I've bought and sold magic and other CCGs for years on ebay, accepting only PayPal. After being burned a few times by international buyers, I now only accept buyers in the US. I also require that buyers have a feedback of 10 or greater. Anything over $5 gets delivery confirmation. I've only had one issue since I implemented these rules for myself, and that was mostly due to my negligence in packaging. The buyer took a picture of the damaged card, then after I acknowledged it, took a picture of the destroyed card, and I gave him his money back immediately.
I also don't buy anything more than $5 from anyone who has low (or no) feedback. I'd be hesitant to buy legacy staples or big dollar standard cards from anyone with low feedback.
I recently had a dual land that seemed to get stuck in shipping; it had tracking with USPS, but it hadn't moved post offices for over a week. To protect myself I opened a case with ebay, and then closed it when the card eventually arrived. The seller and I both gave each other positive feeedback.
Competitive decks that also do not run JTMS
Spiral Tide/Solidarity
Omni Tell
Sneak Show
UR Delver/FireFly
Standstill (dredge still, land still) variants
That's off the top of my head, so this indicates your research is insufficient to make the previous claims.
And RUG Delver, the most winning deck of the last year.
My store just had to cancel their 20 preorders, because they're only getting two. Now they'll be given out as tournament prizes, and likely sold off by the winners.
I beat Dredge, Maverick twice, UW Miracles and Affinity. Shattering Spree was much better for me than Smash to Smithereens, allowing me to wipe out the Affinity manabase. I basically got lucky against UW Miracles and killed them before they could lock me out of the game.
I just went to a card shop the other day and was reminded how expensive this game can get. Seriously? Do people really pay over $100 for a single card???
I'd bet that most people (could be wrong) would say no, they wouldn't pay that much. That means the card is overpriced, lowering demand. Lowered demand would lower the price, right?? Why would the prices stay so freaking high?!
Because the demand is still there. I can go to a shop and pay $100 for a Tundra that I'll use for as long as I'm playing Magic. Or I can spend $100 for a box for M13, and maybe get something useful out of it that I may use for a year until the set it rotated out of standard, and then I can sell those few cards for about $20.
Rotation isn't until October. It's not even worth thinking about,there will be two new large sets before then. Find something you like to play now, and enjoy it.
Snapcaster is found in almost every blue based deck, and isn't going to drop significantly in price. It's a worthwhile investment.
You have to block, and then flicker before combat damage. Your 1/1 would take no damage and be removed from combat, and their 5/5 would take no damage, but would still be blocked.
I've been testing replacing the dungeon geists with restoration angels, and replacing two of the four mana leaks with tamiyo. It's been working out well so far.
If you've only been going there for a month or two, and everyone else is happy, then maybe you should try a different store. You don't mention how much tournament entry is, that can also factor in to the size of the prize pool.
I normally do pretty well at my local shop, and they take care of the top 8 pretty well, sometimes shuffling packs from the 1st place out to the 5-8th places, just to keep people happy. I'd rather have a store that people come back to week after week than getting a big payout every once and awhile.
If SCG puts a card up for 35$, CFB is not going to put it up for 25$. They have the second most recognizable shop for the market, they are going to sell it at 35$ also. Then see where it goes from there. If everyone else is selling at 35$, you aren't going to be the only store selling them at 25$, that makes no sense.
Amusingly enough CFB was selling preorders of Tamiyo at $30, when SCG was selling them for $40. I know, I bough two from CFB.
There are dozens of financial articles out on various websites right now, but in short, most cards are going to go down in price over their preorder costs. Some will go higher, but it's usually not very clear what those are. Silverblade Paladin is interesting because in addition to being in the set, he's also a preorder promotion, which sort of limits how high he can go. The value of the mythics in the set usually keep the rare prices from getting out of hand (notable exceptions being Snapcaster Mage and now Cavern of Souls, cross-format allstars).
I personally doubt he'll go much over $5 in the near future, but I don't see him dropping much below that either.
I also don't buy anything more than $5 from anyone who has low (or no) feedback. I'd be hesitant to buy legacy staples or big dollar standard cards from anyone with low feedback.
I recently had a dual land that seemed to get stuck in shipping; it had tracking with USPS, but it hadn't moved post offices for over a week. To protect myself I opened a case with ebay, and then closed it when the card eventually arrived. The seller and I both gave each other positive feeedback.
And RUG Delver, the most winning deck of the last year.
Yay for not helping anyone get Commander staples.
2 Island
2 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
Creatures (14)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Brainstorm
2 Daze
3 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Price of Progress
2 Spell Pierce
4 Ponder
4 Chain Lightning
4 Submerge
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Price of Progress
1 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Sulfur Elemental
2 Shattering Spree
3 Surgical Extraction
I won three Force of Will, so I put them in, removing two Spell Pierce and one Daze.
I beat Dredge, Maverick twice, UW Miracles and Affinity. Shattering Spree was much better for me than Smash to Smithereens, allowing me to wipe out the Affinity manabase. I basically got lucky against UW Miracles and killed them before they could lock me out of the game.
Because the demand is still there. I can go to a shop and pay $100 for a Tundra that I'll use for as long as I'm playing Magic. Or I can spend $100 for a box for M13, and maybe get something useful out of it that I may use for a year until the set it rotated out of standard, and then I can sell those few cards for about $20.
Do you have numbers to back that claim up? WoTC does.
Snapcaster is found in almost every blue based deck, and isn't going to drop significantly in price. It's a worthwhile investment.
Full cost.
I normally do pretty well at my local shop, and they take care of the top 8 pretty well, sometimes shuffling packs from the 1st place out to the 5-8th places, just to keep people happy. I'd rather have a store that people come back to week after week than getting a big payout every once and awhile.
It's probably more correct to say that AVR happened yesterday.
Amusingly enough CFB was selling preorders of Tamiyo at $30, when SCG was selling them for $40. I know, I bough two from CFB.
I personally doubt he'll go much over $5 in the near future, but I don't see him dropping much below that either.