I was browsing through Craigslist and saw a posting for a collection of thousands of cards for $200. So jump on the chance since collections go for way more.
I drive to the ladies house, introduce myself and start going through the boxes - there literally were thousands, most commons & uncommons, but a lot of rares & mythics.
I agree to the terms and buy the cards. She walks me to the door & tells me about the cards. They were her grandsons collection, who used to play-
(mind you that I am mostly thinking in head about what I just bought & how I am going to organize them between what I keep & what I trade on Pucatrade, so all of the pieces are not really coming together in my head, not until about half an hour ago).
She told me her grandson is 12, played heavily for 4 years, then decided he was over it. She then told me that he told her he "wanted to get back into it." The boys grandmother told him that he's not to, that they are selling them. She then tells me that the cards are going to pay for the family of 5 (I am guessing grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, and kid) to see the new Star Wars flick.
I say good bye, thank her for selling me the cards & go on my merry way. Half an hour ago, all of the moving parts just came together. For 4 years, a kid, from ages 8 to 12, spends money (allowance, gift, trade, etc...) to gather a collection. He parents/grandparents see his disinterest over time and sell it for a mere $200, when he most likely spent $400 or more (he had to have). He not only loses his hobby, but the time, energy, and money that went into it doesn't go back to him. Instead, they thoughtlessly and greedily used the money on the family. He's 12, he has no choice to oblige. I do feel guilty now for buying the collection. I think they parents/grandparents should have given him 1 chance (1 or 2 nights) to build 3 - 4 decks to keep him into the hobby, then ditched the rest. I understand I do not know the whole story: he could have an actual card addiction, where it affected his grades, home life, social life, etc... But it got me thinking about my own perils.
I remember my own mother once getting mad at the 15 year old me for not cleaning my room, then taking a 5000 count box and tossing it into a garbage bag. She later rescinded and I reorganized the cards (my mother, years later, apologized).
Is it strictly ignorance that pushes a parent to act so thoughtless. Or is it the parent/child relationship of dominance? I began playing in winter of '93- Black Lotus was a $100 card. As I saw it grow in price, I kept bugging my dad (who has made a lot of money in the stocks) to buy a few, as an investment. He just laughed, called the game a trend. He now wishes he listened to me.
I ask this to any of the parents/grandparents out there: Do you keep an open mind in your children's hobbies? How to you express respect and understanding when scholastic/family/friendships/etc... deteriorate when a card game goes from a hobby to an addiction?
I hope you are fair and do not trash their game (literally and figuratively).
No parent who would do that to their kid's magic collection is on MTGsalvation lol. But yeah, parents can be real ********s when it comes to something they don't understand, like demanding that a kid pause an online, multiplayer game to come do some meaningless task.
Brothers in my league of legends team, don't feel I know them well enough to call them friends but we play league together constantly, had their collection thrown out by their mother in a fit of religious fevour, tools of the devil! Apparently she had seen some news program about it harming kids... but apparently it was about Yugioh and not magic.
I find that a lot of older people who don't play just don't understand the value of many cards and pass cards off as just mere cardboard with no real value, which makes a bit of sense but I feel they should at least make sure they are worth something before doing something like as stated by OP
If there were toys sitting in my closet sitting untouched for years, and I realized they would pay for a month's groceries, I can see the perspective behind selling them off - especially if they seem faddish but are still riding their popularity.
My parents did the same thing with my Pokemon cards before I started on magic (a longgg time ago) and looking at cards in the case when I'm there for magic I kick myself for letting it happen. I remember they sold them for $40 on ebay and I had to have well over $200. Even thinking about all my star wars toys such as those plastic extendable lightsaber and action figures which they were going to dump to a good will, I grabbed the lightsaber but everything else was gone. This past thursday I carried that lightsaber all day I don't care how old I am it was probably the best day of my life and it made me realize the mistake of getting rid of things prematurely. I've found it's primarily the mother of the house that does it(being honest not sexist don't bash me). My mom would always say "You don't ever play with that we're getting rid of it." no matter how much I didn't want her to she would usually pick and chose of whatever I was not playing with that month.
Value is good. But Dredgevine isn't supposed to be about value. It's supposed to be about V-8; 2000 pounds of nitro boosted war vegetables. The more velocity, the better.
Modern:
DredgeVine EDH:
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Anima Standard:
A mom came into my old LGS one day and just dumped a whole bunch of valuable Yu-Gi-Oh! cards onto a table. When we asked whose cards they were she said they were her son's cards and since he was fighting on Iraq they didn't need to be in her house. Our jaws dropped and we ended up giving the cards to some new young players. It felt wrong to take a soldier's cards and his mom was so casual about it. What if taking up an old hobby would have helped him take his mind off what he went through on the battlefield?
Lol this thread is hilarious. You're outraged by the behavior that you're totally complicit in? It must not bother you that much if you're helping the mother dump her child's collection. Can't believe this mother selling me these cards, how could she do this to him!!?
Did you ever think it's possible the child is neglecting the rest of their life for magic? Selling their things to buy more cards? Gambling on packs, wasting all their money? If an 8-12 year old possessed thousands of commons and uncommons it's totally possible they're wasting hundreds of dollars on booster packs just to chase some rare and they don't have the means to purchase it as a single. They could be losing focus in school or withdrawing from their friends, you don't always know the backstory behind these decisions. I mean you look at our community and it certainly isn't the best collection of well adjusted or outgoing individuals. For every positive change this game has created there's plenty of detrimental changes to a person's life.
And that Iraq veteran, I'm not sure he wants to play yugioh with a bunch of high school aged kids after a tour in iraq.
Still hilarious you guys are like how could these mothers do this, should be asking why it's so easy to judge something you're 100% complicit in.
I've seen kids who treat packs like lottery tickets. Lots of kids and some adults. I've seen kids win packs/cards, trade them in for store credit, use the store credit for more packs, lather, rinse, repeat.
I've also seen kids who sour on the game, then drop a bunch of money on creating a new Standard deck because they want to get back into the game, only to sour again a few weeks later.
$200 to $500 is not that much in Magic terms.
Speaking as a Magic player and the parent of a Magic player, ending the hobby at 12 and moving on to something else could easily be the right thing to do.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Because we cannot prevent draws in paper Magic we allow IDs. If we could prevent draws we would not have IDs in paper Magic. " Scott Larabee.
This isn't about magic so much as what many adults view as 'childish'. It's not different than my grandparents throwing away my parents comic books and other things.
Come to think of it, I quit playing Magic around the age of 12, but also held onto the cards for like 7 years longer. Then, before going off to college, I wound up just giving them away to the only person I knew who still played. I can't think of any way I'd have been worse off if they'd been sold, though I probably would have argued not to at the time just because they were something I'd cared about once.
I don't follow the logic of this at all. By the way you make it sound, this kid played for 4 years, gave it up, then immediately wanted to get back into it, which I highly doubt is the case. You also have zero backstory on the reason he gave it up in the first place, or the reason his grandparents soured on his decision to get back into it. This is just your typical "parents don't understand kids" threads. I'd be more inclined to agree with you that this was harsh if the selling of his collection was punishment related, that's a terrible message to send to children. Again, more things that don't add up, how do you know those were all of his cards? How do you know he spent $400~ on these cards? Even so, if my 8-12 year old child spent $400~ on anything and then gave it up, I would probably be against it as well. Everybody screams "investment", well, that's a pretty risky investment, and most investors just don't give it up after a short stint. The reasoning is sound, in my opinion. The grandmother mentions it's a family of 5, why did you have to go to her house and not the parents to retrieve these cards? My guess is they all live under the same roof, which makes that $400 figures even more baffling. The kid is obviously into Sci-Fi/fantasy stuff, so she turned an old hobby into an experience of a lifetime. Episode 3 came out in 2005, he would have probably still been in diapers. My best experiences have always been doing something I loved with my family. Disney World with my family, Cruises with my family. Before bashing these parents/grandparents or all parents and grandparents for that matter, get all of the facts. Parents were kids once too, and they are only looking out for what's best for you.
No parent who would do that to their kid's magic collection is on MTGsalvation lol. But yeah, parents can be real ********s when it comes to something they don't understand, like demanding that a kid pause an online, multiplayer game to come do some meaningless task.
Interesting. A video game is not a meaningless task but chores are?
Of the thousands of cards, I only bought about 200. There were others asking about the collection. I am sure it is all sold by now. What I took for my Pauper Cube & g/f who plays is barely a spit in the bucket.
As for Iron Plushy's ignorant comment, I already posed the possibility that the game may have been taking over his life. Business is business, as cold as it sounds. Spirit if Christmas or not, do you think a pawn shop will take that baseball card collection they bought for penny's on the dollar and drop it off on the porch to the person they used to belong too? "No" is the answer to that question, by the way.
Before bashing these parents/grandparents or all parents and grandparents for that matter, get all of the facts. Parents were kids once too, and they are only looking out for what's best for you.
It's not that easy to say "Parents were kids too," because there are some really selfish parents out there. Want to know how I met my best friend from middle school?
Years before Magic, I collected baseball cards. I would go to a local shop to buy packs, chew the gum, and look at the stats for players, sometimes doing what kids do, as mentioned above, selling the many $1-$5 cards in hopes of getting the Ken Griffey rookie card or Frank Thomas. A guy was selling a large collection of cards when he asked me if I lived around here. I said yes & he said his son was my age. I then biked that afternoon and saw his son playing outside. I introduced myself & a great friendship blossomed. I found out 5 or 6 years after being friends that his father sold his baseball card collection for money to buy drugs.
Not all parents are looking out for their children. Some are selfish & thoughtless, while others do not understand a collection. For all those adults who got their Garbage Pale Kids collection trashed by a holier-than-thou parent, probably lost out on a mint, Blasted Billy or Atom Bomb.
No parent who would do that to their kid's magic collection is on MTGsalvation lol. But yeah, parents can be real ********s when it comes to something they don't understand, like demanding that a kid pause an online, multiplayer game to come do some meaningless task.
I'm not a parent, but If I were, and I got the sense that my hypothetical child was neglecting chores to play a video game, then I Would do the same unless there's a really compelling reason to let him continue. (Having 2 hours immediately go to waste is not a compelling reason)
I find that a lot of older people who don't play just don't understand the value of many cards and pass cards off as just mere cardboard with no real value, which makes a bit of sense but I feel they should at least make sure they are worth something before doing something like as stated by OP
I am so tired of the cardboard argument.
- many valueable expensive paintings are only paint and cloth, yet the original can sell for millions, even though they could easiely be reproduced
- the blue mauritius is only paper, glue and ink
- diamonds are just coal gone soar. they aren´t even rare, can be produced, and have really bad resell value. yet, they are considerd an investment in some regions.
It should have been his choice, and had he chose to get rid of them he would have had the knowledge of their value to actually get decent money for them, money he could have used.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I have a bit of perspective on this from both sides.
When I was at uni, my parents moved house. They got rid of almost everything I owned. My new husband and I stayed in their new house to house-sit right after graduation, and I was able to salvage about six or seven books that had ended up being missed in the big throwing out. That's all I took with me into married life. Everything I owned fit into the two suitcases I had with me at uni. They didn't ask. They didn't tell me they were doing it. But I know that moving the "stuff" of a grown up child (I was 20, after all, when they moved house), is not something a parent is required to do. It would have been nice if they had sent it to me instead, but that could be expensive, too.
Now I am a mother myself, and I have seven children. The oldest is 17, the youngest only a year. Our house is packed to bursting with people and their stuff. When my oldest moves away at the beginning of 2017, she will be taking with her all that she needs/wants, and anything she leaves will end up being thrown away or given away. I'm quite clear about that, though.
Also, I limit their amount of video game time, and there is a "work before play" rule in our house. No child who still had chores to do would be allowed to sit down to a video game, so there's that.
I find that a lot of older people who don't play just don't understand the value of many cards and pass cards off as just mere cardboard with no real value, which makes a bit of sense but I feel they should at least make sure they are worth something before doing something like as stated by OP
I am so tired of the cardboard argument.
- many valueable expensive paintings are only paint and cloth, yet the original can sell for millions, even though they could easiely be reproduced
- the blue mauritius is only paper, glue and ink
- diamonds are just coal gone soar. they aren´t even rare, can be produced, and have really bad resell value. yet, they are considerd an investment in some regions.
There is a difference between intrinsic value and market value. Neither Magic cards nor pieces of art have much intrinsic value (artwork generally has a higher intrinsic value than Magic cards, largely due to the size difference). Diamonds' intrinsic value does not match their market value (thanks to DeBeers' monopoly), but they do have a significantly higher intrinsic value than Magic cards do; you can use diamonds to create extremely strong tools, for instance. About the best you can do with Magic cards is burn them for fuel or make certain kinds of artwork with them (which, again, has relatively little intrinsic value).
That approach sounds great until you are multiple years in of them not doing the choirs because they forgot and/or kept playing the game for hours upon hours. I feel these examples might be a bit biased and selective on the actual details. You can probably find several people here at this point who have seen both sides of the discussion by now since this game has been going on long enough for people who started with it early to have kids. Those same people probably played video games and now also have to deal with the other side of "just one more minute" 3 hours later.
I find that a lot of older people who don't play just don't understand the value of many cards and pass cards off as just mere cardboard with no real value, which makes a bit of sense but I feel they should at least make sure they are worth something before doing something like as stated by OP
I am so tired of the cardboard argument.
- many valueable expensive paintings are only paint and cloth, yet the original can sell for millions, even though they could easiely be reproduced
- the blue mauritius is only paper, glue and ink
- diamonds are just coal gone soar. they aren´t even rare, can be produced, and have really bad resell value. yet, they are considerd an investment in some regions.
Still, most people, including my own mother, see no difference between a deck of Uno and a deck of magic cards. It gets even harder to grasp for them when you toss out a pile of completely worthless commons while ordering new cards at the same time. Don't tell me you've never been asked "Don't you have enough cards?" by anyone?
I literally get that statement at least once a week, or even better "don't you have all the cards yet?" pretty sure I don't have that kind of money
I find that a lot of older people who don't play just don't understand the value of many cards and pass cards off as just mere cardboard with no real value, which makes a bit of sense but I feel they should at least make sure they are worth something before doing something like as stated by OP
I am so tired of the cardboard argument.
- many valueable expensive paintings are only paint and cloth, yet the original can sell for millions, even though they could easiely be reproduced
- the blue mauritius is only paper, glue and ink
- diamonds are just coal gone soar. they aren´t even rare, can be produced, and have really bad resell value. yet, they are considerd an investment in some regions.
Still, most people, including my own mother, see no difference between a deck of Uno and a deck of magic cards. It gets even harder to grasp for them when you toss out a pile of completely worthless commons while ordering new cards at the same time. Don't tell me you've never been asked "Don't you have enough cards?" by anyone?
I literally get that statement at least once a week, or even better "don't you have all the cards yet?" pretty sure I don't have that kind of money
I like to answer that question by explaining how literally only 1 copy exists of 1996 World Champion and Shichifukujin Dragon, so that only 1 person in the entire world at a time could ever even hope to own "all the cards" (which is probably not ever going to happen, and would likely cost millions of dollars at a minimum to do). http://www.magiclibrarities.net/353-rarities-unique-cards-english-cards-index.html
My dad is into model trains so usually I'll just ask him if he has every train in existence, which is even more absurd then asking me if I have all the cards yet
I mean I guess we should just let people be ignorant of it, doesn't affect me at all
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I drive to the ladies house, introduce myself and start going through the boxes - there literally were thousands, most commons & uncommons, but a lot of rares & mythics.
I agree to the terms and buy the cards. She walks me to the door & tells me about the cards. They were her grandsons collection, who used to play-
(mind you that I am mostly thinking in head about what I just bought & how I am going to organize them between what I keep & what I trade on Pucatrade, so all of the pieces are not really coming together in my head, not until about half an hour ago).
She told me her grandson is 12, played heavily for 4 years, then decided he was over it. She then told me that he told her he "wanted to get back into it." The boys grandmother told him that he's not to, that they are selling them. She then tells me that the cards are going to pay for the family of 5 (I am guessing grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, and kid) to see the new Star Wars flick.
I say good bye, thank her for selling me the cards & go on my merry way. Half an hour ago, all of the moving parts just came together. For 4 years, a kid, from ages 8 to 12, spends money (allowance, gift, trade, etc...) to gather a collection. He parents/grandparents see his disinterest over time and sell it for a mere $200, when he most likely spent $400 or more (he had to have). He not only loses his hobby, but the time, energy, and money that went into it doesn't go back to him. Instead, they thoughtlessly and greedily used the money on the family. He's 12, he has no choice to oblige. I do feel guilty now for buying the collection. I think they parents/grandparents should have given him 1 chance (1 or 2 nights) to build 3 - 4 decks to keep him into the hobby, then ditched the rest. I understand I do not know the whole story: he could have an actual card addiction, where it affected his grades, home life, social life, etc... But it got me thinking about my own perils.
I remember my own mother once getting mad at the 15 year old me for not cleaning my room, then taking a 5000 count box and tossing it into a garbage bag. She later rescinded and I reorganized the cards (my mother, years later, apologized).
Is it strictly ignorance that pushes a parent to act so thoughtless. Or is it the parent/child relationship of dominance? I began playing in winter of '93- Black Lotus was a $100 card. As I saw it grow in price, I kept bugging my dad (who has made a lot of money in the stocks) to buy a few, as an investment. He just laughed, called the game a trend. He now wishes he listened to me.
I ask this to any of the parents/grandparents out there: Do you keep an open mind in your children's hobbies? How to you express respect and understanding when scholastic/family/friendships/etc... deteriorate when a card game goes from a hobby to an addiction?
I hope you are fair and do not trash their game (literally and figuratively).
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Modern:
DredgeVine
EDH:
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Anima
Standard:
Did you ever think it's possible the child is neglecting the rest of their life for magic? Selling their things to buy more cards? Gambling on packs, wasting all their money? If an 8-12 year old possessed thousands of commons and uncommons it's totally possible they're wasting hundreds of dollars on booster packs just to chase some rare and they don't have the means to purchase it as a single. They could be losing focus in school or withdrawing from their friends, you don't always know the backstory behind these decisions. I mean you look at our community and it certainly isn't the best collection of well adjusted or outgoing individuals. For every positive change this game has created there's plenty of detrimental changes to a person's life.
And that Iraq veteran, I'm not sure he wants to play yugioh with a bunch of high school aged kids after a tour in iraq.
Still hilarious you guys are like how could these mothers do this, should be asking why it's so easy to judge something you're 100% complicit in.
I've also seen kids who sour on the game, then drop a bunch of money on creating a new Standard deck because they want to get back into the game, only to sour again a few weeks later.
$200 to $500 is not that much in Magic terms.
Speaking as a Magic player and the parent of a Magic player, ending the hobby at 12 and moving on to something else could easily be the right thing to do.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Interesting. A video game is not a meaningless task but chores are?
As for Iron Plushy's ignorant comment, I already posed the possibility that the game may have been taking over his life. Business is business, as cold as it sounds. Spirit if Christmas or not, do you think a pawn shop will take that baseball card collection they bought for penny's on the dollar and drop it off on the porch to the person they used to belong too? "No" is the answer to that question, by the way.
It's not that easy to say "Parents were kids too," because there are some really selfish parents out there. Want to know how I met my best friend from middle school?
Years before Magic, I collected baseball cards. I would go to a local shop to buy packs, chew the gum, and look at the stats for players, sometimes doing what kids do, as mentioned above, selling the many $1-$5 cards in hopes of getting the Ken Griffey rookie card or Frank Thomas. A guy was selling a large collection of cards when he asked me if I lived around here. I said yes & he said his son was my age. I then biked that afternoon and saw his son playing outside. I introduced myself & a great friendship blossomed. I found out 5 or 6 years after being friends that his father sold his baseball card collection for money to buy drugs.
Not all parents are looking out for their children. Some are selfish & thoughtless, while others do not understand a collection. For all those adults who got their Garbage Pale Kids collection trashed by a holier-than-thou parent, probably lost out on a mint, Blasted Billy or Atom Bomb.
I'm not a parent, but If I were, and I got the sense that my hypothetical child was neglecting chores to play a video game, then I Would do the same unless there's a really compelling reason to let him continue. (Having 2 hours immediately go to waste is not a compelling reason)
It should have been his choice, and had he chose to get rid of them he would have had the knowledge of their value to actually get decent money for them, money he could have used.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
When I was at uni, my parents moved house. They got rid of almost everything I owned. My new husband and I stayed in their new house to house-sit right after graduation, and I was able to salvage about six or seven books that had ended up being missed in the big throwing out. That's all I took with me into married life. Everything I owned fit into the two suitcases I had with me at uni. They didn't ask. They didn't tell me they were doing it. But I know that moving the "stuff" of a grown up child (I was 20, after all, when they moved house), is not something a parent is required to do. It would have been nice if they had sent it to me instead, but that could be expensive, too.
Now I am a mother myself, and I have seven children. The oldest is 17, the youngest only a year. Our house is packed to bursting with people and their stuff. When my oldest moves away at the beginning of 2017, she will be taking with her all that she needs/wants, and anything she leaves will end up being thrown away or given away. I'm quite clear about that, though.
Also, I limit their amount of video game time, and there is a "work before play" rule in our house. No child who still had chores to do would be allowed to sit down to a video game, so there's that.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
If you don't mop the floor, you don't rock and roll no more.
If you don't work really hard, you may have to sell all your cards.
That's harsh.
I literally get that statement at least once a week, or even better "don't you have all the cards yet?" pretty sure I don't have that kind of money
My dad is into model trains so usually I'll just ask him if he has every train in existence, which is even more absurd then asking me if I have all the cards yet
I mean I guess we should just let people be ignorant of it, doesn't affect me at all