up missing, and he was the one working at the time, I was suspicious to be sure, I can never verify for 100% certainty that he took them, but I know Ill never trust him again with my cards. Once the current full owner took over things full time, I never had another card come up missing in the same way.
That said, there was one incident where a customer stole from me at the same shop after we had moved. He is someone I have known for years, was more of an aquaintance than a friend, but was someone that I got along with just fine. Due to a partial mistake by the owner with not being able to see the full product area one day that I wasnt there, it was found out that the customer in question managed to sneak back behind the counter and steal my stack of dual lands where he must have seen me put them away earlier that week. We wouldnt have known it was him, but he was stupid enough to sell them at a large event downtown to a dealer in exchange for a ton of cash and a black lotus. There was enough evidence to be assured that it was him who did it, and he was promptly banned. He tried to fight it since we didnt have irrefutable proof, but we werent about to let something like that happen again, and he was banned, permanantly. He bashed myself and the shop after that online, but eventually sold off his collection and doesnt play magic anymore.
Basically, there are two people I trust outside of my family (parents and brother) and thats that 4th friend (he had hundreds if not thousands of opportunities to steal from me and never has, so I definitely do trust him), and the current shop owner, because he has had the same, and never has, though even then that took me a while to 100% trust.
To be safe though, you simply shouldnt trust anyone else but yourself with your cards. Its sad, but youll never have to worry about having anything taken if you keep your stuff with you, and you dont give others even the opportunity to be able to take the cards.
Sorry for the long post, but I suddenly felt the need to elaborate my own previous instances of theft further.
Oddly enough i've never had any issues at large events when trading and carry a somewhat pricey binder on me. I know a lot of thief tactics used at these events, but knock on wood so far everyone has been pretty trustworthy and i have zero losses.
What I tend to do that helps prevent theft is to leave anything high end i don't care about trading (duals, jaces when i had them, forces, goyfs, etc) before leaving for the event. I also leave any decks I don't need at home. If I'm going to a PTQ i leave my legacy and edh decks behind. Yeah, those formats are played, but it's not worth the risk to carry around in hopes i'll run into a few guys looking for an extra man to play some games. If it's a sealed event I may leave all my decks at home. I've entered sealed tournaments with nothing on me except pen and paper, but now that i do a lot of trading, i can't leave my binder behind, and sealed events are the easiest to trade at with no pressure to get cards for the current or next deck you play.
Recently, I saw a guy with a trade binder with a bunch of FOW, a few moxes, etc. When people asked about trading for them, they were not for trade. If they are not for trade and not in a deck to play that night, why bring them with you. The only reason I can think of is to show off to others that you have the cards.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=4832736
Trading 10 full art zen basics for 8 of yours!
I want
Plains - John Avon - 230
Island - Jung Park - 235
Island - Vincent Proce - 237
Swamp - John Avon - 238
Mountain - John Avon - 242
Forest - John Avon - 246
There was a 2-for-1 rare box at the same convention. I don't know if anything was stolen, but I'm suprised it's owner was so trusting. I told quite a number of people about the box and I felt pretty bad about making him constantly retrieve the box.
RGGruul Aggro
WSoul Sisters
WBTokens
BUGRRestore Balance
BMono-Black Infect
EDH:
RGWMayael, the Anima
GWURoon of the Hidden Realm
BDrana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Well I don't plan on being so trusting to new -comers anymore
No worries, man.
I think it's an interesting (yet awful) story to hear and feel sorry you that made this experience.
Fortunately, I never had any cards stolen from me. I've been playing mostly with the same ~8 people over the last couple of years. Not all of them are real friends, but most of them and I have no reason to fear anyone of them would steal my cards.
Of course once in a while a card would end up in the wrong deck (e.g. Control Magic), but due to different sleeves it always gets noticed and the card is returned to its owner. There are no ill-intentions, and feels good to know that.
That being said, I would always watch my cards when going to a tourney or a shop. A good deal of them are altered and I really wouldn't like to loose them.
I also think that a considerable deal of people will jump at the opportunity to get their hands on other people's property, if given the chance. That's why I always lock my stuff up when I have strangers in my appartment.
I once went to a party and a girl had her valuable camera stolen she was taking pictures with all evening. One moment to another and it was gone! Turned a lot of happy faces into sad ones and left everyone wondering who the thief was. Along with the financial loss, that`s what makes stealing so terrible: It damages your trust into people.
Now that I am writing about this I recall loosing my mobile at work two years ago. I still don't know if was stolen or if I lost it, but the uncertainty bugged me a lot and made me asking myself "Would colleague xyz steal from you?"
Ah well, knowing that a customer, co-worker or friend actually stole from... that is just awful.
My gallery of altered cards
If you saw him take the Force of Will, and you took it back and returned it to the owner, then how is that wrong?
Also, according to the episode of Next Generation that I watched today, justice shouldn't be inflexible. Thank you, Captain Picard.