I want to venture into the trading aspect of MTG, and my LGS does not have a large trading group outside of FNM and friday's are no good for me as it alternates for a Friday with the wife and hosing game night "Pathfinder/D&D." My LGS hosts EDH on saturday and drafts on tues/wed shop depending.
For trading stock, they are mostly low value bulk cards from drafts, booster packs, duel deck "not doing that again..." etc. I came across Pucatrade as I like the idea of trading off my low value cards to gain points for higher/needed cards for builds.
I am starting to dip my toe, but am unsure of what to expect or even if Puca is worth it.
Puca is never worth it unless you're attempting to trade off 60-card constructed format staples. I'm talking about Shocklands, in-demand cards from Legacy, Modern and whatever is hot in Standard at the time. You'll be waiting a very long time for anyone to pick up your <$1.00 bulk. If someone does pick up something, chances are the stamp you use to send it will be worth more than the PucaPoints you receive, and then you may be able to find the cards you're looking for. If you want to trade for cards on any meaningful time table then Puca is by far one of the slowest ways to ago. I find much more success on Facebook buy/sell groups, but I'll also say it gets really irritating seeing post after post of people trying to trade or sell $0.10 rares and wanting fetchlands, shocklands, or $10.00+ staples and playables when no one wants 95% of the jank they post. Cam't count how many times someone posts 25+ photos of binder pics full of stuff no one wants and they're asking for foil everything or whatever. Probably better off trying to sell bulk to StarCityGames or whoever else buys bulk and getting some store credit.
I had good experiences with PucaTrade (even picked up a LED), but since their major site upgrade it seems like you practically need a paid account in order to get incoming trades. I've had a grand total of two incoming trades since.
Yup, the good days of Puca have come and gone. Once they did a site upgrade it's been junk. Only way to actually trade is to search the card you want to trade away and message others and see if they have anything you want. Very time consuming, it needs another overhaul.
100% nay
I don't like Pucatrade, personally. Honestly, if someone wants to trade me like 100 bulk rares for a 15.00 card, 90% of the time, I'll do it. I normally eventually end up a little ahead in those deals, because in later trades, when someone wants the odd bulk card, I say "Well, I've got one, and since you don't have to pay for shipping, wanna call it a buck?" I almost always get told yes.
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Decks:
Modern: Jund
Legacy: Pox
EDH: Chainer Reanimation and The Dragon Show, with Zirilan of the Claw
I've had great success with Pucatrade. My first trade was an Arid Mesa Expedition to Wedge of the Mana Source. That was right when BFZ came out. I traded off $400 worth of cards over my my time using the site and never had one issue with scammers or a single bad experience. Trading always took longer than I wanted though. Sometimes weeks to get a card and even going so far as to give other people points just so that they had enough points to *just* barely afford the card you were trying to dump (looking at you Eye of Ugin). I even used some of my points to commission alters of some of my EDH generals. I built 80% of the BW Selenia, Dark Angel deck that's in my signature just from pucatrade. All of those cards were acquired from trading off a single Force of Will for $120 in trade value. The prices are also inflated to get people to pay any attention to you and the process of getting those cards took over a month. It all went south just before the website update and got noticably worse over time and much worse after the new website launch. Their search parameters sucked for being so narrow. I gave it up abt 6 months ago at least.
I traded off $400 worth of cards over my my time using the site and never had one issue with scammers or a single bad experience.
I had one fake card sent to me (Liliana of the Veil), although it was a good enough fake that I didn't notice at a glance. Then a week or so later, a PucaTrade admin sent out messages to everyone who had received cards from the user that sent me the LotV, saying they'd been accused of sending out multiple fakes, and to please check the cards you got. The LotV failed the light test, and the admin had me send the fake to PucaTrade's address, at which point I got refunded my points.
I traded off $400 worth of cards over my my time using the site and never had one issue with scammers or a single bad experience.
I had one fake card sent to me (Liliana of the Veil), although it was a good enough fake that I didn't notice at a glance. Then a week or so later, a PucaTrade admin sent out messages to everyone who had received cards from the user that sent me the LotV, saying they'd been accused of sending out multiple fakes, and to please check the cards you got. The LotV failed the light test, and the admin had me send the fake to PucaTrade's address, at which point I got refunded my points.
Not to get too far off topic, was the light test the only one it failed? That would be scary if it was. I usually do the UV and Rosette(sp?) first.
I looked Puca a while back but didn't see any obvious way to cash out points if I couldn't get the cards I wanted or needed. For example, if I traded away say... a Tabernacle and got say half that back on wanted cards, how do I recover the rest? Get Jank cards? So I never bothered with it.
Pucatrade isn't work your time anymore. When it was first introduced it was pretty damn awesome, I got a ton of cards fast and traded off a bunch of chaff I wasn't going to use. Then the points costs became more and more inflated. Then they changed the site and, in my experience, you couldn't get anything without putting a "bounty" on everything you wanted. I'd recommend finding some other way to trade, or just sell your bulk to a store and use the credit to get what you need.
I traded off $400 worth of cards over my my time using the site and never had one issue with scammers or a single bad experience.
I had one fake card sent to me (Liliana of the Veil), although it was a good enough fake that I didn't notice at a glance. Then a week or so later, a PucaTrade admin sent out messages to everyone who had received cards from the user that sent me the LotV, saying they'd been accused of sending out multiple fakes, and to please check the cards you got. The LotV failed the light test, and the admin had me send the fake to PucaTrade's address, at which point I got refunded my points.
Not to get too far off topic, was the light test the only one it failed? That would be scary if it was. I usually do the UV and Rosette(sp?) first.
It was just the first one I tried. It looked identical to the LotV I bought from Troll and Toad with casual visual inspection, though. One failed the light test, and one didn't.
Pucatrade isn't work your time anymore. When it was first introduced it was pretty damn awesome, I got a ton of cards fast and traded off a bunch of chaff I wasn't going to use. Then the points costs became more and more inflated. Then they changed the site and, in my experience, you couldn't get anything without putting a "bounty" on everything you wanted. I'd recommend finding some other way to trade, or just sell your bulk to a store and use the credit to get what you need.
TL;DR hard pass.
/barn. It was great for a while when it was newer (I had ~$1500 in trades), but I've heard very little positive about it in the last year or two. I left before the site change when I ran out of things I wanted to send, just as inflated bounties were starting to pick up. I checked back after the site change and didn't like what I saw, so I stayed gone.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
I am also not impressed, I joined around a year ago and did not get much cards traded since then. I am now trying to use pts I have and then close my account. However, one great way that started generating trades again lately for me is by using the promoted trade option. Of course, it costs more as you have to offer a higher price to attract some trades. Three trades have materialized since then, so Puca is not completely useless.
Bottom line: avoid the site, unless they do a major change to their system (they should allow users to seek cards they need instead of passively waiting for them).
I feel lucky that I was able to get most of my points traded out before it became too bad. I think I probably have less than 300 points on it now. It was fun while it lasted.
Literally the only good thing that came out of it was learning the grandson of a senator who used to represent my home state plays Magic.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Your success on puca directly correlates to how much effort you want to put into it. I get plenty of cards on puca, but it's certainly not what it used to be. Now it takes networking, patience, and knowing the card economy. If you're looking to trade very casually, you'll be disappointed by what puca has become.
Puca was great for me for over a year and as stated about the time of the overhaul last year it's economy just fell apart. No way I would go near it now.
Moved over $4k of cards on puca in a very short time and picked up a ton of cube foils and staples very easily. Once the site revamp, I struggled to get any cards and eventually just called it quits.
Moved over $4k of cards on puca in a very short time and picked up a ton of cube foils and staples very easily. Once the site revamp, I struggled to get any cards and eventually just called it quits.
I'll second this. In a space of 18 months I was able to send out $2,550 worth of cards and I took in $2,550 worth of cards. That means on average I was sending out AND receiving $142 worth of cards every month for 18 consecutive months. I received over 30 cards worth $25 or more. I even received an $800 card, while never sending out anything over $90. At the time of the trade, my $800 card was the 11th most expensive card EVER traded on Puca. I referred at least 4 other people that became frequent users (never once collecting a referral fee, I referred them only because of how easy and convienient a resource it was). My last 6 months of my paid subscription (about 3 months prior to and 3 months after the site revamp), I was moving about $10 of cards per month. Now I've completely abandoned the site, with about 800 points in my account. In just a few months I went from moving ~$280 in cards per month (sending+receiving) to ~$20 per month to $0 per month. Now, if it were still easy to move the volume I did in my initial 18 months, do you think I would have abandoned it? I was a paid user (Silver Level) for 2 years and when my second year was set to expire I couldn't cancel soon enough.
I know a lot of people have negative feedback on how puca has evolved in the past few months, but I Disagree. No, it's not what it used to be. But I still get a good amount of cards per month without any real effort. Was somehow active on Discord a few months ago, but I got less time for that now. I'm not sending massive package just to maintain my points within what I consider the sweet spot for my wants to be fulfilled and send massively whe I'm below that threshold.
Received a Verdant Catacomb just last month.
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"De potentia juvenis somniabat, nunc de Mundo somniat..."
I joined when it was beta and had a good run for a year or two. Traded away alot of cards that was just sitting here for commander staples (the only format I play now). Unfortunately, I still have a balance of 50,000 points and not receiving anything. Could be because my want list is fairly small and add to the fact that no one is willing to send to Australia.
I want to venture into the trading aspect of MTG, and my LGS does not have a large trading group outside of FNM and friday's are no good for me as it alternates for a Friday with the wife and hosing game night "Pathfinder/D&D." My LGS hosts EDH on saturday and drafts on tues/wed shop depending.
For trading stock, they are mostly low value bulk cards from drafts, booster packs, duel deck "not doing that again..." etc. I came across Pucatrade as I like the idea of trading off my low value cards to gain points for higher/needed cards for builds.
I am starting to dip my toe, but am unsure of what to expect or even if Puca is worth it.
(Also known as Xenphire)
On another note, I have been using deckbox for my card inventory purposes, but not for trading. has anyone had any experience with their system?
EDIT: Just closed my puca account...yea.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
100% nay
Modern: Jund
Legacy: Pox
EDH: Chainer Reanimation and The Dragon Show, with Zirilan of the Claw
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-general/334931-what-is-the-most-pimp-card-deck-youve-seen-or?comment=5361
Commander
RGOmnath, Locus of Rage Grenades! EDHGR
UWSygg's Defense, EDH - Voltron & ControlWU
BUGMimeoplasm EDH ft. Ifnir Cycling-discard comboBUG
WBTeysa, Connoisseur of CullingBW
BWSelenia & Recruiter of the Guard suicice combo EDHWB
UBRWGO-Kagachi - 5 Color Enchantments - EDHUBRWG
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Not to get too far off topic, was the light test the only one it failed? That would be scary if it was. I usually do the UV and Rosette(sp?) first.
I looked Puca a while back but didn't see any obvious way to cash out points if I couldn't get the cards I wanted or needed. For example, if I traded away say... a Tabernacle and got say half that back on wanted cards, how do I recover the rest? Get Jank cards? So I never bothered with it.
TL;DR hard pass.
amazingly epic sig courtesy of DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Planes.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Bottom line: avoid the site, unless they do a major change to their system (they should allow users to seek cards they need instead of passively waiting for them).
amazingly epic sig courtesy of DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Planes.
On phasing:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=11439737#post11439737
Reality is only what man allows it to be. Few shape it so that many may accept it.
WGURBLands!WGURB
WGUInfectWGU
Legacy Lands Primer
Top 8 SCG Oakland 2014
Helpdesk
My Cube on CubeTutor
I'll second this. In a space of 18 months I was able to send out $2,550 worth of cards and I took in $2,550 worth of cards. That means on average I was sending out AND receiving $142 worth of cards every month for 18 consecutive months. I received over 30 cards worth $25 or more. I even received an $800 card, while never sending out anything over $90. At the time of the trade, my $800 card was the 11th most expensive card EVER traded on Puca. I referred at least 4 other people that became frequent users (never once collecting a referral fee, I referred them only because of how easy and convienient a resource it was). My last 6 months of my paid subscription (about 3 months prior to and 3 months after the site revamp), I was moving about $10 of cards per month. Now I've completely abandoned the site, with about 800 points in my account. In just a few months I went from moving ~$280 in cards per month (sending+receiving) to ~$20 per month to $0 per month. Now, if it were still easy to move the volume I did in my initial 18 months, do you think I would have abandoned it? I was a paid user (Silver Level) for 2 years and when my second year was set to expire I couldn't cancel soon enough.
Received a Verdant Catacomb just last month.