You are misunderstanding. If you cannot locally sell,trade or use the junk foils and they sit in your binder/box, they are in turn worthless. So the next step is to sell/trade them online. Now you could try and sell/trade them on a P2P site, but it's tedious, time consuming and costly (shipping adds up). So no real value there. The final step is usually selling them at a bulk discount, which generally puts their "worth" at the bulk discount price.
While this might be relevant to your PERSONAL value, you can't use your lack of selling outlets as an evaluation of THE value that you communicate to other people. Just because no one in your little town wants to buy a McLaren F1 doesn't mean it's worthless. So, when talking to other people, you should not say, "A McLaren F1 is worthless so it's a bad buy", because that only applies to you and your sad situation.
They are worthless when they are so bad they will be shoved in a shoe box etc for the rest of there life. There value does not matter when you are evaluating the total value of the box opened.
Please send me your "worthless" foils then; I would love to make money off your ignorance.
This post and the one below it are condescending and flaming. Flame infraction issued for this post and post #91 in this thread.
They are worthless when they are so bad they will be shoved in a shoe box etc for the rest of there life. There value does not matter when you are evaluating the total value of the box opened.
Have to agree with this. I think we are talking about the general population or general audience even on this forum, so largely those cards are going to go to waste, or thrown in a box.
I think it can be generally agreed that most people will not have an outlet for commons and for most of the uncommons, except the playables / valuable ones. Nice to see the work that went into showing the EV for various instances including not counting the commons and uncommons.
2000 bulk C/UC foils, $250.00 shipped. Should guarantee you at least 100% profit.
Deal?
Why am I paying $250 for shipping? 2000 cards is only 8 lbs. That'll fit in a priority mail medium flat rate box for only $11.30, or one of your own boxes for about $13. So, since the cards are worthless, time to put your money where your mouth is. I'll pay you $15 for 2000 bulk C/UC foils; that'll cover not only your shipping costs but your time as well. Deal?
Why am I paying $250 for shipping? 2000 cards is only 8 lbs. That'll fit in a priority mail medium flat rate box for only $11.30, or one of your own boxes for about $13. So, since the cards are worthless, time to put your money where your mouth is. I'll pay you $15 for 2000 bulk C/UC foils; that'll cover not only your shipping costs but your time as well. Deal?
I believe the other poster was getting the impression from your posts that even a bulk foil was worth .25 (ie: a foil that is worth less than an easily sellable amount, whether than be .50 or $1 or whatever someone may consider to be the low end above bulk) For example, people call non-foil rares that are worth less than $1, or less than .50 (depending upon who you talk to) as being "bulk rares". And tend to value them at whatever a bulk rate might be, which is often somewhere around .10 (for bulking to stores), or .15-.20 for bulking on ebay for a larger lot of rares.
Foils that would fall under the same category of value or general demand, may also be looked at similarly. In the same category as the above, selling bulk to online stores will often net you .05 for a common/uncommon foil, or .25 for a foil rare in that category. Ebay you could likely get around double that, but not likely much more. Which still only puts the bulk category for the foils at .10 for the commons/uncommons and .50 for the rares when on ebay.
If you have local connections, or a large local base of people who you sell/trade cards to, to where you can get more for what people may put into the bulk category based upon what they are often valued at online, then that is going to expand the value that you might be able to get out of the foils or the bulk rares, or such categories. The average person who may be buying a box though, likely wont have those connections, or have a waiting base of local players looking to buy up such cards from them. Thus their only options would be to either hold onto the cards, or to sell them online however they could.
For an example, you can go onto ebay right now and buy 1,000 foil commons/uncommons in a single listing for $131 shipped.
When it comes to Modern Masters in general. I believe that there is certainly the potential to break even, even after some depreciation due to the reprints hitting the market, at $250 or under. Above $250, I just don't see the post-depreciation numbers adding up properly. As with all boxes out there, there is of course likely to be a decent amount of variance, box to box, so some boxes could certainly be worth $300 or more, while some may only be worth $200 or possibly less. If I were to consider buying a box myself, it would only be at $200 or less to feel comfortable enough doing so.
That's in fact wrong. If you want proof just look at Xbox and Playstation.
I guess it would be fair to say it's only half wrong. They can charge more but it's completely within the manufacturers rights to specify a price floor. Doesn't particularly pertain to this situation since they are gouging but still.
However, the confusion is totally understandable as companies get away with breaking this law literally every single day with no consequences. Have you ever noticed how similar products from unrelated companies are often the same price? Sometimes this is because prices for similar products normalize somewhat so it's very hard to prove that it's happening. However, it would be very naive to think that this isn't a very common occurrence.
This is absolutely wrong. Firstly, even common and uncommon foils add a ton of value. The cheapest card in Dragon's Maze is still worth $0.25 in foil, and many $0.50 or more. Secondly, we don't "know" those are his only good foils; that's just what he showed. Finally, you have to included money foils, just like money mythics, when evaluating box value, otherwise it's inaccurate. Now, I agree, that unless you open like 10 cases, your chances of a foil Tarmogoyf aren't good. But even when you look at the statistical likely boxes, you're still talking about a substantial value in foil commons and uncommons.
Why am I paying $250 for shipping? 2000 cards is only 8 lbs. That'll fit in a priority mail medium flat rate box for only $11.30, or one of your own boxes for about $13. So, since the cards are worthless, time to put your money where your mouth is. I'll pay you $15 for 2000 bulk C/UC foils; that'll cover not only your shipping costs but your time as well. Deal?
I never said they were worthless. Quote me.
Now, I have an honest question, <do you severely lack reading comprehension, or are you just a troll?>
I am offering you the opportunity to double your money. Why don't you take it?
Edit: Actually, don't even bother answering. I'll just put you on my ignore list, and we can go our merry ways
Insulting a person's intelligence and calling them a troll is flaming. Infraction issued.
- Skies
Edit: So he can put words in my mouth, but I can't call him out on it? Interesting.
Much like everything else, the cost is what the market requires. MSRP is not retail, it's Minimum Suggested Retail Price. Anytime supply is low, price will go up.
Much like everything else, the cost is what the market requires. MSRP is not retail, it's Minimum Suggested Retail Price. Anytime supply is low, price will go up.
Cheers
Actually, MSRP stands for "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price."
Anyways, I'm of the opinion with the confirmation of a 2nd box wave, these will be reasonably affordable for the next month or two, eh?
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However, the confusion is totally understandable as companies get away with breaking this law literally every single day with no consequences. Have you ever noticed how similar products from unrelated companies are often the same price? Sometimes this is because prices for similar products normalize somewhat so it's very hard to prove that it's happening. However, it would be very naive to think that this isn't a very common occurrence.
What are you calling price fixing? MAP? If so, it definitely is not considered price fixing. It could still violate antitrust laws, but the courts haven't made a final decision on it yet. There's been no real movement in the area in over five years.
I believe the other poster was getting the impression from your posts that even a bulk foil was worth .25 (ie: a foil that is worth less than an easily sellable amount, whether than be .50 or $1 or whatever someone may consider to be the low end above bulk) For example, people call non-foil rares that are worth less than $1, or less than .50 (depending upon who you talk to) as being "bulk rares". And tend to value them at whatever a bulk rate might be, which is often somewhere around .10 (for bulking to stores), or .15-.20 for bulking on ebay for a larger lot of rares.
I get the concept, but I just don't think it's applicable to valueing a pack, let alone a box or a case. By their very nature a large number of cards are going to be cheap commons, but to dismiss their value completely because they're too cheap for YOU to bother selling is very misleading to others. A dollar isn't not worth a dollar because a rich man won't stoop to pick it up but a poor man will. What you could say, and have a completely cool conversation about, is something like, "Well, the cheap cards are too difficult for me to sell, so FOR ME, Modern Masters isn't worth buying at $300/case." But we have these people going beyond that and basically say, "No, you idiot, it's not worth it for ANYONE to buy at $300/case because the cheap cards are too difficult for me to sell." which is quite presumptuous and egocentric.
The conversation you interjected yourself into was one I was having with someone else. In that conversation, THEY had already started with the premise that the majority of the commons and uncommon foil cards were not worth enough to be considered when calculating the value of a box. When YOU jumped in and answered my response to that, YOU are assuming the same position in the debate, unless you explicitly say otherwise.
I am offering you the opportunity to double your money. Why don't you take it?
Because my impression was you valued the cards even less than that, and thus I was trying to get a better deal as a smart businessman. I misread your intentions given that you were actually trying to have a tangential conversation rather than (as it appered) continue the debate I was having with someone else.
At $250 your offer is tempting; however, most of my working capital is tied up in Modern Masters cases right now. If business goes well on eBay this month, I might have the spare cash to consider your offer. However, the problem for me is opportunity cost; I can probably make more money buying $250 of product from someone else's collection because one can move non-foils more quickly. This does not mean that foils are not worth their value, but on eBay you're limited to only so many free listings per month, so one must be selective in order to maximize profits. Note that this is not a consideration for the average person who buys a box and wants to sell all the cheap foils, since they still get 50 free listings per month and normally aren't selling anything else.
What are you calling price fixing? MAP? If so, it definitely is not considered price fixing. It could still violate antitrust laws, but the courts haven't made a final decision on it yet. There's been no real movement in the area in over five years.
I'm calling having a manufacturer force a retailer to sell a product for a specific price illegal. It sometimes falls under the definition of price fixing(check my source) but it's also sometimes called "Resale Price Maintenance." And it is very much illegal.
Edit: An explanation for while it's considered price fixing...
"In Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park and Sons, 220 U.S. 373 (1911), the United States Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's holding that a massive minimum resale price maintenance scheme was unreasonable and thus offended Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The decision rested on the assertion that minimum resale price maintenance is indistinguishable in economic effect from naked horizontal price fixing by a cartel. Subsequent decisions characterized Dr Miles as holding that minimum resale price maintenance is unlawful per se - that is, without regard to its impact on the marketplace or consumers." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resale_price_maintenance#United_States_law
Edit: It is illegal in the U.S. I can't speak for other countries though as I'm not familiar with foreign economic policies.
I am sure I am not alone but I feel 250-300$ dollars a box is too much. There are three games stores where I live. None are even selling packs, and as a result I look online but the prices are prohibitively expensive. I do not see how this helping availability when the stores around me just appear to be flipping them.
Its a scam. Reprinting older cards. If there are particular cards you want from Modern Masters, then ignore this set and buy the singles from the original sets.
What you're describing is imperfect buyer behavior, which is great; a seller can take advantage of it to make money. That doesn't change what things are "worth".
A TCG list price is not what something is "worth". It's not that easy. I majored in economics; don't think you're the only one who knows anything of this matter.
A TCG list price is not what something is "worth". It's not that easy. I majored in economics; don't think you're the only one who knows anything of this matter.
While it's not that "easy", the bulk commodity price is not what something is "worth" either. When people want to know what something is "worth", they want to know how much they can reasonably expect to sell it for, without considering overhead, time, opportunity cost, or difficulty. When someone says, "That's a $50 card", they don't mean, "That's a $50 card plus the cost of gas driving to the store, buying the stamp and the envelope, the card sleeves, the eBay listing fee, the PayPal fee, the wage value of the time lost actually listing the item in your browser, the electricity consumed, etc."
If you have difficulty selling a cheap foil, it's understandable that you might accept less than what it's "worth" to get rid of it quickly. But that doesn't change what it's "worth". At best, it changes what it's "worth to you".
While it's not that "easy", the bulk commodity price is not what something is "worth" either. When people want to know what something is "worth", they want to know how much they can reasonably expect to sell it for, without considering overhead, time, opportunity cost, or difficulty. When someone says, "That's a $50 card", they don't mean, "That's a $50 card plus the cost of gas driving to the store, buying the stamp and the envelope, the card sleeves, the eBay listing fee, the PayPal fee, the wage value of the time lost actually listing the item in your browser, the electricity consumed, etc."
Actually, that's exactly what is meant, and those factors are always included when evaluating cards. The reason a $100 card is worth a lot more in reality than 1,000 $0.10 cards is because a $100 card is (on average) much more liquid, that is, it approximates much more closely the function of a real $100 bill, whereas a 10 cent card approximates very poorly the function of a dime, because of all the transaction overhead involved in actually realizing that supposed value (it is not very liquid at all). Of course, there is a large variation of liquidity within $100+ cards as well (e.g. Nether Void vs. Jace, the Mind Sculptor) which is why there is the concept of staple expensive cards (fetches, duals, Jace, Goyf) vs. niche, rare expensive cards (Legends, Antiquities, etc.) and staples are, by definition, more generally in demand and more attractive to sellers.
If you look at store buylist prices instead of just the retail prices, they reflect this very well- you are not going to get a store to buy a thousand* 10 cent cards for $50, ever. But you will very well get a store to buy a $100 card for $50, or significantly higher, for that matter. It's also the reason people are heavily against "trading down" - there's no magical reason why, it's because of the same reason.
I suggest you take a step back and try and evaluate your knowledge of economics before you say ludicrous things like "When people want to know what something is "worth", they want to know how much they can reasonably expect to sell it for, without considering overhead, time, opportunity cost, or difficulty." Are you seriously of the opinion that overhead, time, opportunity cost and difficulty are irrelevant to what people care about when evaluating cards for trade and sale? You have an incorrect and foolish fixation on the listed retail price.
If you look at store buylist prices instead of just the retail prices, they reflect this very well- you are not going to get a store to buy a hundred 10 cent cards for $50, ever.
That's because a hundred dimes is $10.
But the rest of your post was excellent. People too often open a Modern Masters booster with a crap rare and say "well, I at least got $15 retail based on SCG prices". No, you got about $1.50 at buylist prices.
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Due to real-life obligations, I am taking a long break from Magic which may include missing the local Legacy GP. Apologies for not being able to keep my threads updated.
But the rest of your post was excellent. People too often open a Modern Masters booster with a crap rare and say "well, I at least got $15 retail based on SCG prices". No, you got about $1.50 at buylist prices.
I suggest you take a step back and try and evaluate your knowledge of economics before you say ludicrous things like "When people want to know what something is "worth", they want to know how much they can reasonably expect to sell it for, without considering overhead, time, opportunity cost, or difficulty." Are you seriously of the opinion that overhead, time, opportunity cost and difficulty are irrelevant to what people care about when evaluating cards for trade and sale? You have an incorrect and foolish fixation on the listed retail price.
You are absolutely wrong. If you and I have the same $100 card but you had to spend months looking for yours, drive a long way to pick it up, and trade heavily for it it's still only worth $100. I see people attempting to adopt your theory that your time and effort are worth money all the time...usually when they want to drastically overvalue their collections. I ignore these people as they have no idea what they're doing.
A seller can ask whatever price they want too but the card is only go to be worth as much as a potential buyer is willing to pay. Buyers don't care about shipping cost or over head... sellers do...
You are absolutely wrong. If you and I have the same $100 card but you had to spend months looking for yours, drive a long way to pick it up, and trade heavily for it it's still only worth $100. I see people attempting to adopt your theory that your time and effort are worth money all the time...usually when they want to drastically overvalue their collections. I ignore these people as they have no idea what they're doing.
You're reading Balrog in the wrong way. Obviously two identical cards will be worth the same amount. What work you had to do to get the card is irrelevant. What work you would have to do to get rid of the card, that's what needs to be factored in here.
I see people attempting to adopt your theory that your time and effort are worth money all the time...usually when they want to drastically overvalue their collections. I ignore these people as they have no idea what they're doing.
Ironically one of the ways people drastically overvalue their collections is by assuming their collection is worth the sum total of the retail prices on all the cards, down to every 30 cent uncommon. In fact this is the most common way people drastically overvalue their collections.
Which is precisely my point. Your collection (or box) is not "worth" the sum of retail prices of every individual card. People will not value your collection through this formula.
You're reading Balrog in the wrong way. Obviously two identical cards will be worth the same amount. What work you had to do to get the card is irrelevant. What work you would have to do to get rid of the card, that's what needs to be factored in here.
Ironically one of the ways people drastically overvalue their collections is by assuming their collection is worth the sum total of the retail prices on all the cards, down to every 30 cent uncommon. In fact this is the most common way people drastically overvalue their collections.
Which is precisely my point. Your collection (or box) is not "worth" the sum of retail prices of every individual card. People will not value your collection through this formula.
Correct.
Well one way to value your collection that would be more accurate would be something close to this. My current collection has about 64000 cards (without basic) accounted for atm. If I want to put an approximate sell value on it I would call it, $6500-9000. That is calling every card $.10-.15. I know it would not be easy to move for that price but, it would be possible because of some bigger name cards I have with it
While this might be relevant to your PERSONAL value, you can't use your lack of selling outlets as an evaluation of THE value that you communicate to other people. Just because no one in your little town wants to buy a McLaren F1 doesn't mean it's worthless. So, when talking to other people, you should not say, "A McLaren F1 is worthless so it's a bad buy", because that only applies to you and your sad situation.
Please send me your "worthless" foils then; I would love to make money off your ignorance.
This post and the one below it are condescending and flaming. Flame infraction issued for this post and post #91 in this thread.
- Skies
Have to agree with this. I think we are talking about the general population or general audience even on this forum, so largely those cards are going to go to waste, or thrown in a box.
I think it can be generally agreed that most people will not have an outlet for commons and for most of the uncommons, except the playables / valuable ones. Nice to see the work that went into showing the EV for various instances including not counting the commons and uncommons.
EDH Decks:
B Toshiro Umezawa B
W Mikaeus, the Lunarch W
G Azusa, Lost but Seeking G
UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born BU
BGU The Mimeoplasm UGB
GUW Rubinia Soulsinger WUG
GRB Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper BRG
Time to put your money where your mouth is.
2000 bulk C/UC foils, $250.00 shipped. Should guarantee you at least 100% profit.
Deal?
Why am I paying $250 for shipping? 2000 cards is only 8 lbs. That'll fit in a priority mail medium flat rate box for only $11.30, or one of your own boxes for about $13. So, since the cards are worthless, time to put your money where your mouth is. I'll pay you $15 for 2000 bulk C/UC foils; that'll cover not only your shipping costs but your time as well. Deal?
I believe the other poster was getting the impression from your posts that even a bulk foil was worth .25 (ie: a foil that is worth less than an easily sellable amount, whether than be .50 or $1 or whatever someone may consider to be the low end above bulk) For example, people call non-foil rares that are worth less than $1, or less than .50 (depending upon who you talk to) as being "bulk rares". And tend to value them at whatever a bulk rate might be, which is often somewhere around .10 (for bulking to stores), or .15-.20 for bulking on ebay for a larger lot of rares.
Foils that would fall under the same category of value or general demand, may also be looked at similarly. In the same category as the above, selling bulk to online stores will often net you .05 for a common/uncommon foil, or .25 for a foil rare in that category. Ebay you could likely get around double that, but not likely much more. Which still only puts the bulk category for the foils at .10 for the commons/uncommons and .50 for the rares when on ebay.
If you have local connections, or a large local base of people who you sell/trade cards to, to where you can get more for what people may put into the bulk category based upon what they are often valued at online, then that is going to expand the value that you might be able to get out of the foils or the bulk rares, or such categories. The average person who may be buying a box though, likely wont have those connections, or have a waiting base of local players looking to buy up such cards from them. Thus their only options would be to either hold onto the cards, or to sell them online however they could.
For an example, you can go onto ebay right now and buy 1,000 foil commons/uncommons in a single listing for $131 shipped.
When it comes to Modern Masters in general. I believe that there is certainly the potential to break even, even after some depreciation due to the reprints hitting the market, at $250 or under. Above $250, I just don't see the post-depreciation numbers adding up properly. As with all boxes out there, there is of course likely to be a decent amount of variance, box to box, so some boxes could certainly be worth $300 or more, while some may only be worth $200 or possibly less. If I were to consider buying a box myself, it would only be at $200 or less to feel comfortable enough doing so.
Actually, it is illegal. It's called price fixing and was made illegal under the Sherman Act. Source: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Price+Fixing
However, the confusion is totally understandable as companies get away with breaking this law literally every single day with no consequences. Have you ever noticed how similar products from unrelated companies are often the same price? Sometimes this is because prices for similar products normalize somewhat so it's very hard to prove that it's happening. However, it would be very naive to think that this isn't a very common occurrence.
2) Men who graduate college are more likely to select a high paying major then women http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/23/pf/c...gap/index.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/actua...th-2011-3?op=1 " -Commons
I never said they were worthless. Quote me.
Now, I have an honest question, <do you severely lack reading comprehension, or are you just a troll?>
I am offering you the opportunity to double your money. Why don't you take it?
Edit: Actually, don't even bother answering. I'll just put you on my ignore list, and we can go our merry ways
Insulting a person's intelligence and calling them a troll is flaming. Infraction issued.
- Skies
Edit: So he can put words in my mouth, but I can't call him out on it? Interesting.
I thought the cost was 6.99 per pack btw? What happened?
Cheers
Actually, MSRP stands for "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price."
Anyways, I'm of the opinion with the confirmation of a 2nd box wave, these will be reasonably affordable for the next month or two, eh?
[W]FREE STONEFORGE MYSTIC and JACE THE MINDSCULPTOR[/W]
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What are you calling price fixing? MAP? If so, it definitely is not considered price fixing. It could still violate antitrust laws, but the courts haven't made a final decision on it yet. There's been no real movement in the area in over five years.
I get the concept, but I just don't think it's applicable to valueing a pack, let alone a box or a case. By their very nature a large number of cards are going to be cheap commons, but to dismiss their value completely because they're too cheap for YOU to bother selling is very misleading to others. A dollar isn't not worth a dollar because a rich man won't stoop to pick it up but a poor man will. What you could say, and have a completely cool conversation about, is something like, "Well, the cheap cards are too difficult for me to sell, so FOR ME, Modern Masters isn't worth buying at $300/case." But we have these people going beyond that and basically say, "No, you idiot, it's not worth it for ANYONE to buy at $300/case because the cheap cards are too difficult for me to sell." which is quite presumptuous and egocentric.
The conversation you interjected yourself into was one I was having with someone else. In that conversation, THEY had already started with the premise that the majority of the commons and uncommon foil cards were not worth enough to be considered when calculating the value of a box. When YOU jumped in and answered my response to that, YOU are assuming the same position in the debate, unless you explicitly say otherwise.
Because my impression was you valued the cards even less than that, and thus I was trying to get a better deal as a smart businessman. I misread your intentions given that you were actually trying to have a tangential conversation rather than (as it appered) continue the debate I was having with someone else.
At $250 your offer is tempting; however, most of my working capital is tied up in Modern Masters cases right now. If business goes well on eBay this month, I might have the spare cash to consider your offer. However, the problem for me is opportunity cost; I can probably make more money buying $250 of product from someone else's collection because one can move non-foils more quickly. This does not mean that foils are not worth their value, but on eBay you're limited to only so many free listings per month, so one must be selective in order to maximize profits. Note that this is not a consideration for the average person who buys a box and wants to sell all the cheap foils, since they still get 50 free listings per month and normally aren't selling anything else.
I'm calling having a manufacturer force a retailer to sell a product for a specific price illegal. It sometimes falls under the definition of price fixing(check my source) but it's also sometimes called "Resale Price Maintenance." And it is very much illegal.
Edit: An explanation for while it's considered price fixing...
"In Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park and Sons, 220 U.S. 373 (1911), the United States Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's holding that a massive minimum resale price maintenance scheme was unreasonable and thus offended Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The decision rested on the assertion that minimum resale price maintenance is indistinguishable in economic effect from naked horizontal price fixing by a cartel. Subsequent decisions characterized Dr Miles as holding that minimum resale price maintenance is unlawful per se - that is, without regard to its impact on the marketplace or consumers." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resale_price_maintenance#United_States_law
Edit: It is illegal in the U.S. I can't speak for other countries though as I'm not familiar with foreign economic policies.
2) Men who graduate college are more likely to select a high paying major then women http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/23/pf/c...gap/index.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/actua...th-2011-3?op=1 " -Commons
Its a scam. Reprinting older cards. If there are particular cards you want from Modern Masters, then ignore this set and buy the singles from the original sets.
A TCG list price is not what something is "worth". It's not that easy. I majored in economics; don't think you're the only one who knows anything of this matter.
0 Karn
W Darien
U Arcanis
B Geth
R Norin
G Yeva
UW Hanna
RB Olivia
WB Obzedat
UR Melek
BG Glissa
WR Aurelia
GU Kraj
BRU Nicol Bolas
RGB Prossh
BGW Ghave
GUB Mimeoplasm
WUBRG Sliver Overlord
GWU Treva, the Renewer
EDH Spike:
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Trades
While it's not that "easy", the bulk commodity price is not what something is "worth" either. When people want to know what something is "worth", they want to know how much they can reasonably expect to sell it for, without considering overhead, time, opportunity cost, or difficulty. When someone says, "That's a $50 card", they don't mean, "That's a $50 card plus the cost of gas driving to the store, buying the stamp and the envelope, the card sleeves, the eBay listing fee, the PayPal fee, the wage value of the time lost actually listing the item in your browser, the electricity consumed, etc."
If you have difficulty selling a cheap foil, it's understandable that you might accept less than what it's "worth" to get rid of it quickly. But that doesn't change what it's "worth". At best, it changes what it's "worth to you".
Actually, that's exactly what is meant, and those factors are always included when evaluating cards. The reason a $100 card is worth a lot more in reality than 1,000 $0.10 cards is because a $100 card is (on average) much more liquid, that is, it approximates much more closely the function of a real $100 bill, whereas a 10 cent card approximates very poorly the function of a dime, because of all the transaction overhead involved in actually realizing that supposed value (it is not very liquid at all). Of course, there is a large variation of liquidity within $100+ cards as well (e.g. Nether Void vs. Jace, the Mind Sculptor) which is why there is the concept of staple expensive cards (fetches, duals, Jace, Goyf) vs. niche, rare expensive cards (Legends, Antiquities, etc.) and staples are, by definition, more generally in demand and more attractive to sellers.
If you look at store buylist prices instead of just the retail prices, they reflect this very well- you are not going to get a store to buy a thousand* 10 cent cards for $50, ever. But you will very well get a store to buy a $100 card for $50, or significantly higher, for that matter. It's also the reason people are heavily against "trading down" - there's no magical reason why, it's because of the same reason.
I suggest you take a step back and try and evaluate your knowledge of economics before you say ludicrous things like "When people want to know what something is "worth", they want to know how much they can reasonably expect to sell it for, without considering overhead, time, opportunity cost, or difficulty." Are you seriously of the opinion that overhead, time, opportunity cost and difficulty are irrelevant to what people care about when evaluating cards for trade and sale? You have an incorrect and foolish fixation on the listed retail price.
0 Karn
W Darien
U Arcanis
B Geth
R Norin
G Yeva
UW Hanna
RB Olivia
WB Obzedat
UR Melek
BG Glissa
WR Aurelia
GU Kraj
BRU Nicol Bolas
RGB Prossh
BGW Ghave
GUB Mimeoplasm
WUBRG Sliver Overlord
GWU Treva, the Renewer
EDH Spike:
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Trades
That's because a hundred dimes is $10.
But the rest of your post was excellent. People too often open a Modern Masters booster with a crap rare and say "well, I at least got $15 retail based on SCG prices". No, you got about $1.50 at buylist prices.
Legacy
UWR Miracles UWR
GWB Maverick GWB
GB Elves GB
UBR ANT UBR
RG Combo Lands RG
Vintage
BUG BUG Fish BUG
Modern
GBW
Junk PodMagic: the BuylistingYeah, I meant one thousand, sorry
0 Karn
W Darien
U Arcanis
B Geth
R Norin
G Yeva
UW Hanna
RB Olivia
WB Obzedat
UR Melek
BG Glissa
WR Aurelia
GU Kraj
BRU Nicol Bolas
RGB Prossh
BGW Ghave
GUB Mimeoplasm
WUBRG Sliver Overlord
GWU Treva, the Renewer
EDH Spike:
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Trades
You are absolutely wrong. If you and I have the same $100 card but you had to spend months looking for yours, drive a long way to pick it up, and trade heavily for it it's still only worth $100. I see people attempting to adopt your theory that your time and effort are worth money all the time...usually when they want to drastically overvalue their collections. I ignore these people as they have no idea what they're doing.
Commander
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader G
GW Sigarda, Host of Herons WG
Legacy
GU 12 Post UG
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You're reading Balrog in the wrong way. Obviously two identical cards will be worth the same amount. What work you had to do to get the card is irrelevant. What work you would have to do to get rid of the card, that's what needs to be factored in here.
Ironically one of the ways people drastically overvalue their collections is by assuming their collection is worth the sum total of the retail prices on all the cards, down to every 30 cent uncommon. In fact this is the most common way people drastically overvalue their collections.
Which is precisely my point. Your collection (or box) is not "worth" the sum of retail prices of every individual card. People will not value your collection through this formula.
Correct.
0 Karn
W Darien
U Arcanis
B Geth
R Norin
G Yeva
UW Hanna
RB Olivia
WB Obzedat
UR Melek
BG Glissa
WR Aurelia
GU Kraj
BRU Nicol Bolas
RGB Prossh
BGW Ghave
GUB Mimeoplasm
WUBRG Sliver Overlord
GWU Treva, the Renewer
EDH Spike:
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Trades
There's a difference between "theory of selling" and actually selling I have to debate this on youtube all the time.
My karn is 40 dollars because SCG says so....
Some cards are impossible to move.... casual cards in particular. I just wait until GPs and offload them all..
Kirin's Skyfire Help Desk
Trading Post
Well one way to value your collection that would be more accurate would be something close to this. My current collection has about 64000 cards (without basic) accounted for atm. If I want to put an approximate sell value on it I would call it, $6500-9000. That is calling every card $.10-.15. I know it would not be easy to move for that price but, it would be possible because of some bigger name cards I have with it
Jace, the Mind Sculptor x2
tarmogoyf
Mox Diamond
all 5 zendkar fetches
To show a few.
Now if I were looking at the actual tcp prices for all these cards I would probably be looking really close to $100k