I wouldn't say that you need a degree, but it probably good to understand a few things.
Firstly, making money on magic cards (which us what you are actually asking about) is not easy. There are very few slam dunk win opportunities anymore. As Magic card investing matured, easy money has become hard to find.
Like all investments, there are significant risks with Magic cards. The different risks could easily fill a chapter in a book.
Huge upswings happen, but almost everyone is behind the curve on them. Sure, I own some Teegs, but I didn't stockpile them in anticipation of the buyout that occurred earlier this week.
Magic card investing is not like a real investment market at all. The transaction costs are silly high. Non-starcitygames retail sellers can and do void sales if you are buying a card that just spiked that was priced too low. Fraud, in many many forms, is a very real thing. Volume purchases (say 20k in value or more) are hard to make money on because very few people or businesses will facilitate a near market value repurchase of your investment. Heavy handed manipulation, whether done by a vendor or by a cohort of investors, of the market is a driving force behind the retail cost of Magic cards.
I know that a lot of this is coming off in a discouraging manor, but I honestly feel like too many folks have decided that Magic card investing is an easy and near foolproof way to make schloads of dough. Although you can probably find me lots of examples, people don't talk about when they took a bath on an investment.
It is similar to how you hear about the good casino stories, but not the countless bad ones. Based on what I hear about people's casino experiences, I should become a professional casino player. However, as we all know, in the long run the casino always wins and it would be supremely foolish for me to expect to make consistent money from casinos.
No you don't. You just need to be good at evaluating cards for their overall strength and against what already exists in formats and archetypes. Trusting in your own judgement and not being swayed by the dumb dumbs is also big. If you invest in things based on what everyone else is saying about them, then you will miss a lot of the big opportunities. I can't even tell you how many times I've missed big opportunities because I listened to someone I thought was an authority on magic tell me how mediocre a card was. Good players are not always good at evaluating cards, deck builders are often much better at this. I wouldn't recommend investing unless you have a strong understanding of why certain cards carry the price tags they do in various formats. Another big things is knowing when to buy and when to sell. This has bit me in the ace many times. Sometimes you sell too early for fear of a price drop and sometimes you sell too late because you were holding out for too long. Sometimes you just jump on the bandwagon too late. I did this recently on collected company and hangerback walker and now I'm just hanging onto them in hopes of increased play at the next rotation.
If you actively play the game, build decks, and pay attention to the constantly changing meta you will notice patterns and you will become better at evaluating cards. I would just start with low risk investments in dollar rares. The reason I invest is because I also like to play the game. It's kind of like low stakes gambling where you can play with your chips while your waiting to cash in.
Of course you don't need a degree to understand MTG finance.
But frankly, theres a degree's worth of information in MTG finance. MTG finance isn't something you can learn from a book. It's something you can only learn because of your own self-interest.
My advice is to not go all in on cards, think of it as an index fund. You're looking to buy a wide variety of cards and let them appreciate. In this form Magic has significantly outperformed the stock market for the last several years but it's a long term strategy. What you're referring to would be closer to day trading and is MUCH harder to pull off.
Right now is the time to buy if you plan to (December is the best time of year actually), prices are at their minimums and hit their bottom about 3-4 days ago. The Modern season buyouts have started and many cards are starting to increase again. Long term this is definitely the time to buy Modern, a mass reprint is probably 1.5-2 years away and in demand cards are just going to go up, up, up short of the bubble bursting, plus were on the eve of the PT which will bring some price increases.
Unless it's a proven staple like Goyf I would say don't expose yourself past 10 or so copies of a card, and definitely don't go all in on anything.
I think that buying bulk and catering to casuals are simply the easiest way to sell enough cards that you can build the collection you want. I mean you are buying rares for 15 cents and selling them for 50 cents but really on what sort of staple are you reasonable going to expect 300 percent profits? The best thing is people are more likely to splurge on casual cards and no one is ever going to feel ripped of from buying a 50 cent rare. You simply will always have those bargain hunters that don't mind paying 50 cents for a card that really is bulk as long as it ruffles there timmy feathers.
You would often be surprised at how willing people are to buy cards you thought no one would ever want. People should realise that having cards in hand does actually mean something. You may really be convinced that people are never going to pay 50 cents for a card they can get for 25 cents at SCG but having not to get the credit card out and have to pay shipping does mean something to some people.
and trough it all buying bulk is virtually a zero risk investment. Buy a hundred bulk rares for 15 cents each you should not have much problems selling them again to some vendor for 15 cents each again. The bulk rares prices can literally only go up.
It is hard work turning a profit with bulk. You have to know your local community well and be a part of some sort of casual play group but helping some kid build his commander deck with a few cheap rares and seeing his face when he wins his first game is super worth it if you enjoy that kind of thing.
I'm not looking to get rich off of it. I'm just interested in it as a way to hopefully pay or mostly pay for magic the gathering hobby.
Firstly, making money on magic cards (which us what you are actually asking about) is not easy. There are very few slam dunk win opportunities anymore. As Magic card investing matured, easy money has become hard to find.
Like all investments, there are significant risks with Magic cards. The different risks could easily fill a chapter in a book.
Huge upswings happen, but almost everyone is behind the curve on them. Sure, I own some Teegs, but I didn't stockpile them in anticipation of the buyout that occurred earlier this week.
Magic card investing is not like a real investment market at all. The transaction costs are silly high. Non-starcitygames retail sellers can and do void sales if you are buying a card that just spiked that was priced too low. Fraud, in many many forms, is a very real thing. Volume purchases (say 20k in value or more) are hard to make money on because very few people or businesses will facilitate a near market value repurchase of your investment. Heavy handed manipulation, whether done by a vendor or by a cohort of investors, of the market is a driving force behind the retail cost of Magic cards.
I know that a lot of this is coming off in a discouraging manor, but I honestly feel like too many folks have decided that Magic card investing is an easy and near foolproof way to make schloads of dough. Although you can probably find me lots of examples, people don't talk about when they took a bath on an investment.
It is similar to how you hear about the good casino stories, but not the countless bad ones. Based on what I hear about people's casino experiences, I should become a professional casino player. However, as we all know, in the long run the casino always wins and it would be supremely foolish for me to expect to make consistent money from casinos.
Just my 2c, good luck and remember to have fun.
If you actively play the game, build decks, and pay attention to the constantly changing meta you will notice patterns and you will become better at evaluating cards. I would just start with low risk investments in dollar rares. The reason I invest is because I also like to play the game. It's kind of like low stakes gambling where you can play with your chips while your waiting to cash in.
Though I do mostly build my decks. I might check a little bit for cards I missed, but it seems like for the part I'm good at deck building for edh.
But yeah, I want to get into for little extra fun with magic. I'm not expecting to live off buying selling cards like this.
But frankly, theres a degree's worth of information in MTG finance. MTG finance isn't something you can learn from a book. It's something you can only learn because of your own self-interest.
Right now is the time to buy if you plan to (December is the best time of year actually), prices are at their minimums and hit their bottom about 3-4 days ago. The Modern season buyouts have started and many cards are starting to increase again. Long term this is definitely the time to buy Modern, a mass reprint is probably 1.5-2 years away and in demand cards are just going to go up, up, up short of the bubble bursting, plus were on the eve of the PT which will bring some price increases.
Unless it's a proven staple like Goyf I would say don't expose yourself past 10 or so copies of a card, and definitely don't go all in on anything.
You would often be surprised at how willing people are to buy cards you thought no one would ever want. People should realise that having cards in hand does actually mean something. You may really be convinced that people are never going to pay 50 cents for a card they can get for 25 cents at SCG but having not to get the credit card out and have to pay shipping does mean something to some people.
and trough it all buying bulk is virtually a zero risk investment. Buy a hundred bulk rares for 15 cents each you should not have much problems selling them again to some vendor for 15 cents each again. The bulk rares prices can literally only go up.
It is hard work turning a profit with bulk. You have to know your local community well and be a part of some sort of casual play group but helping some kid build his commander deck with a few cheap rares and seeing his face when he wins his first game is super worth it if you enjoy that kind of thing.
Buy eternal format staples when they are in standard, wait 3-5 years, sell when people realize they aren't in print anymore and the price doubles.
With this method, you'll lose minimal money in case of misses, because staples tend to stay staples.
It's a very long term strategy though.