I need to put MTG aside for a few years. I got a new job that I have to keep incognito (and I genuinely hope to be able to talk all about it when it's over) and it's going to have me overseas until as late as 2017. Not sure what kind of web access I am going to have, if any, because that's not really the point of me going and my technological options are going to be few. Let's just say that on the odd chance that I Get Signal, I'll be communicating with my family, not browsing message boards. And during my leave/liberty time at home, I'll be visiting people, not web surfing.
But I WILL be back.
I have pushed off all my standard and extended stuff to locals already and socked the proceeds away in savings, so that will gather some interest while I'm off. My vintage and legacy cards are going into my father's closet safe. What will a beta Underground Sea or an unlimited Mox Sapphire be worth when I see them again? Heck, what about normal ol' Revised duals and Forces of Will? I look forward to finding out. I'll have to buy the Card Wizard Black Book, 6th Edition to catch up!
One funny thing is that I am not going to find out who won the damn war between the Mirrans and the Phyrexians until, at the soonest, my first trip back, which won't be this year. My prediction: New Phyrexia! If there's no conflict, there's no ongoing story.
I just want to say, thanks to all of you who I became acquainted with over the last few years, and as we say in carnivore club, keep being awesome!
I've always felt that players who flick their cards are telling me in their own special way "Please don't trade with me, I don't take good care of my cards.". Especially the ones who make a big show out of how they double-sleeve their cards, then proceed to flick flick flick the edges.
I'm not obsessive about keeping my cards gem mint, but I'm also not going to openly abuse my cards in front of others. Why would you do business with someone like that?
Um, if they double-sleeve their cards, how is flicking the cards doing any damage to them?
Congrats I guess and I doubt many other people have a box of Darksteel. Nor do I think there is much of a demand for box mapping random sets of the past or at least not enough to actually have enough examples for mapping to mean anything. Nothing personal.
I disagree. The ultimate goal should be to solve every set in the game. If this is enough of a popular website to make a place where people can do that, so much the better.
To put it another way: People open old boxes all the time. Why discard all that data for nothing?
I signed up to post to respond to this topic, I'm deaf and I find that the flickings, rolling eyes, and hand flicking is in actuality "visual" cues of the phases and I find it very useful especially the hand "go" motions.
That's probably the best rationale we're going to see in this entire thread!
3 tezz
3 white hero
2 red hero
0 preator's counsel (not really that sad about this one)
3 sphinx
4 blightsteel
5 swords (one foil)
3 thruns
4 massacre wurm
2 glissa
those were all of the mythics that I pulled out of my case which avreges 4.83333 mythics per box.
You got 28 nonfoil mythics. The straight math says a case of the small set will contain 27, so you were one heavy (and to your advantage, by the looks of things). At 10 mythics to the set, 2.7 of each is par. You were within 1 six out of ten times. Of the remaining four, you were over three times and got zeroed once. Pretty normal looking, I'd say
Yes, but this is not a market of perfect competition.
Sure it is. You are free to walk away and buy nothing. It's not like they are selling the antidote to the disease that's killing you.
I honestly am starting to believe that part of the blame for the price surge rests on the fact that hobby nerds are, by and large, not particularly savvy consumers. And no single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.
Show me these maps than. All I see for all of those "Box Mapping" threads are people posting what they opened.
The MBS map is available for free at http://rossedwardsbooks.blogspot.com and a different version (almost identical) is available in the box mapping thread
The ZEN and ROE maps are in The Card Rebel's Black Book and slightly different versions are in the box mapping threads
The M11 and SOM maps are in The Card Wizard's Black Book 2ed
This is something you could have found out if you Googled around a little, just sayin'
This sounds promising! However it also tells me that I have no idea how to read the map and compare it to what I have since I was, according to Evo, wrong about the sword and Tezz. If anyone can help me better understand that would be great!
Does it matter how rare it is? You either had a box that doesnt follow the map or one tezz was in one of the disrupted packs.
Either way 2 Tezz in a box is nothing special.
Based on both Justme's map and Ross Edwards's map, Tezz is on both sheets, so all you have to do is get a box with a span that crosses the sweet spot on both sheets. Not actually all that impossible to have happen.
To be fair, he doesn't need all that in cash himself: He can get small business loans. If the city is really hard up it may have programs that give grants to small business start ups or (more likely) very favorable tax incentives. If his rent is $600 including utilities, He could probably get by on 7K cash on hand and a 10-15K line of credit from a local bank.
Does he want to "get by" or succeed, though? I agree it would be a good idea to have a line of credit for liquidity. If the city is really behind him that much, he should be able to put together $15k in cash and $15k in a LOC and maybe get a no-permit buildout and things might look decent for the start. I hope this place isn't too small at $600/mo. Never been to Maine, so maybe rents are just that cheap out there.
By comparison, in the Phoenix area, which is probably no more expensive than average, a 2k sqft pad (which is the bare minimum really to be effective) will run at least $2000-$2200/mo in any part of town that isn't known for its meth production. Back before the economy went kaput, that same pad would have been $4500/mo.
Don't do this. All this gets you is people sitting in your store, taking up space, and not making you any $$. Multiple product lines means multiple gaming product lines, not putting a free arcade in your store.
^agreed. Though I have talked to owners who say it works out well to put a couple of classic arcade uprights in the store, because you get every last quarter from your customers that way. It only costs a couple hundred dollars for a Street Fighter 2 Turbo and maybe $500 more for a 4-slot Neo Geo. And they would get played.
Console rental is bad... too much work to monitor usage for revenue. Plus you're likely going against the software EULA. Stuff like WoW already has internet cafe licensing that solves that, and its reasonable, but you have to have a bunch of PCs there then, to do that.
$7k isnt nearly enough to start off of. $15-$20 would be a more reasonable starting amount to get going with, especially if you want to deal with singles as well.
^^ Yes, yes! To Obi-Wan you listen, AWolfgang73! Seven grand ain't gonna cut it! Triple that, at the bare minimum, and then you've got a shot. Personally, I wouldn't touch a game shop project with less than fifty large in cash reserves. You HAVE to be able to set up solidly, grow well, and be ready to buy collections (where the real profit is) on little to no notice.
A guy walks in the door with $20k worth of singles, you need to be able to write him a check for $4k without even blinking, or else your chance is going to go out the window and across the (virtual) street to SCG. You need to be positioned to do deals like that, because what's really going to happen is that you won't see that guy but once in a blue moon, but you WILL get people asking three times a week if you can buy their $1200-1500 collection and you need to be able to offer a few hundred without blinking... and those add up after a while.
It bears repeating: ***IF you are undercapitalized and your initial setup does not go well, your store will struggle the entire time, and then probably fail.***
Alliance and GTS are distributors of hobby gaming products such as MTG, but also everything else you will need like dice, books, supplies, etc. You'll buy from them until you have the credentials to buy from WOTC, and then you'll buy from BOTH to assure yourself enough product on release day. You have to have a brick and mortar store to buy from them. It's not like internet "wholesalers" who just sell in bulk to anyone but not at nearly as good prices.
Well we have spoke to 1 individual business owner in the area that sells boxes and or booster packs. He is about 10 miles away from where we want to open a shop. He does not host events or sell singles at all. He just has a small selection af cards in his coin shop. I was told that he was a wholesaler but I have checked his prices and he is very expensive at $105-$115 a booster box. His wholesale prices are around $90. Is that a good price? I have been doing research for this for a few weeks. However I honestly haven't got a clue what I am doing except that I really would like to have a cool game shop. In the area we live in I need to be able to have affordable prices.
Rent $600 Lease 1year
That's not wholesale. Wholesale is Alliance or GTS or whatever, where you get booster boxes for around $420 per case. (~$70 per box, with minimum orders). And they check to make sure you're a brick and mortar store and you can't sell boxes online unless WOTC gives you the go-ahead.
We have around $7000 that we are comfortable with investing at first. Like I said there are not any gaming stores in the area for atleast 60 miles.
OK, your location sounds like a winner due to lack of competition. However, your plan sounds like a loser because you are WOEFULLY undercapitalized.
You need about a year's operating expenses in the bank for a hobby gaming store, because it takes that long for recurring traffic to get up to par and you need to be expanding inventory (so you can't take profits or even pay yourselves for work) in the meantime. That's all assuming you don't have to do any buildout, which is probably not the best assumption -- even a very suitable retail pad usually needs some modification. To reduce theft and shrinkage you need a cash wrap near the front of the store and lots of no-contact fixtures to put spiffy cards behind, such as display cases and towers, then you need slotwall or gridwall for your contact merchandise racks.
If you are planning to open a store that's 2k sqft or less, you need to have about $55-60k in the bank, liquid cash, and you'll be good to start up. Seven thou is just going to get you run over like roadkill, and that's not even against competing stores, but against the normal tides and forces of business and commerce.
The price of magic has doubled, if it where due to the price of materials then why have the prices of packs not doubled.
And why are the prices of cards in sets with no or minor chase mythics comparable to there pre-lowryn counter parts?
Obviously you didn't read the numbers in my reply, which explain the answer to your questions. I won't waste my time with you beyond noting that you seem to have very limited memory of cards like Tarmogoyf, which were not mythic and yet still sold over $60 while in standard
Any cards that aren't legacy staples and on the reserved list won't hold their value. And even then, it's shaky at best. They can still print cards that are just better/as good as the cards on the reserved list to screw you over. Just think of Magic as an expensive hobby, and not an investment and you will be better off.
^ good advice right here.
If you want to "invest" in Magic, buy Alpha and Beta power and dual lands. Anything else and you're just buying toys that might or might not maintain their value over time. If MTG crashes and burns, the only things that maintain any value will be the A/B power and duals.
I need to put MTG aside for a few years. I got a new job that I have to keep incognito (and I genuinely hope to be able to talk all about it when it's over) and it's going to have me overseas until as late as 2017. Not sure what kind of web access I am going to have, if any, because that's not really the point of me going and my technological options are going to be few. Let's just say that on the odd chance that I Get Signal, I'll be communicating with my family, not browsing message boards. And during my leave/liberty time at home, I'll be visiting people, not web surfing.
But I WILL be back.
I have pushed off all my standard and extended stuff to locals already and socked the proceeds away in savings, so that will gather some interest while I'm off. My vintage and legacy cards are going into my father's closet safe. What will a beta Underground Sea or an unlimited Mox Sapphire be worth when I see them again? Heck, what about normal ol' Revised duals and Forces of Will? I look forward to finding out. I'll have to buy the Card Wizard Black Book, 6th Edition to catch up!
One funny thing is that I am not going to find out who won the damn war between the Mirrans and the Phyrexians until, at the soonest, my first trip back, which won't be this year. My prediction: New Phyrexia! If there's no conflict, there's no ongoing story.
I just want to say, thanks to all of you who I became acquainted with over the last few years, and as we say in carnivore club, keep being awesome!
Later!
Um, if they double-sleeve their cards, how is flicking the cards doing any damage to them?
I disagree. The ultimate goal should be to solve every set in the game. If this is enough of a popular website to make a place where people can do that, so much the better.
To put it another way: People open old boxes all the time. Why discard all that data for nothing?
That's probably the best rationale we're going to see in this entire thread!
You got 28 nonfoil mythics. The straight math says a case of the small set will contain 27, so you were one heavy (and to your advantage, by the looks of things). At 10 mythics to the set, 2.7 of each is par. You were within 1 six out of ten times. Of the remaining four, you were over three times and got zeroed once. Pretty normal looking, I'd say
Sure it is. You are free to walk away and buy nothing. It's not like they are selling the antidote to the disease that's killing you.
I honestly am starting to believe that part of the blame for the price surge rests on the fact that hobby nerds are, by and large, not particularly savvy consumers. And no single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.
The MBS map is available for free at http://rossedwardsbooks.blogspot.com and a different version (almost identical) is available in the box mapping thread
The ZEN and ROE maps are in The Card Rebel's Black Book and slightly different versions are in the box mapping threads
The M11 and SOM maps are in The Card Wizard's Black Book 2ed
This is something you could have found out if you Googled around a little, just sayin'
EDIT: Basaka beat me to it. There you go...
Based on both Justme's map and Ross Edwards's map, Tezz is on both sheets, so all you have to do is get a box with a span that crosses the sweet spot on both sheets. Not actually all that impossible to have happen.
Does he want to "get by" or succeed, though? I agree it would be a good idea to have a line of credit for liquidity. If the city is really behind him that much, he should be able to put together $15k in cash and $15k in a LOC and maybe get a no-permit buildout and things might look decent for the start. I hope this place isn't too small at $600/mo. Never been to Maine, so maybe rents are just that cheap out there.
By comparison, in the Phoenix area, which is probably no more expensive than average, a 2k sqft pad (which is the bare minimum really to be effective) will run at least $2000-$2200/mo in any part of town that isn't known for its meth production. Back before the economy went kaput, that same pad would have been $4500/mo.
^agreed. Though I have talked to owners who say it works out well to put a couple of classic arcade uprights in the store, because you get every last quarter from your customers that way. It only costs a couple hundred dollars for a Street Fighter 2 Turbo and maybe $500 more for a 4-slot Neo Geo. And they would get played.
Console rental is bad... too much work to monitor usage for revenue. Plus you're likely going against the software EULA. Stuff like WoW already has internet cafe licensing that solves that, and its reasonable, but you have to have a bunch of PCs there then, to do that.
^^ Yes, yes! To Obi-Wan you listen, AWolfgang73! Seven grand ain't gonna cut it! Triple that, at the bare minimum, and then you've got a shot. Personally, I wouldn't touch a game shop project with less than fifty large in cash reserves. You HAVE to be able to set up solidly, grow well, and be ready to buy collections (where the real profit is) on little to no notice.
A guy walks in the door with $20k worth of singles, you need to be able to write him a check for $4k without even blinking, or else your chance is going to go out the window and across the (virtual) street to SCG. You need to be positioned to do deals like that, because what's really going to happen is that you won't see that guy but once in a blue moon, but you WILL get people asking three times a week if you can buy their $1200-1500 collection and you need to be able to offer a few hundred without blinking... and those add up after a while.
It bears repeating: ***IF you are undercapitalized and your initial setup does not go well, your store will struggle the entire time, and then probably fail.***
Alliance and GTS are distributors of hobby gaming products such as MTG, but also everything else you will need like dice, books, supplies, etc. You'll buy from them until you have the credentials to buy from WOTC, and then you'll buy from BOTH to assure yourself enough product on release day. You have to have a brick and mortar store to buy from them. It's not like internet "wholesalers" who just sell in bulk to anyone but not at nearly as good prices.
That's not wholesale. Wholesale is Alliance or GTS or whatever, where you get booster boxes for around $420 per case. (~$70 per box, with minimum orders). And they check to make sure you're a brick and mortar store and you can't sell boxes online unless WOTC gives you the go-ahead.
OK, your location sounds like a winner due to lack of competition. However, your plan sounds like a loser because you are WOEFULLY undercapitalized.
You need about a year's operating expenses in the bank for a hobby gaming store, because it takes that long for recurring traffic to get up to par and you need to be expanding inventory (so you can't take profits or even pay yourselves for work) in the meantime. That's all assuming you don't have to do any buildout, which is probably not the best assumption -- even a very suitable retail pad usually needs some modification. To reduce theft and shrinkage you need a cash wrap near the front of the store and lots of no-contact fixtures to put spiffy cards behind, such as display cases and towers, then you need slotwall or gridwall for your contact merchandise racks.
If you are planning to open a store that's 2k sqft or less, you need to have about $55-60k in the bank, liquid cash, and you'll be good to start up. Seven thou is just going to get you run over like roadkill, and that's not even against competing stores, but against the normal tides and forces of business and commerce.
Good luck!
Obviously you didn't read the numbers in my reply, which explain the answer to your questions. I won't waste my time with you beyond noting that you seem to have very limited memory of cards like Tarmogoyf, which were not mythic and yet still sold over $60 while in standard
^ good advice right here.
If you want to "invest" in Magic, buy Alpha and Beta power and dual lands. Anything else and you're just buying toys that might or might not maintain their value over time. If MTG crashes and burns, the only things that maintain any value will be the A/B power and duals.