I was wondering if there are available resources which could assist noobs in learning how to make a profit buying and selling cards? Maybe articles that would give you a solid start by providing a foundation to proven methods, where to buy and sell cards, how to do basic forecasting (or a source which basically does this for you), reducing the learning curve, and avoiding pitfalls at first? I am basically interested in making just enough to cover my cost to play the game, which is usually between $50 and $100 per month.
1) Do the preorder thing, this is where you sell cards of a set not yet out, then buy boxes to cover your order, Typicaly presale prices are as high as a sets prices will go for 90% of cards.
2) Own a store, People often will sell stuff to stores at 50-75% TCG pricing (higher end for fancy highly liquid things like duel lands and legacy/edh staples 50% for basically everything else) Your chances of getting people to sell to you for that without a store are really REALLY low since stores are the "trusted market bottom*
Ebay is your friend you should use it.
Standard is only good if you are actively moving product, Be aware that as soon as it rotates prices WILL drop by a min of 30% and likely A LOT more.
Don't go for the "big score", always better to move 20 cards at lower margins then one card at a HUGE margin.
Keep up to date with your prices, get a smart phone and check prices before you buy anything make sure your not getting ripped off.
Be honest with people, This is sort of like avoid the big score, Sure you COULD buy that great $50 card from this newbie for $5 but when newbie figures out you ripped him off you will lose a customer forever and all his friends and everyone he tells. Better to be honest with the guy and give me fair (reseller) value.
I was wondering if there are available resources which could assist noobs in learning how to make a profit buying and selling cards? Maybe articles that would give you a solid start by providing a foundation to proven methods, where to buy and sell cards, how to do basic forecasting (or a source which basically does this for you), reducing the learning curve, and avoiding pitfalls at first? I am basically interested in making just enough to cover my cost to play the game, which is usually between $50 and $100 per month.
(All views below are the views of KnickM the person, and do not represent the views of MTGS staff. Please do not take this reply as a mod saying "Thou Shalt Not!", but just as another user running out an opinion. Thank you.)
So, I get where you're coming from, but you REALLY want to phrase things differently. When you say "make a profit buying and selling cards", that throws up red flags of "someone trying to make money off of the community". You probably want to say that you're looking to recoup your costs. That makes you sound less like a market manipulator.
That said, draftguy2 has some pretty good points. There are two ways to make a profit:
1) Buy cards that you don't need strictly for resale, and then sell them.
2) Sell cards that you bought for your decks.
#1 involves additional expenditure, both in time and money
#2 involves sacrifice of your decks, which means fun
While MTGFinance is a thing that some people try to do strictly for profit, it's not really feasible on a small scale. If you're not getting either singles or sealed product at a significant discount, you're not going to be making much profit. Here's an example. almost 2 years ago, BFZ Fat Packs were selling for $65 on eBay (including shipping). I was able to get one for under MSRP at my LGS. I thought "Wow, that's a $30 difference! I should sell it!" Well, once you take into account shipping, eBay, and PayPal fees, your net profit shrinks to single digits, which I didn't consider worth it. And that was when I got it at basically half price!
Some things to remember, in no particular order:
1) People are, generally, savvy about buying. If you're not the lowest price, they'll want some sort of additional service. SCG justifies their prices by having great customer service and generally great card quality - if you buy a NM card from SCG, you're going to get a NM card. And if you don't get one, you complain, and then they send you a NM card.
2) Don't go for the big score. It's been said before, but it bears repeating. Sure, you can trade the kid ten $5 cards that you were never going to use for that sweet $50 card. That's a good deal for you, and if he wants them, then it was a great deal for him. But don't trade him 10 $1 cards for it. Because you'll develop a reputation for doing that, and people will stop trading with you.
3) Always figure what your costs are. If you're selling online, packaging and shipping are a cost. If you're driving to a GP to trade, gas is a cost (unless you're going to play anyway, in which case, free trading!).
4) Watch the market. This is the big one that's a lot of work. There are thousands of cards, and different printings behave differently. Standard cards often jump the weekend of the Pro Tour. Modern cards jump if there's a breakout new deck that uses them (see: Vengevine, three weeks ago). Legacy cards are more subject to artificial manipulation than to deck choices. Reserved list cards rarely go down. Judge foils and MPS cards are usually good "parking spots", since their volatility is usually upwards-only.
5) The rules can change with no notice. Bannings, buyouts, reprints, and top-8s will all affect card prices. And not all of these happen on a schedule.
6) Your time is valuable. Don't spend a whole day trying to get a Thoughtseize for $5 less. Remember that when you put in your time and effort to make money, that is called a job.
After all that, I hope that you're not frightened away. It's not my intent to tell you "Don't do this!", I'm just trying to prepare you for what you have to think about. If there were a reliable way to make $50-$100 a month by buying and selling MTG cards, and it didn't involve spending a ton of time on it, you can bet we'd all quit our day jobs and just be Magic financiers. But there is no "quick and easy money" to be made consistently. There is definitely a way to get ahead by trading, and if you're really good at drafting you can probably go infinite that way.
Questions are welcome. That is, after all, why we are here. I'd love to see some replies from actual store owners, especially Jeff. His perspective is always helpful, from both sides of the counter.
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I don't mind putting in some work and a little investment to figure out that some cards will most likely increase with value based on the reserved list or new product release of commander product. Seems like I have been on the other side of that equation a lot. For example, the new Commander product with Vampires was spoiled, and released 2 days ago. I picked it up, and next week, I am going to order some really great vampire commander cards which are probably already listed on EDHREC, and I will probably spend much more on them than if I had bought them 2 weeks ago.
I am mostly looking for the best methods to manage this. I am not interested in trading people for cards, or harassing people at local stores to buy cards off them for cheap. I want to buy like 10 Vampire cards for $2 each that seem good 2 weeks before the product releases, then sell them for 300% markup 2 weeks after the product releases. Another perspective would be to buy cards like fetch lands for $6 each when they are in the current set, then hold them for 6 months, then sell them when they are going for $20 each. I reliably spend money on cards when they are more expensive, so if I can do the inverse on some cards, it can help fund my costs to play the game. I am just wondering what is the best method for doing that? Probably TCGPlayer or EBay?
I don't mind putting in some work and a little investment to figure out that some cards will most likely increase with value based on the reserved list or new product release of commander product. Seems like I have been on the other side of that equation a lot. For example, the new Commander product with Vampires was spoiled, and released 2 days ago. I picked it up, and next week, I am going to order some really great vampire commander cards which are probably already listed on EDHREC, and I will probably spend much more on them than if I had bought them 2 weeks ago.
I am mostly looking for the best methods to manage this. I am not interested in trading people for cards, or harassing people at local stores to buy cards off them for cheap. I want to buy like 10 Vampire cards for $2 each that seem good 2 weeks before the product releases, then sell them for 300% markup 2 weeks after the product releases. Another perspective would be to buy cards like fetch lands for $6 each when they are in the current set, then hold them for 6 months, then sell them when they are going for $20 each. I reliably spend money on cards when they are more expensive, so if I can do the inverse on some cards, it can help fund my costs to play the game. I am just wondering what is the best method for doing that? Probably TCGPlayer or EBay?
A lot of that is keeping up on information online for various new products or tournament results each weekend to see what cards have potential going forward, or what products will be coming out soon that could benefit from certain cards and going after those. Its a lot of intuition and lucky timing a lot of the time. Price spikes after tournament results or when new products are revealed can happen very quickly, and even then you will find that some stores will cancel orders when a spike occurs, so its always better to get more than enough for your needs than less. There is no surefire way to be able to make a quick and easy profit, that's for sure, but a little knowledge can go a long way. I would make yourself aware of all of the online stores out there that consistently stock singles, as well as all of the sites like tcgplayer and such that multiple stores and sellers use, as well as of course ebay. Anyhow, all I can say with the mtg buying/selling process is good luck. And as always the more effort you are willing to put in, the greater chance of potential profit in the long run. Just be aware that there are costs to buying online as well as selling online (shipping costs, selling fees, etc etc), so its important to factor that into the buying/selling process as you go.
For example, the new Commander product with Vampires was spoiled, and released 2 days ago. I picked it up, and next week, I am going to order some really great vampire commander cards which are probably already listed on EDHREC, and I will probably spend much more on them than if I had bought them 2 weeks ago.
I am mostly looking for the best methods to manage this. I am not interested in trading people for cards, or harassing people at local stores to buy cards off them for cheap. I want to buy like 10 Vampire cards for $2 each that seem good 2 weeks before the product releases, then sell them for 300% markup 2 weeks after the product releases.
I think that we've all been where you are
Jeff has pretty good advice - watch what's being released. At the beginning of this year, we knew that the EDH decks being released this year were going to be tribal themed. That'd be a good time to stock up on some generic tribal cards:
Basically, hit up Gatherer and search for cards that let you pick a creature type.
Then we got the creature types. From there, you can speculate on what would be good in those decks. Remembering that DFCs are more expensive to print, you might want to scoop up Bloodline Keeper and Final Form. Baron Sengir's on the reserve list, so you know that he won't be in there. He's not amazing, but he's hilarious and even sort of a Vampire lord. Maybe grab some promo foils of Vampire Nocturnus or Dragon Broodmother - something that may be in the deck, but will be an upgrade path even if it gets reprinted. Then, when we got the final list, look at what didn't make the cut. Most of that generic tribal stuff I mentioned earlier, Patron Wizard, Bloodgast, Kalitas. A lot of people waited until the decks were almost out before deciding to pick up missing pieces. So that's your window.
So, keep abreast of Ixalan spoilers. There's most of a rare sheet out there in pretty crappy resolution. Look at what's there, and what it might enable. Allied checklands are on it, so they'll be Standard legal again next month. If you don't already have a set, go get a set before people need them for Standard. There's a pirate who can infinitely make himself leave play and then return. That's spiked Mana Echoes, for casual/EDH play. So, basically what we're saying is, be very familiar with the Rumor Mill, and buy as soon as you think that something new will make something old move. Also, sell as soon as something new reprints or obsoletes something old (although that's not always the case, it's more of a general guideline).
As far as venues, TCGPlayer takes 12%, and I don't know if you get hit with a credit card fee after that. eBay + PayPal take 15%. That's realistically what you're looking at if you move something online. There's a Facebook group for selling high-end cards, and one for selling cheaper cards, but at low low prices to move them fast. Neither strike me as what you're looking to do.
Good luck, and if you do end up listing online I'm sure I'll eventually buy something from you.
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Excellent responses. Thanks for the info and the suggestions. I think I will start small, and build from there. Once I make some good moves and some failures, then I will be more prepared to handle larger quantities or higher priced cards.
Excellent responses. Thanks for the info and the suggestions. I think I will start small, and build from there. Once I make some good moves and some failures, then I will be more prepared to handle larger quantities or higher priced cards.
Glad that you've found the replies useful! Here's one more bit of advice - I wouldn't bother moving on to higher-priced cards (presuming that you're talking about $50+ cards) for the simple reason that it's too resource-intensive. You tie up a lot of money when you get in, and they have to grow by a significant amount in order for you to have a decent return.
Let's say that you went in on 50 copies of Hollow One at $1, because you saw combo potential. Sure enough, it makes an appearance in Modern and goes up to $2. You're up $50. But, what if you put that initial $50 into Plateau - a Revised dual that's on the reserve list, the blue chip stock of MTG? Well, in order to make that same $50, Plateau has to jump to $100. And while that's certainly possible (note that I've completely made up all prices - these aren't real), it's going to take a longer time for that to happen. Yes, you'll spend more in postage mailing out 50 Hollow Ones than 1 Plateau, but if you're flipping via trade then that's less relevant.
The unfortunate truth is that reserve list cards are more subject to market manipulation than to pressures from actual demand, so it's very hard to figure out when they're going to rise. They're good places to park value, but you never know what their futures will be.
If you're putting in the resources to buy up large quantities of expensive cards in order to resell them - congratulations, you're now a store. If that's what you want - awesome! If not, stick to the lower-end stuff. Except for getting lucky or holding it for a loooong time, you'll have better returns on the relatively little stuff.
Sorry for the delay - I wrote up about half of this post and then got absolutely clobbered by an insistent toddler and just managed to get back to you now.
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As a side note to buying and holding. Back several years ago, buying and holding was still a reasonable option, all sorts of cards from zendikar block and earlier (from right when the playerbase started rocketing up to the moon), ended up going sky high, I know I saw a large portion of my collection at the shop increase dramatically in value from 2009-2012, in part because I ended up buying/holding the non-standard/rotated stuff because I didn't have time to deal with the older stuff on a regular basis. However these days as I work to sell off my collection (keep getting busy with lots of other stuff (mostly family stuff) and still have lots to go), each new set with reprints in it (mostly commander esque products or masters sets) I have to watch like a hawk and hope that it doesn't hit a ton of stuff that I still have left to sell that I hadn't gotten around to yet since reprints can really put a dent in a lot of cards values. Reprints are good for the game, for the record, but isn't so good when you are sitting on a massive collection.
Anyhow, the point of that story was this: Be careful about buying and holding, if its modern stuff you have to worry about any reprint products and modern masters. If its pre-modern stuff you have to worry about eternal or similar masters products and other reprint products. The reserved list is about the only safe place, but even then there can be such massive fluctuations that it can be a pain to figure out what would be worth investing in or not, and a lot of the reserved list stuff tends to be stable for quite some time ... until it suddenly isn't, and even then theres no guarantee any new higher prices will stick after a buyout or otherwise. So just be safe, don't invest too much, and even when you are talking about an upcoming ... say ... commander product with themes like this last one, without knowing the full extent of the decklist yet there is every chance you could end up with a winner as you could end up with something that gets reprinted and could drop in value potentially significantly depending upon what it is due to the added supply.
As was said in the previous post though, its easier to both gain and lose more from investing in a ton of lower valued cards than it is in picking cards that are on the reserved list and relatively stable. Just like with investing in stocks in the market, you have to decide just how much risk you are willing to accept, the more risky stocks can have the potential for more gains, but also the potential for greater losses, while the less risky stocks (the blue chip stocks, lets call them dual lands), are likely to remain fairly stable which means less chances of significant losses, but also less change of significant gains. Personally I've always been a more safe investor when it comes down to it, though until I get my collection sold off I still have significant risk from reprints for a large part of my collection.
The best way to invest though is by keeping up on as much information and knowledge of cards and their uses in the game as possible, so when something like a rules change like the planeswalkers/legendary stuff happens, you can think about what cards will benefit from that, and go to town, but as always you have to be quick because there are 1,000's or more people in the same position doing the exact same thing at the exact same time so its easy to miss out, and even then not all stores will honor sales made right before a spike sadly, but such is the way things are unfortunately, such stores put their own short-term profits above good PR and good customer service.
Anyhow, I'm rambling a bit at this point, I hope some of that information was useful at least, and as before good luck :).
The best way to invest though is by keeping up on as much information and knowledge of cards and their uses in the game as possible, so when something like a rules change like the planeswalkers/legendary stuff happens, you can think about what cards will benefit from that, and go to town, but as always you have to be quick because there are 1,000's or more people in the same position doing the exact same thing at the exact same time so its easy to miss out.
Jeff, I feel that this paragraph really nails it in terms of advice that we could be giving out. "Pay attention to what's going on and look for what benefits from it" is pretty much the game within a game that we're all playing. You've distilled everything we've written down to one sentence.
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1) Do the preorder thing, this is where you sell cards of a set not yet out, then buy boxes to cover your order, Typicaly presale prices are as high as a sets prices will go for 90% of cards.
2) Own a store, People often will sell stuff to stores at 50-75% TCG pricing (higher end for fancy highly liquid things like duel lands and legacy/edh staples 50% for basically everything else) Your chances of getting people to sell to you for that without a store are really REALLY low since stores are the "trusted market bottom*
Ebay is your friend you should use it.
Standard is only good if you are actively moving product, Be aware that as soon as it rotates prices WILL drop by a min of 30% and likely A LOT more.
Don't go for the "big score", always better to move 20 cards at lower margins then one card at a HUGE margin.
Keep up to date with your prices, get a smart phone and check prices before you buy anything make sure your not getting ripped off.
Be honest with people, This is sort of like avoid the big score, Sure you COULD buy that great $50 card from this newbie for $5 but when newbie figures out you ripped him off you will lose a customer forever and all his friends and everyone he tells. Better to be honest with the guy and give me fair (reseller) value.
(All views below are the views of KnickM the person, and do not represent the views of MTGS staff. Please do not take this reply as a mod saying "Thou Shalt Not!", but just as another user running out an opinion. Thank you.)
So, I get where you're coming from, but you REALLY want to phrase things differently. When you say "make a profit buying and selling cards", that throws up red flags of "someone trying to make money off of the community". You probably want to say that you're looking to recoup your costs. That makes you sound less like a market manipulator.
That said, draftguy2 has some pretty good points. There are two ways to make a profit:
1) Buy cards that you don't need strictly for resale, and then sell them.
2) Sell cards that you bought for your decks.
#1 involves additional expenditure, both in time and money
#2 involves sacrifice of your decks, which means fun
While MTGFinance is a thing that some people try to do strictly for profit, it's not really feasible on a small scale. If you're not getting either singles or sealed product at a significant discount, you're not going to be making much profit. Here's an example. almost 2 years ago, BFZ Fat Packs were selling for $65 on eBay (including shipping). I was able to get one for under MSRP at my LGS. I thought "Wow, that's a $30 difference! I should sell it!" Well, once you take into account shipping, eBay, and PayPal fees, your net profit shrinks to single digits, which I didn't consider worth it. And that was when I got it at basically half price!
Some things to remember, in no particular order:
1) People are, generally, savvy about buying. If you're not the lowest price, they'll want some sort of additional service. SCG justifies their prices by having great customer service and generally great card quality - if you buy a NM card from SCG, you're going to get a NM card. And if you don't get one, you complain, and then they send you a NM card.
2) Don't go for the big score. It's been said before, but it bears repeating. Sure, you can trade the kid ten $5 cards that you were never going to use for that sweet $50 card. That's a good deal for you, and if he wants them, then it was a great deal for him. But don't trade him 10 $1 cards for it. Because you'll develop a reputation for doing that, and people will stop trading with you.
3) Always figure what your costs are. If you're selling online, packaging and shipping are a cost. If you're driving to a GP to trade, gas is a cost (unless you're going to play anyway, in which case, free trading!).
4) Watch the market. This is the big one that's a lot of work. There are thousands of cards, and different printings behave differently. Standard cards often jump the weekend of the Pro Tour. Modern cards jump if there's a breakout new deck that uses them (see: Vengevine, three weeks ago). Legacy cards are more subject to artificial manipulation than to deck choices. Reserved list cards rarely go down. Judge foils and MPS cards are usually good "parking spots", since their volatility is usually upwards-only.
5) The rules can change with no notice. Bannings, buyouts, reprints, and top-8s will all affect card prices. And not all of these happen on a schedule.
6) Your time is valuable. Don't spend a whole day trying to get a Thoughtseize for $5 less. Remember that when you put in your time and effort to make money, that is called a job.
After all that, I hope that you're not frightened away. It's not my intent to tell you "Don't do this!", I'm just trying to prepare you for what you have to think about. If there were a reliable way to make $50-$100 a month by buying and selling MTG cards, and it didn't involve spending a ton of time on it, you can bet we'd all quit our day jobs and just be Magic financiers. But there is no "quick and easy money" to be made consistently. There is definitely a way to get ahead by trading, and if you're really good at drafting you can probably go infinite that way.
Questions are welcome. That is, after all, why we are here. I'd love to see some replies from actual store owners, especially Jeff. His perspective is always helpful, from both sides of the counter.
I am mostly looking for the best methods to manage this. I am not interested in trading people for cards, or harassing people at local stores to buy cards off them for cheap. I want to buy like 10 Vampire cards for $2 each that seem good 2 weeks before the product releases, then sell them for 300% markup 2 weeks after the product releases. Another perspective would be to buy cards like fetch lands for $6 each when they are in the current set, then hold them for 6 months, then sell them when they are going for $20 each. I reliably spend money on cards when they are more expensive, so if I can do the inverse on some cards, it can help fund my costs to play the game. I am just wondering what is the best method for doing that? Probably TCGPlayer or EBay?
A lot of that is keeping up on information online for various new products or tournament results each weekend to see what cards have potential going forward, or what products will be coming out soon that could benefit from certain cards and going after those. Its a lot of intuition and lucky timing a lot of the time. Price spikes after tournament results or when new products are revealed can happen very quickly, and even then you will find that some stores will cancel orders when a spike occurs, so its always better to get more than enough for your needs than less. There is no surefire way to be able to make a quick and easy profit, that's for sure, but a little knowledge can go a long way. I would make yourself aware of all of the online stores out there that consistently stock singles, as well as all of the sites like tcgplayer and such that multiple stores and sellers use, as well as of course ebay. Anyhow, all I can say with the mtg buying/selling process is good luck. And as always the more effort you are willing to put in, the greater chance of potential profit in the long run. Just be aware that there are costs to buying online as well as selling online (shipping costs, selling fees, etc etc), so its important to factor that into the buying/selling process as you go.
I think that we've all been where you are
Jeff has pretty good advice - watch what's being released. At the beginning of this year, we knew that the EDH decks being released this year were going to be tribal themed. That'd be a good time to stock up on some generic tribal cards:
Basically, hit up Gatherer and search for cards that let you pick a creature type.
Then we got the creature types. From there, you can speculate on what would be good in those decks. Remembering that DFCs are more expensive to print, you might want to scoop up Bloodline Keeper and Final Form. Baron Sengir's on the reserve list, so you know that he won't be in there. He's not amazing, but he's hilarious and even sort of a Vampire lord. Maybe grab some promo foils of Vampire Nocturnus or Dragon Broodmother - something that may be in the deck, but will be an upgrade path even if it gets reprinted. Then, when we got the final list, look at what didn't make the cut. Most of that generic tribal stuff I mentioned earlier, Patron Wizard, Bloodgast, Kalitas. A lot of people waited until the decks were almost out before deciding to pick up missing pieces. So that's your window.
So, keep abreast of Ixalan spoilers. There's most of a rare sheet out there in pretty crappy resolution. Look at what's there, and what it might enable. Allied checklands are on it, so they'll be Standard legal again next month. If you don't already have a set, go get a set before people need them for Standard. There's a pirate who can infinitely make himself leave play and then return. That's spiked Mana Echoes, for casual/EDH play. So, basically what we're saying is, be very familiar with the Rumor Mill, and buy as soon as you think that something new will make something old move. Also, sell as soon as something new reprints or obsoletes something old (although that's not always the case, it's more of a general guideline).
As far as venues, TCGPlayer takes 12%, and I don't know if you get hit with a credit card fee after that. eBay + PayPal take 15%. That's realistically what you're looking at if you move something online. There's a Facebook group for selling high-end cards, and one for selling cheaper cards, but at low low prices to move them fast. Neither strike me as what you're looking to do.
Good luck, and if you do end up listing online I'm sure I'll eventually buy something from you.
Let's say that you went in on 50 copies of Hollow One at $1, because you saw combo potential. Sure enough, it makes an appearance in Modern and goes up to $2. You're up $50. But, what if you put that initial $50 into Plateau - a Revised dual that's on the reserve list, the blue chip stock of MTG? Well, in order to make that same $50, Plateau has to jump to $100. And while that's certainly possible (note that I've completely made up all prices - these aren't real), it's going to take a longer time for that to happen. Yes, you'll spend more in postage mailing out 50 Hollow Ones than 1 Plateau, but if you're flipping via trade then that's less relevant.
The unfortunate truth is that reserve list cards are more subject to market manipulation than to pressures from actual demand, so it's very hard to figure out when they're going to rise. They're good places to park value, but you never know what their futures will be.
If you're putting in the resources to buy up large quantities of expensive cards in order to resell them - congratulations, you're now a store. If that's what you want - awesome! If not, stick to the lower-end stuff. Except for getting lucky or holding it for a loooong time, you'll have better returns on the relatively little stuff.
Sorry for the delay - I wrote up about half of this post and then got absolutely clobbered by an insistent toddler and just managed to get back to you now.
Anyhow, the point of that story was this: Be careful about buying and holding, if its modern stuff you have to worry about any reprint products and modern masters. If its pre-modern stuff you have to worry about eternal or similar masters products and other reprint products. The reserved list is about the only safe place, but even then there can be such massive fluctuations that it can be a pain to figure out what would be worth investing in or not, and a lot of the reserved list stuff tends to be stable for quite some time ... until it suddenly isn't, and even then theres no guarantee any new higher prices will stick after a buyout or otherwise. So just be safe, don't invest too much, and even when you are talking about an upcoming ... say ... commander product with themes like this last one, without knowing the full extent of the decklist yet there is every chance you could end up with a winner as you could end up with something that gets reprinted and could drop in value potentially significantly depending upon what it is due to the added supply.
As was said in the previous post though, its easier to both gain and lose more from investing in a ton of lower valued cards than it is in picking cards that are on the reserved list and relatively stable. Just like with investing in stocks in the market, you have to decide just how much risk you are willing to accept, the more risky stocks can have the potential for more gains, but also the potential for greater losses, while the less risky stocks (the blue chip stocks, lets call them dual lands), are likely to remain fairly stable which means less chances of significant losses, but also less change of significant gains. Personally I've always been a more safe investor when it comes down to it, though until I get my collection sold off I still have significant risk from reprints for a large part of my collection.
The best way to invest though is by keeping up on as much information and knowledge of cards and their uses in the game as possible, so when something like a rules change like the planeswalkers/legendary stuff happens, you can think about what cards will benefit from that, and go to town, but as always you have to be quick because there are 1,000's or more people in the same position doing the exact same thing at the exact same time so its easy to miss out, and even then not all stores will honor sales made right before a spike sadly, but such is the way things are unfortunately, such stores put their own short-term profits above good PR and good customer service.
Anyhow, I'm rambling a bit at this point, I hope some of that information was useful at least, and as before good luck :).
Jeff, I feel that this paragraph really nails it in terms of advice that we could be giving out. "Pay attention to what's going on and look for what benefits from it" is pretty much the game within a game that we're all playing. You've distilled everything we've written down to one sentence.