The only thing that you have to worry about is that magic stops being a game. Turning magic into a job will cause you to get angry everytime you lose because that's less money you are making. Just watch out, it's easy to fall into this trap. It also may kill the game for you.
That's exactly what happened to me.
I got pretty good at picking the queues with the highest EV and riding them all day. But every time I lost it was like I could hear the money being flushed. It was no longer fun, and I quickly got to the point where I'd physically lash out at my computer, my phone; anything handy I could destroy. Not to mention getting my account suspended for going off on other players.
Losing a match, even when I was doing okay already (2-1 or 3-0), was sometimes more than I could handle. Why would I pay money to do my job? I ended up taking a long break and now I stay away from the tournaments and just hop on for a casual game now and then. It could work for some people (even though it really won't) but it definitely didn't for me.
I've gotta disagree...though I'm not sure my methodology will work anymore...
1. Limited, Limited, and more Limited. League was also key, but since MTGO's programmers have yet to achieve the functionality leaping lizard's had in version 1.0, this isn't possible.
2. Only rare draft Money cards, and only if the rare card isn't in place of a bomb/first-pick card.
3. Try not to pass foil rares, don't pass foils in later picks where you're looking at a card you're unlikely to use.
4. Complete regular sets(s), buying what you need for tix if necessary, which won't be often. Sell the regular sets on MTGO.
5. Use the proceeds to complete a foil set, and redeem.
6. E-bay the foil sets.
This assumes that you're good at Limited, and can usually place in the top 2, often enough that you're essentially either breaking even or only paying for tix. The end result is several hundred dollars per foil set, I had Odyssee block sets go for~$600 apiece. 8th edition went at around $400 for me.
Problem is though, Mythics really screw things up now. Foil Mythics are so incredibly rare that their price may make it impossible to flip the sets for a profit. A foil Jace can easily set you back $100, and the rest of the Mythics can easily go at $30-$50 apiece. With 15 of these things, your investment if you can't draft them out is going to be easily $500-$750 or so. Making it necessary for the set to Ebay at such a high price that it may be impossible to achieve.
So I'm not sure this will work any longer, foil mythics will never be passed, and there's an enourmous premium attached to them. I wouldn't be surprised if Ebay won't cover the expense.
Even if it does, it increases significantly the number of regular sets you have to complete and sell on MTGO, slowing the process to a crawl.
I could convert to a foil set previously in about 4-6 weeks at most once I got started, don't know how possible it is now.
I got pretty good at picking the queues with the highest EV and riding them all day. But every time I lost it was like I could hear the money being flushed. It was no longer fun, and I quickly got to the point where I'd physically lash out at my computer, my phone; anything handy I could destroy. Not to mention getting my account suspended for going off on other players.
Losing a match, even when I was doing okay already (2-1 or 3-0), was sometimes more than I could handle. Why would I pay money to do my job? I ended up taking a long break and now I stay away from the tournaments and just hop on for a casual game now and then. It could work for some people (even though it really won't) but it definitely didn't for me.
I was kind of the opposite. I got sucked in on the economy in the auction room.. I'd literally spend 4-6 hours just watching auctions go.. buying some, selling others.. It was fun.. but really I was just buying cards to buy cards.. so I sold them all and now I just buy a deck here and there or draft once a week or so. I don't really sell the cards (I've yet to come across something I'd burn immediately for cash.. Gaea's Cradle is close.. but I also want to play EDH on there some day and that card is great.) I also learn to collect just cards that I know will help me in the future (Like Fetch lands and destroy alls..)
also to the guy talking about leagues..
I think the reason they haven't brought them back yet is they were kind of flawed. If you didn't pull a great sealed you basically didn't have a shot.. and some of them basically you'd enter and you'd win packs. I hope they bring them back some day maybe with a lower required entry or if you don't like your sealed pool you can drop from the league and trade those cards away or something.
Casual Limited is sorely lacking on MTGO.. although the swiss drafts help that.
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I just want people who redraft to admit this:
"I can't draft objectively unless I am able to guarantee that I receive at least 3 rares. I am also better than most average/new players so I want to make sure that I get the best rares and they end up with worse ones. I care more about the monetary value of cards than actually playing the game for decent prizes."
This is the part that I don't do. My time is more precious than my money. I dump all regular cards to bots without hesitation. Foils and promos I keep for bad day if I need tix desperately.
Also buying cheap tix will help, last time I bought them a couple months ago at 0.89 (350 pcs) but as you might have guessed they were bought originally with stolen credit card. This has happened to me maybe 5 times but theres no way for me to know if seller is selling legit stuff. Always with different seller.
Anytime someone is offering tickets for less than .92 they are stolen. Also if you buy enough stolen tickets WOTC will perma ban your account. We have to be very careful buying tickets as we have been warned by WOTC that we would be banned if we could not prove that we did everything possible to ensure that they were not stolen such as calling the seller on the phone.
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PureMTGO MTGOTraders - Coupon mtgsallypaypal for 8% off orders paid for with paypal. MTGO Hotlist! - Pays more than bots for singles. CapeFearGames - Coupon mtgsally for 5% off entire order. Orders ship same day if order placed before 3pm EST M-F. Do not stack with other coupons please.
Paying extra 20% on paper cards for MTGOTraders credits.
This is the part that I don't do. My time is more precious than my money. I dump all regular cards to bots without hesitation. Foils and promos I keep for bad day if I need tix desperately.
Also buying cheap tix will help, last time I bought them a couple months ago at 0.89 (350 pcs) but as you might have guessed they were bought originally with stolen credit card. This has happened to me maybe 5 times but theres no way for me to know if seller is selling legit stuff. Always with different seller.
It's actually not all that time consuming.
What you do is, just play normally for the most part, until you've got a fairly big pile of cards. Use the filters to see what you're missing, and either hit up the bots for them, or just keep an eye out as you draft.
Once you complete the set, just use Auction to sell it. Takes about 15 minutes. You'll get a lower price than if you put forth the effort to sell the set through trade, but you save yourself a huge amount of time. I was auctioning regular sets at about 100 tix, let the other guy do the work to flip it for the last 20-50 tix.
TBH, usually you'll get a dealer of some sort who'll offer you a flat rate for any further sets. When I was doing 8th edition, my first auction ended up with a guy who was dealing, he made me a standing offer of 100 tix for any 8th edition sets I finished. So when I finished them, I PM'd him, we did the trade, and I went on my way 20 minutes later(Would've been shorter if it weren't for the fool 32 card limit).
It's a little time investment, but not horrendous, especially once you get set up with a dedicated dealer.
I got sucked in on the economy in the auction room.. I'd literally spend 4-6 hours just watching auctions go.. buying some, selling others.. It was fun..
wasn't it great tho? i used to get more of a rush making good auction deals than i did from playing. i got to the point where i stopped playing all together and was strictly an auction rat.
btw, i have no idea what the economy is like these days but times were good before the switch to 3.0
I'm going on record right now and stating that before the end of 2012 we will see foil dual lands in booster packs (The real, Alpha dual lands). You can quote me on that.
wasn't it great tho? i used to get more of a rush making good auction deals than i did from playing. i got to the point where i stopped playing all together and was strictly an auction rat.
btw, i have no idea what the economy is like these days but times were good before the switch to 3.0
oh it was a lot of fun. it just didnt leave me enough time IMO to try out more of the "toys" i collected over the span of a few months. It seemed like every payday i'd splurge like 150 bucks on just random stuff..
I loved the economics part, I just grew tired of never really getting games in. and than sometimes it was a push when it was like "oh I gotta have this lot that is only at 3 tix right now because I can totally sell 2 of the cards in it for at least that much each.."
Honestly, I miss Leagues more than anything else about MTGO. I thought it was a cheap way to play sealed deck and let me try out a lot of different sealed archetypes without really committing a lot of money.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I just want people who redraft to admit this:
"I can't draft objectively unless I am able to guarantee that I receive at least 3 rares. I am also better than most average/new players so I want to make sure that I get the best rares and they end up with worse ones. I care more about the monetary value of cards than actually playing the game for decent prizes."
That's exactly what happened to me.
I got pretty good at picking the queues with the highest EV and riding them all day. But every time I lost it was like I could hear the money being flushed. It was no longer fun, and I quickly got to the point where I'd physically lash out at my computer, my phone; anything handy I could destroy. Not to mention getting my account suspended for going off on other players.
Losing a match, even when I was doing okay already (2-1 or 3-0), was sometimes more than I could handle. Why would I pay money to do my job? I ended up taking a long break and now I stay away from the tournaments and just hop on for a casual game now and then. It could work for some people (even though it really won't) but it definitely didn't for me.
That's quite comprehensive. So you don't have the total that you've spent to date?
I've gotta disagree...though I'm not sure my methodology will work anymore...
1. Limited, Limited, and more Limited. League was also key, but since MTGO's programmers have yet to achieve the functionality leaping lizard's had in version 1.0, this isn't possible.
2. Only rare draft Money cards, and only if the rare card isn't in place of a bomb/first-pick card.
3. Try not to pass foil rares, don't pass foils in later picks where you're looking at a card you're unlikely to use.
4. Complete regular sets(s), buying what you need for tix if necessary, which won't be often. Sell the regular sets on MTGO.
5. Use the proceeds to complete a foil set, and redeem.
6. E-bay the foil sets.
This assumes that you're good at Limited, and can usually place in the top 2, often enough that you're essentially either breaking even or only paying for tix. The end result is several hundred dollars per foil set, I had Odyssee block sets go for~$600 apiece. 8th edition went at around $400 for me.
Problem is though, Mythics really screw things up now. Foil Mythics are so incredibly rare that their price may make it impossible to flip the sets for a profit. A foil Jace can easily set you back $100, and the rest of the Mythics can easily go at $30-$50 apiece. With 15 of these things, your investment if you can't draft them out is going to be easily $500-$750 or so. Making it necessary for the set to Ebay at such a high price that it may be impossible to achieve.
So I'm not sure this will work any longer, foil mythics will never be passed, and there's an enourmous premium attached to them. I wouldn't be surprised if Ebay won't cover the expense.
Even if it does, it increases significantly the number of regular sets you have to complete and sell on MTGO, slowing the process to a crawl.
I could convert to a foil set previously in about 4-6 weeks at most once I got started, don't know how possible it is now.
I was kind of the opposite. I got sucked in on the economy in the auction room.. I'd literally spend 4-6 hours just watching auctions go.. buying some, selling others.. It was fun.. but really I was just buying cards to buy cards.. so I sold them all and now I just buy a deck here and there or draft once a week or so. I don't really sell the cards (I've yet to come across something I'd burn immediately for cash.. Gaea's Cradle is close.. but I also want to play EDH on there some day and that card is great.) I also learn to collect just cards that I know will help me in the future (Like Fetch lands and destroy alls..)
also to the guy talking about leagues..
I think the reason they haven't brought them back yet is they were kind of flawed. If you didn't pull a great sealed you basically didn't have a shot.. and some of them basically you'd enter and you'd win packs. I hope they bring them back some day maybe with a lower required entry or if you don't like your sealed pool you can drop from the league and trade those cards away or something.
Casual Limited is sorely lacking on MTGO.. although the swiss drafts help that.
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Anytime someone is offering tickets for less than .92 they are stolen. Also if you buy enough stolen tickets WOTC will perma ban your account. We have to be very careful buying tickets as we have been warned by WOTC that we would be banned if we could not prove that we did everything possible to ensure that they were not stolen such as calling the seller on the phone.
MTGOTraders - Coupon mtgsallypaypal for 8% off orders paid for with paypal.
MTGO Hotlist! - Pays more than bots for singles.
CapeFearGames - Coupon mtgsally for 5% off entire order. Orders ship same day if order placed before 3pm EST M-F. Do not stack with other coupons please.
Paying extra 20% on paper cards for MTGOTraders credits.
It's actually not all that time consuming.
What you do is, just play normally for the most part, until you've got a fairly big pile of cards. Use the filters to see what you're missing, and either hit up the bots for them, or just keep an eye out as you draft.
Once you complete the set, just use Auction to sell it. Takes about 15 minutes. You'll get a lower price than if you put forth the effort to sell the set through trade, but you save yourself a huge amount of time. I was auctioning regular sets at about 100 tix, let the other guy do the work to flip it for the last 20-50 tix.
TBH, usually you'll get a dealer of some sort who'll offer you a flat rate for any further sets. When I was doing 8th edition, my first auction ended up with a guy who was dealing, he made me a standing offer of 100 tix for any 8th edition sets I finished. So when I finished them, I PM'd him, we did the trade, and I went on my way 20 minutes later(Would've been shorter if it weren't for the fool 32 card limit).
It's a little time investment, but not horrendous, especially once you get set up with a dedicated dealer.
wasn't it great tho? i used to get more of a rush making good auction deals than i did from playing. i got to the point where i stopped playing all together and was strictly an auction rat.
btw, i have no idea what the economy is like these days but times were good before the switch to 3.0
oh it was a lot of fun. it just didnt leave me enough time IMO to try out more of the "toys" i collected over the span of a few months. It seemed like every payday i'd splurge like 150 bucks on just random stuff..
I loved the economics part, I just grew tired of never really getting games in. and than sometimes it was a push when it was like "oh I gotta have this lot that is only at 3 tix right now because I can totally sell 2 of the cards in it for at least that much each.."
Honestly, I miss Leagues more than anything else about MTGO. I thought it was a cheap way to play sealed deck and let me try out a lot of different sealed archetypes without really committing a lot of money.
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Don't necro.
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