I'm going to vent here a little, and I'm sure my thoughts are going to earn some ire, but so be it.
The amount of theft of belongings has picked up in the last couple years at an alarming rate. It wasn't quite as well known that Brian David-Masrhall's camera also went missing at the GP this weekend. One could say that part of the cost of a game becoming more widely popular is more of the inevitable bad apples finding their way into the game, as well. However, I don't think it's as simple as that, and I feel like the secondary market value of the game is in itself partially responsible for the higher rates of criminal theft and activity. Bar to entry to play the game due to the high value of cards on the secondary market is one issue we continue to face at worsening rate, while Wizards of the Coast makes failed attempts at trying to curb the issue with limited print run products and the very rare Standard reprint of non-Standard staples.
A big problem is, though, is that when you're too afraid to impact the secondary market values, other forces are going to take advantage of that. As the game's popularity increases, we also have more and more people attempting to buy out and flip corners of the market. Where for a long while cards would go up one or two dollars a week over several weeks at a time, now entire sections of the market go up as much as 20-30% over night. Unlike other games that put out supplemental products on a quarterly basis to help pump a healthy supply of in-demand cards into circulation, Wizards creates supplemental products with higher MSRP, in limited print runs and filled with a lot of chaff. Because of how ridiculously conservative they are with printing, it's easy to flip cards and raise the price significantly with so many people now trying to treat Magic like Wall Street.
At this point one might ask what this has to do with Winona Nelson's missing proofs? Well, that's the point I'm arriving at, now. You see, Magic cards are easy to sell. They're also small objects that are easy to conceal, rising in popularity and tend to be around high volumes of people. What I'm getting at here, is that the value of Magic cards rising and the ease of theft are proportional to the rate of that theft is climbing. It doesn't have to be someone who plays in a community - people drive from hours away to attend Grand Prixs and events jam packed with people. It's impossible for the Tournament Organizers to keep their eyes on everything, even with security cameras in some venues. But as long as Magic keeps climbing in value and popularity proportionally to each other, the more unscrupulous people are going to start showing up to these events. And it's going to escalate past cards. Winona Nelson lost her artist proofs. It's happened to artists before, but now we've also got a popular and well known Magic personality whose had his camera stolen. We've had people taking off with thousands of dollars of cards every other GP it seems like.
Sure, we can say that we need to be vigilant; leave unnecessary belongings at home; don't leave things in your car; don't leave belongings unattended. But where does it stop? There's only so much you can do to protect yourself, but as Magic gets more popular and becomes more and more attractive as easy money, more and more of this will happen. This is just another damaging effect that the cost of the game is having on the players.
Theft within Magic isn't really any worse than thefts outside of Magic, the consequences just happen to be more severe. I almost guarentee you that if you're going to some other type of convention, at least one person is gonna have their wallet jacked or something else. You'll never hear about it because the dude might be out a couple hundred bucks if he's walking around just loaded, but he cancels his credit cards, and moves on with his life.
But if someone gets their stuff stolen at a MTG event, well, that's a couple thousand dollars. This is not specifically a Magic thing, this is a society thing. Thefts happen all the time at all kinds of different events, the only difference is the consequences are much more substantial due to the nature of the merchandise. The same people who would steal a binder are the same ones who would steal a wallet, but you might argue they've found a more profitable form thievery provided they have an outlet to flip it. This thief is not that smart, artist proofs are pretty limited (50 ea) so having a large amount makes you pretty identifiable. Additionally, with some rare exceptions, AP's are usually worth AT BEST what the actual card is worth. So you have a less expensive product, that's harder to move, and more easily identifiable as stolen.
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Legacy: TES
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
Winona Nelson is a valued member of our community. Not only is she an amazing artist creating some of the more vivid and memorable cards over the last few years but she's also very kind to fans and people who want signatures or to chat about her work.
If anyone has any knowledge on this situation it would grant you instant karma to help in any way you can.
I'm going to vent here a little, and I'm sure my thoughts are going to earn some ire, but so be it.
The amount of theft of belongings has picked up in the last couple years at an alarming rate. It wasn't quite as well known that Brian David-Masrhall's camera also went missing at the GP this weekend. One could say that part of the cost of a game becoming more widely popular is more of the inevitable bad apples finding their way into the game, as well. However, I don't think it's as simple as that, and I feel like the secondary market value of the game is in itself partially responsible for the higher rates of criminal theft and activity. Bar to entry to play the game due to the high value of cards on the secondary market is one issue we continue to face at worsening rate, while Wizards of the Coast makes failed attempts at trying to curb the issue with limited print run products and the very rare Standard reprint of non-Standard staples.
A big problem is, though, is that when you're too afraid to impact the secondary market values, other forces are going to take advantage of that. As the game's popularity increases, we also have more and more people attempting to buy out and flip corners of the market. Where for a long while cards would go up one or two dollars a week over several weeks at a time, now entire sections of the market go up as much as 20-30% over night. Unlike other games that put out supplemental products on a quarterly basis to help pump a healthy supply of in-demand cards into circulation, Wizards creates supplemental products with higher MSRP, in limited print runs and filled with a lot of chaff. Because of how ridiculously conservative they are with printing, it's easy to flip cards and raise the price significantly with so many people now trying to treat Magic like Wall Street.
At this point one might ask what this has to do with Winona Nelson's missing proofs? Well, that's the point I'm arriving at, now. You see, Magic cards are easy to sell. They're also small objects that are easy to conceal, rising in popularity and tend to be around high volumes of people. What I'm getting at here, is that the value of Magic cards rising and the ease of theft are proportional to the rate of that theft is climbing. It doesn't have to be someone who plays in a community - people drive from hours away to attend Grand Prixs and events jam packed with people. It's impossible for the Tournament Organizers to keep their eyes on everything, even with security cameras in some venues. But as long as Magic keeps climbing in value and popularity proportionally to each other, the more unscrupulous people are going to start showing up to these events. And it's going to escalate past cards. Winona Nelson lost her artist proofs. It's happened to artists before, but now we've also got a popular and well known Magic personality whose had his camera stolen. We've had people taking off with thousands of dollars of cards every other GP it seems like.
Sure, we can say that we need to be vigilant; leave unnecessary belongings at home; don't leave things in your car; don't leave belongings unattended. But where does it stop? There's only so much you can do to protect yourself, but as Magic gets more popular and becomes more and more attractive as easy money, more and more of this will happen. This is just another damaging effect that the cost of the game is having on the players.
A high barrier of entry is not an excuse for lack of morals and respect towards others.
its ridiculous how much stuff has been stolen the past few weeks. I believe it was a few weeks ago at GP NY that a guy had his backpack stolen and the thief caught on Camera?
then there was that guy at GP Toronto.
Guess with so many people in a room its bound to happen, as *****ty of a thing it is to steal someone else's stuff
A high barrier of entry is not an excuse for lack of morals and respect towards others.
I agree, especially since that's not at all what I was suggesting and that I never suggested that the thieves and player struggling to play were the same people. You don't have to be a Magic player to know it's popularity and hear about how valuable those easily concealable, easy to move pieces of cardboard are.
Re: other responses. Look, we can say it's a societal/human problem all we want, but that's completely ignoring a problem specific to the game that is a symptom of that - one that Wizards could do something about. Theft happens where there is value or money to be made and it increases relative to that value. The rising cost of Magic has been an issue internally for this community for years. It's not news to anyone. But, as it's popularity has grown and social media and we find ourselves interconnected and more light is shone on us, that leads to more exposure to everyone - including the wrong type of people. Exposure through popularity and the evolution of communications isn't something you can help. Controlling the loss potential and curbing the motivation to steal valuable objects is something that can be controlled, by Wizards. As long as a deck can contain $350-400 in a single set of four cards alone, willing people will weigh the risks and rewards and find it too easy to resist. Yeah, there'd still people be willing to steal decks if they were worth $100-200 instead of $1000-1500, but if they weren't worth so much fewer people would feel the risk were worth it.
This is very troubling, and I have to agree with a lot of Xenphire's points. It's interesting that this coincides with the rise of "MTG Finance" sites that talk about trading and selling cards as though they were stocks and bonds, and I can't help but wonder what sort of subconscious impact that talk might have.
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Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching.
This is very troubling, and I have to agree with a lot of Xenphire's points. It's interesting that this coincides with the rise of "MTG Finance" sites that talk about trading and selling cards as though they were stocks and bonds, and I can't help but wonder what sort of subconscious impact that talk might have.
Not to mention the inclusion of Magic in more mainstream culture like South Park and the Forbes investment article - they may bring in new players, which is always great, but I'm sure they're also attracting the attention of people looking to exploit the game (or its players) as well. I see articles posted every day about people having their items stolen, usually because of a mistake on the victim's part (leaving items in their car or unsupervised at an LGS), but it's happening ALL the time now.
On the topic of finance, I know I keep an eye on prices every day (so I know when to trade in cards I'm not using for cards I want), but that doesn't change the fact that I really hate all of it. The game has a much higher barrier to entry than it did when I got back into it 6 years ago, which is fine for people making money on it, but not good for casual players or people looking to start playing competitively. We all know it's a hobby, and hobbies cost money, but it's so much more expensive than it has to be.
I get the correlation between rising card prices and theft, but I really can't see this issue being central in the larger conversation about card prices. It's one thing to ask wizards to reprint to lower prices to decrease the entry barrier for Legacy and Modern, but asking them to tank prices just to make card collections less appetizing theft targets is silly. Theft is a serious issue, mind you, but it's tangential in the larger debate.
I agree with BlazingRagnarok. Things of value will attract thieves.. It's just the way the world works. In some ways we should applaud Wizards for making a game that is valuable enough to warrant this attention. It means that the product they produce is valuable and sought after. Intentionally tanking the value of your product to reduce theft just doesn't seem like a wise business decision.
Theft is dealt with on an individual level. If you keep close attention to what you are doing and keep vigilant, you alone can greatly reduce the chances of stuff being stolen. I know that there are no guarantees in life and that even the best can be taken, but you can certainly reduce your exposure by modifying behavior on an individual level.
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Ouch
I buy HP and Damaged cards!
Only EDH:
Sigarda, Host of Herons: Enchantress' Enchantments
Jenara, Asura of War: ETB Value Town
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Global Punishment
Xenagos, God of Revels: Ramp, Sneak, & Heavy Hitters
Ghave, Guru of Spores: Dies_to_Doom_Blade's stax list
Edric, Spymaster of Trest: Donald's list
The amount of theft of belongings has picked up in the last couple years at an alarming rate. It wasn't quite as well known that Brian David-Masrhall's camera also went missing at the GP this weekend. One could say that part of the cost of a game becoming more widely popular is more of the inevitable bad apples finding their way into the game, as well. However, I don't think it's as simple as that, and I feel like the secondary market value of the game is in itself partially responsible for the higher rates of criminal theft and activity. Bar to entry to play the game due to the high value of cards on the secondary market is one issue we continue to face at worsening rate, while Wizards of the Coast makes failed attempts at trying to curb the issue with limited print run products and the very rare Standard reprint of non-Standard staples.
A big problem is, though, is that when you're too afraid to impact the secondary market values, other forces are going to take advantage of that. As the game's popularity increases, we also have more and more people attempting to buy out and flip corners of the market. Where for a long while cards would go up one or two dollars a week over several weeks at a time, now entire sections of the market go up as much as 20-30% over night. Unlike other games that put out supplemental products on a quarterly basis to help pump a healthy supply of in-demand cards into circulation, Wizards creates supplemental products with higher MSRP, in limited print runs and filled with a lot of chaff. Because of how ridiculously conservative they are with printing, it's easy to flip cards and raise the price significantly with so many people now trying to treat Magic like Wall Street.
At this point one might ask what this has to do with Winona Nelson's missing proofs? Well, that's the point I'm arriving at, now. You see, Magic cards are easy to sell. They're also small objects that are easy to conceal, rising in popularity and tend to be around high volumes of people. What I'm getting at here, is that the value of Magic cards rising and the ease of theft are proportional to the rate of that theft is climbing. It doesn't have to be someone who plays in a community - people drive from hours away to attend Grand Prixs and events jam packed with people. It's impossible for the Tournament Organizers to keep their eyes on everything, even with security cameras in some venues. But as long as Magic keeps climbing in value and popularity proportionally to each other, the more unscrupulous people are going to start showing up to these events. And it's going to escalate past cards. Winona Nelson lost her artist proofs. It's happened to artists before, but now we've also got a popular and well known Magic personality whose had his camera stolen. We've had people taking off with thousands of dollars of cards every other GP it seems like.
Sure, we can say that we need to be vigilant; leave unnecessary belongings at home; don't leave things in your car; don't leave belongings unattended. But where does it stop? There's only so much you can do to protect yourself, but as Magic gets more popular and becomes more and more attractive as easy money, more and more of this will happen. This is just another damaging effect that the cost of the game is having on the players.
(Also known as Xenphire)
But if someone gets their stuff stolen at a MTG event, well, that's a couple thousand dollars. This is not specifically a Magic thing, this is a society thing. Thefts happen all the time at all kinds of different events, the only difference is the consequences are much more substantial due to the nature of the merchandise. The same people who would steal a binder are the same ones who would steal a wallet, but you might argue they've found a more profitable form thievery provided they have an outlet to flip it. This thief is not that smart, artist proofs are pretty limited (50 ea) so having a large amount makes you pretty identifiable. Additionally, with some rare exceptions, AP's are usually worth AT BEST what the actual card is worth. So you have a less expensive product, that's harder to move, and more easily identifiable as stolen.
EDH: Grand Arbiter $tax, Freyalise Stompy, Mimeoplasm Death From the Grave
If anyone has any knowledge on this situation it would grant you instant karma to help in any way you can.
A high barrier of entry is not an excuse for lack of morals and respect towards others.
Signature courtesy of Rivenor and Miraculous Recovery
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U Kami of the Crescent Moon U (Flagship Deck)
BW Teysa, Orzhov Scion WB
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WUBRGX Pauper XGRBUW
then there was that guy at GP Toronto.
Guess with so many people in a room its bound to happen, as *****ty of a thing it is to steal someone else's stuff
I agree, especially since that's not at all what I was suggesting and that I never suggested that the thieves and player struggling to play were the same people. You don't have to be a Magic player to know it's popularity and hear about how valuable those easily concealable, easy to move pieces of cardboard are.
Re: other responses. Look, we can say it's a societal/human problem all we want, but that's completely ignoring a problem specific to the game that is a symptom of that - one that Wizards could do something about. Theft happens where there is value or money to be made and it increases relative to that value. The rising cost of Magic has been an issue internally for this community for years. It's not news to anyone. But, as it's popularity has grown and social media and we find ourselves interconnected and more light is shone on us, that leads to more exposure to everyone - including the wrong type of people. Exposure through popularity and the evolution of communications isn't something you can help. Controlling the loss potential and curbing the motivation to steal valuable objects is something that can be controlled, by Wizards. As long as a deck can contain $350-400 in a single set of four cards alone, willing people will weigh the risks and rewards and find it too easy to resist. Yeah, there'd still people be willing to steal decks if they were worth $100-200 instead of $1000-1500, but if they weren't worth so much fewer people would feel the risk were worth it.
(Also known as Xenphire)
that could very well be what costs the thief. It could be very noticeable
Not to mention the inclusion of Magic in more mainstream culture like South Park and the Forbes investment article - they may bring in new players, which is always great, but I'm sure they're also attracting the attention of people looking to exploit the game (or its players) as well. I see articles posted every day about people having their items stolen, usually because of a mistake on the victim's part (leaving items in their car or unsupervised at an LGS), but it's happening ALL the time now.
On the topic of finance, I know I keep an eye on prices every day (so I know when to trade in cards I'm not using for cards I want), but that doesn't change the fact that I really hate all of it. The game has a much higher barrier to entry than it did when I got back into it 6 years ago, which is fine for people making money on it, but not good for casual players or people looking to start playing competitively. We all know it's a hobby, and hobbies cost money, but it's so much more expensive than it has to be.
WUBR Breya, Thopter Sculptor
WBR Kaalia, Harbinger of the Apocalypse
WBR Edgar Markov, Bloodline Progenitor
BGW Karador, Reanimator King
GWU Jenara, Asuran Enchantress
URG Riku, Omniscient Wizard
UBG Tasigur, Mind Grinder
UB Grimgrin, Combo-Stitched
GW Rhys, Gilt-Leaf Warrior
B Drana, Defiant Bloodchief
U Baral, Lord of Counterspells
G Azusa, Seeking the Horizon
W Kemba, Kha of the White Sun
C Ulamog, the Mana Glutton
Theft is dealt with on an individual level. If you keep close attention to what you are doing and keep vigilant, you alone can greatly reduce the chances of stuff being stolen. I know that there are no guarantees in life and that even the best can be taken, but you can certainly reduce your exposure by modifying behavior on an individual level.