Back when I was in high school playing, I loved trading. I was always trying to get a good deal, trying to find someone who had the cards I wanted to build my deck. I kept a curated collection of trades in clear binder sheets, ready to whip out at a moment's notice. Rarely did I pay for cards if I could avoid it. I traded to get my first dual land, a beat up badlands. Still, I was ecstatic.
When I got a real job making real money, trading kind of started to seem a bit less appealing. Trying to find people willing to part with duals and the other older cards I wanted to complete my collection was difficult, and I was making enough that dropping a hundred apiece (yeah, remember when duals were $100 each?) to save myself the hassle seemed like a reasonable trade. But now I had all these draft rares sitting around, now that I was drafting more and trading much less. Rares worth significant money, which would sit in a box, and then eventually become worthless once they rotated. I knew I was losing a ton of money on them, but actually finding anyone interested in specific cards was really tedious, and generally I was just trading for other cards that would also lose value. So mostly they just sat there.
Enter my current girlfriend, who's gotten into magic and was moderately appalled at my enormous boxes full of bulk rares of years of frequent drafting. She's been slowly going through them and pulling out the valuable ones - to a degree that I can't help but feel it probably isn't worth her time. She makes six figures yet she's sorting and selling cards worth, in vast majority, ten cents apiece. Still, I'm glad they're getting out the door and we're getting something for them, and she seems happy to do it.
These days I've tried to keep trading alive at least a little, by trying to trade myself into a complete set of each new expansion as it comes out. It feels like a damn shame to buy the sets online only to end up getting most of the cards over the course of the limited season, but if I want to play them ASAP (which I generally do) then I have to either buy or trade. And trading seems like a good way to avoid the cut that the shops take when you sell them.
But every set I hate it more and more. Here's a few reasons why.
1) most people have seemingly no interest in trading. Which is fair, but I remember when trading was as much a part of the game as actually playing it. But most people at LGSs these days don't bother to bring trades at all. Mostly this is annoying because, when I'm asking around for trades at a prerelease or FNM or whatever, I feel like some beggar that everyone is trying to politely excuse themselves from. "Do you have any trades?" "Oh, no, you don't want any of my cards...anyway I just remembered I have a dentist's appointment."
2) People are weirdly reticent to trade cards they've just gotten. Even if they have no earthly use for the damn things. Today I sat across from someone while building battlebond who cracked the UR rare partner commanders. At the end of the event, I asked if he'd be interested in trading them, and he decided he preferred to hold onto them. This is a man who openly disdains commander. He plays exclusively competitive constructed and limited formats, where these cards stand no chance in hell of ever appearing. Yet he doesn't want to trade them. And that's not a rare scenario. Many people want to hold onto the cards they opened, even if they have no use for them, even if they are interested in trading in general, even if I'm offering them more value than they're worth, even several times over.
3) and to continue on that point...even people who are willing to part with cards often will not trade them unless I have something specific they want. These are cards that have no value to them except as trade fodder, but for some reason they won't accept other, equally trade-fodderable cards of higher value in exchange for them. All I can guess is that they're paranoid that, IF the card they opened should spike in value, they'd feel bad, whereas if the cards I'm offering were to spike they would feel less bad.
4) Even for people who are willing to trade and can either find something they want, or are willing to take some reasonable value trade...most of them nickel and dime. Personally I'll happily lose half my trade value if I get something I want, if it's just a couple bucks, but some people are just not satisfied until they've got exactly as much value as you. This wouldn't be a huge problem - I'd just toss in more random value until they shut up - except that often this exacerbates the previous problems, so that I have to find sufficient value of exclusively cards they actually want. In exchange for cards they have no attachment to or use for.
tldr: I think I'm done trading. At this point asking around trying to find cards is humiliating, few people are cooperative and even when they are, it's usually a lot more time than its worth trying to make everyone satisfied. From now on I think I'm just going to sell my draft chaff online, buy the cards I want online, and never trade again.
I feel like the "trading" aspect of the game has morphed into selling and buying them online, losing money on every transaction because the alternative is to waste a ton of time and headache trying to haggle with people who act like you're trying to con them out of their family heirlooms. Is this just the way things go once you become an adult and it's no longer worth your while to haggle over trades for hours? Is this anyone else's experience too?
Enter my current girlfriend, who's gotten into magic and was moderately appalled at my enormous boxes full of bulk rares of years of frequent drafting. She's been slowly going through them and pulling out the valuable ones - to a degree that I can't help but feel it probably isn't worth her time. She makes six figures yet she's sorting and selling cards worth, in vast majority, ten cents apiece. Still, I'm glad they're getting out the door and we're getting something for them, and she seems happy to do it.
She's probably making six figures because she has the drive, focus, and willingness to do something like sift through bulk rares that are worth $.10 a piece
1) most people have seemingly no interest in trading. Which is fair, but I remember when trading was as much a part of the game as actually playing it. But most people at LGSs these days don't bother to bring trades at all. Mostly this is annoying because, when I'm asking around for trades at a prerelease or FNM or whatever, I feel like some beggar that everyone is trying to politely excuse themselves from. "Do you have any trades?" "Oh, no, you don't want any of my cards...anyway I just remembered I have a dentist's appointment."
3) and to continue on that point...even people who are willing to part with cards often will not trade them unless I have something specific they want. These are cards that have no value to them except as trade fodder, but for some reason they won't accept other, equally trade-fodderable cards of higher value in exchange for them. All I can guess is that they're paranoid that, IF the card they opened should spike in value, they'd feel bad, whereas if the cards I'm offering were to spike they would feel less bad.
4) Even for people who are willing to trade and can either find something they want, or are willing to take some reasonable value trade...most of them nickel and dime. Personally I'll happily lose half my trade value if I get something I want, if it's just a couple bucks, but some people are just not satisfied until they've got exactly as much value as you. This wouldn't be a huge problem - I'd just toss in more random value until they shut up - except that often this exacerbates the previous problems, so that I have to find sufficient value of exclusively cards they actually want. In exchange for cards they have no attachment to or use for.
tldr: I think I'm done trading. At this point asking around trying to find cards is humiliating, few people are cooperative and even when they are, it's usually a lot more time than its worth trying to make everyone satisfied. From now on I think I'm just going to sell my draft chaff online, buy the cards I want online, and never trade again.
I've encountered many of the things you're talking about with trading. People often seem to hesitate when I ask if they have trades, and give a "Uh...sure..." and then pull out their binders like it's contraband and police are watching. I often see people with entire pages of chase cards like Snapcaster Mage, almost like they're showing off, but never willing to part with one unless I'm offering another modern/legacy staple as a trade.
As an EDH player, my binder contains mostly one-offs of random cards that I've acquired over the years. There is some significant value in it (Though I recently traded in about a thousand dollars worth to Star City Games), but they're never the cards other people are looking for, and since I'm actually trying to convert my collection into a modern deck or two, I find this very frustrating. People seem to only want to trade for high value chase cards that will maintain their value, and are not willing to accept a bulk trade of five to ten lesser cards though the value is equal.
On one hand, I do understand this apprehension, but it seems to stem from the general culture around trading. I'm only looking for modern cards at this moment, or sometimes a specific EDH card. Since no one seems to want to trade for "non-essential" cards, I'm not going to get anything out of trading for a card that I don't need, even if there is the possibility that I could use that card to trade with someone else, simply because no one else will trade for them. It seems to have reached a point where you either have a binder full of Jaces, or you have nothing "of value"
When I used to build decks all the time, I had a much larger collection, and trading was an integral part of the game for me since buying all the cards I wanted outright was a financial impossibility. Since that time, I've changed the way I play Magic, and now I've slowly moved away from trading as a result.
Currently, I only own a handful of cards: three prized decks and virtually nothing else. I can't build new decks all the time like I used to, but I've since found more satisfaction in tuning existing decks over great lengths of time than I have in building new ones. And since I don't draft or buy boosters, no new cards ever enter my hands unless I purchase them. (If I'm buying singles, it probably isn't to trade them away.) As such, no new blood is ever really entering my collection, making it harder and harder to trade with anyone as my collection continues to dwindle in both number and value over time. Also, the cards I want are so niche that trying to find anyone who has them (and is willing to part with them) is usually so grueling that I'm rarely willing to bother, especially considering that the few individuals who do have what I want may not necessarily be willing to part with their cards given what's left of my binder.
It's weird. You could offer a Snapcaster up to me for $5.00, and I genuinely wouldn't be interested in the card save for the obvious fact that I could flip it at the drop of a hat and make a profit. Most cards just don't hold any kind of value to me. I only want what I want, and that's that.
Personally, I've always hated the collectible aspect of the Magic TCG. I'd much prefer it if Wizards would just print entire sets in a box like many living card games do. That would make the game so much more accessible; players would be able to play the game at a competitive level without having to fork out an arm and a leg to do so. Of course, I'm sure Wizards realizes this too. They just likely continue printing booster packs since the lottery ticket model makes more money overall. Opening boxes has always been a painful experience for me, but some folks just can't get enough of it.
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WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
I just stopped buying sealed product out and out about a year ago, and since then my trading went from weekly to once in a blue moon. The issue is when buying sealed product from new sets, 99% of the cards are worthless and nobody really wants them anyway. The only cards they want are the big bucks ones, and nobody can be bothered to make long 10-15 minute trades for bulk rares/uncommons.
If somebody walked up to me and asked for a Sin Prodder I can't be bothered to find out if it's worth more or less than $1.50, so I'd probably just ask for a goblin token in return. Trying to find something worth trading it for is just too much effort and I'm not really getting anything out of it.
I empathise with this situation, but I totally see the progression in my own experience. When I was younger (teenager), I'd play magic with friends and we'd happily trade with one another after games. But that was before the internet made prices so readily available. Now people are more concerned with value than anything else, and of course buying online means I can almost always get what I want without having to ask around who has what.
On the topic of trade binders, I would never bring a trade binder to an event anymore. Magic cards are too easy to steal as they're tiny and valuable. If you're going through my trade binder, I can't play games while you search (unless I trust you). So trading has become this tedious exercise where someone spends 5-10 minutes in your binder then offers you a dumb trade for cards you don't want. Repeat with the next guy.
Plus how many stories have we heard of people getting their binders or decks stolen at events. It's much easier to only bring a deck and watch it closely than bringing multiple valuable items and keeping track of all of them.
This is partially why I prefer playing with friends. You all know each other and the goal is to have fun, not necessarily to win. The only downside is you're limited in terms of the larger Magic community.
My issue with trading is that now that I have an income that can support playing competitively, I never have more than 4 copies of a card. I like trading and it's an easy way for me to fill spots that are missing from my 2x and 3x unfinished playsets. I just never have something I'm willing to let with because I do use my stuff, often actually.
My gameshop also has a bunch of people that are in the same boat as me. So what happens is the new hotness starts posting Mtgo results and then all copies of a specific card are snatched up from the LGS and everyone is scrambling to finish playsets of the same card for standard. It's frustrating as crap. Trading for the card is a no go because no one wants to part with card that may be broken for the next two years.
Enter my current girlfriend, who's gotten into magic and was moderately appalled at my enormous boxes full of bulk rares of years of frequent drafting. She's been slowly going through them and pulling out the valuable ones - to a degree that I can't help but feel it probably isn't worth her time. She makes six figures yet she's sorting and selling cards worth, in vast majority, ten cents apiece. Still, I'm glad they're getting out the door and we're getting something for them, and she seems happy to do it.
She's probably making six figures because she has the drive, focus, and willingness to do something like sift through bulk rares that are worth $.10 a piece
Maybe, but I make six figures (although a little less than her :P) and there's no way I'm doing that. Most I'd do is flip through them, pull out the rares I know are worth at least a couple bucks, and bin the rest.
It's weird. You could offer a Snapcaster up to me for $5.00, and I genuinely wouldn't be interested in the card save for the obvious fact that I could flip it at the drop of a hat and make a profit. Most cards just don't hold any kind of value to me. I only want what I want, and that's that.
I mean, I do get that, but people do seem to have a weird preference for whatever they opened personally. I wonder if high-quality fakes have spooked people?
I also often offer to trade sealed product, doesn't make much difference. I guess box mapping is a thing?
I'm in basically the same position as you, save for the girlfriend and I draft less than you. Still have an accumulation of cards I'll probably never use, though, that aren't worth my time (also six figures) to go through.
I've previously turned spare cards into papercraft projects, like folding the cards into dice boxes, or making Menger sponges. A level 0 sponge (cube, 2.5" on each side) takes 6 cards. A level 1 sponge takes 20 level 0 sponges (120 cards, 7.5" on each side). A level 2 sponge takes 20 level 1 sponges (2400 cards, 22.5" on each side). A level 3 sponge takes 20 level 2 sponges (48000 cards, 67.5" on each side). Building Menger sponges can use up a lot of spare cards, if you've got the space.
It used to be more about what I needed vs. what I was willing to give up. Now people are freaking out of a few cents since they can look up real-time values on their phone.
I trade with my close friends, otherwise I just buy the ***** I need....
Trading is too much of a hassle now. People always want to 'win' in value. Also people rarely have what I'm looking for, or they just have crap and want staples.
If people "expect" to use exact values to trade then they do that.
As some values shift very much thats not a bad idea ; even some random old cards you have for years might just randomly be very expensive, till the moment someone wants it, you probably didnt bother looking what the card is worth.
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I enjoy trading for some special cards, with people i know. It has a very special plus as i remember more from a card, i know who got it, who traded it to me, have some nice-chit-chat during trading and enjoy the time.
If you just "need" a card, buying them online is the much easier way.
But trading can be very enjoyable, as long as its done in a very casual manner and not to make a profit on either side.
If someone really needs a bunch of cards for a deck i would be willing to trade them the cards even for bulk and other stuff i dont need (but then you get a lot more stuff, which is usually still totally fine, as they get what they need).
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I also get annoyed if someone wants to trade a bunch of cards and if they are somehow bothered by giving me more value (in crap bulk rares that is) , then well, they clearly just dont want to trade then.
The moment someone learns that it simply doesnt matter if the values match perfectly, as long as nobody is "deeply" ripped off during a trade, its usually in everyones best interest to make the affair as enjoyable as possible (nothing is more annoying than trading for like 20 minutes and then they just dont want to trade and put everything back ; super sketchy, i just never trade with them again if i can avoid it).
I know in my case that my trade time and game time are one and the same. I don't want to spend 20-30 minutes doing a trade for $5 worth of commander cards when I could be playing a game instead. I also have to keep a close eye on my binders as I have been the victim of more than one theft during a trade. As a result, I don't bring trades unless I am looking for something specific, and even then I ask around for the specific card before I bother pulling a binder out. the advent of places like tcgplayer where you can buy bulk at bulk prices and have them mailed to your house in a week has really killed the need for small random trades.
I find trading to be far more difficult these days as well and it has been that way for a while. For me it's easier to concentrate widely desireable cards in one binder as those are the cards most people will want and rather than trying to establish equal value by digging through bulk rares I prefer cash to make up any difference. Saves time and current card value can be found at the touch of a phone. Assuming the other trader isn't just stacking a binder with bulk rares it works pretty well. Looking through bulk rares is not a good use of time when they can be had on the cheap online without wasting any time at all.
2) People are weirdly reticent to trade cards they've just gotten. Even if they have no earthly use for the damn things. Today I sat across from someone while building battlebond who cracked the UR rare partner commanders. At the end of the event, I asked if he'd be interested in trading them, and he decided he preferred to hold onto them. This is a man who openly disdains commander. He plays exclusively competitive constructed and limited formats, where these cards stand no chance in hell of ever appearing. Yet he doesn't want to trade them. And that's not a rare scenario. Many people want to hold onto the cards they opened, even if they have no use for them, even if they are interested in trading in general, even if I'm offering them more value than they're worth, even several times over.
This has to do with the price spikeing environment, New cards particularity if they hold "potential" are often held for a few months to allow the possibility of that massvie price spike
3) and to continue on that point...even people who are willing to part with cards often will not trade them unless I have something specific they want. These are cards that have no value to them except as trade fodder, but for some reason they won't accept other, equally trade-fodderable cards of higher value in exchange for them. All I can guess is that they're paranoid that, IF the card they opened should spike in value, they'd feel bad, whereas if the cards I'm offering were to spike they would feel less bad.
What is a card that is "trade" fodder.... unless you are talking about non played reserve list rares almost every card in print that has value explicly has value because of its play ability. Nothing is "just trade fodder" beucase to be worth past the $5 line it needs SOME degree of playability.
4) Even for people who are willing to trade and can either find something they want, or are willing to take some reasonable value trade...most of them nickel and dime. Personally I'll happily lose half my trade value if I get something I want, if it's just a couple bucks, but some people are just not satisfied until they've got exactly as much value as you. This wouldn't be a huge problem - I'd just toss in more random value until they shut up - except that often this exacerbates the previous problems, so that I have to find sufficient value of exclusively cards they actually want. In exchange for cards they have no attachment to or use for.
They have these great trade places you may live them, its called your Local gaming store... they buy most stuff at half value and might even give you more if you ask for trade credit.....
I feel like the "trading" aspect of the game has morphed into selling and buying them online, losing money on every transaction because the alternative is to waste a ton of time and headache trying to haggle with people who act like you're trying to con them out of their family heirlooms. Is this just the way things go once you become an adult and it's no longer worth your while to haggle over trades for hours? Is this anyone else's experience too?
I've encountered many of the things you're talking about with trading. People often seem to hesitate when I ask if they have trades, and give a "Uh...sure..." and then pull out their binders like it's contraband and police are watching. I often see people with entire pages of chase cards like Snapcaster Mage, almost like they're showing off, but never willing to part with one unless I'm offering another modern/legacy staple as a trade.
This is hardly unresonable people are allowed to trade for what they want its kind of the point of trading... Frankly speaking people who play legacy tend to not be as active in trading or doing things as quick as a standard player so wanting "stable" rares like legacy staples for legacy staples is far from unwarrented. Frankly standard value drops massively very very quicky and often they may not PLAY other formats. Your insert Hot foil Mythic of the season playset might be worth $500 but in 2 years it likely will not where as the underground sea you are asking for WILL be worth $500+
As an EDH player, my binder contains mostly one-offs of random cards that I've acquired over the years. There is some significant value in it (Though I recently traded in about a thousand dollars worth to Star City Games), but they're never the cards other people are looking for, and since I'm actually trying to convert my collection into a modern deck or two, I find this very frustrating. People seem to only want to trade for high value chase cards that will maintain their value, and are not willing to accept a bulk trade of five to ten lesser cards though the value is equal.
To be fair would you? When is the last time you traded someone 200 of their bulk rares for a high value legacy/modern/EDH card where YOU got the bulk?We are people not stores, lots of low value things are harder to get rid of afew high value high demand things.
On one hand, I do understand this apprehension, but it seems to stem from the general culture around trading. I'm only looking for modern cards at this moment, or sometimes a specific EDH card. Since no one seems to want to trade for "non-essential" cards, I'm not going to get anything out of trading for a card that I don't need, even if there is the possibility that I could use that card to trade with someone else, simply because no one else will trade for them. It seems to have reached a point where you either have a binder full of Jaces, or you have nothing "of value"
Problem is alot of value has shifted to the top, its harder to move, Back in the old days (very old days like IPA/OTJ/OLS/MD5 era their were alot of $5 cards that suprise suprise were worth $5, the value was shifted more all around. It was like trading four five dollar bills for a $20. More or less even across the board, Now however the market is voltile and what worth small money is likely NOT worth that value. In times of uncertenty people flock to stability, in economy that would be hard mettels and bonds in magic its legacy/reserve list cards.
I used to love trading. Back when I first started playing TCGs competitively, I was able to make a tier 1 YuGiOh deck through trading. Once I transitioned into Magic, I also traded a lot as well. My trading binder was over stuffed. I wheeled and dealed like the best of them.
However, that was 15 years ago. Now I am in my 30's and I have disposable income. I usually find it easier to just buy the cards I want. The only people I trade with are close friends. I have grown very tired of wheeling and dealing with strangers who try to screw me or low ball me, like I am a flea market merchant, desperate for any deals I can make.
i am a trader my self. ive been collecting cards since i was like 5. only basketball tho.(now magic) im a old school card collector. when i used to collect basketball cards i would only collect reggie miller. so i would trade, let say a 10$ michael jordan for like a 50 cent reggie card. most of the time prices of the cards dont matter to me. if i dont have the card i want it no matter the cost even if u ask a card thats worth alot more.and if they didnt have anything i wanted i would trade for sleeves,toploaders,etcc.
now that im collecting magic. if i dont have the card in my collection i want it. the only time i wouldnt trade is if i only got one copy of the card.
my point is i love trading and i soon as i get a nice trading list anyone that wants to trade holler at me cuz im a trader
as long as i got doubles, pricing and rareity dont matter to me
lets keep trading alive
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its good to learn from your mistakes.but i prefer to learn from the mistakes of others.
I trade at every year's GP in my hometown. I get rid of excess stuff in exchange for cards I want/need. Can't blame people for not wanting to trade, though. It'd suck to trade away a shockland that doubles in price the next day. I have no desire to have a massive collection beyond lands now, so basically I'll just trade if people have extra fetches, shocks, or fastlands.
I understand the plight. Going from cash to cards has always been easy, but card to card and card to cash (without losing 50%) has always been tough. I know this sounds like a dirty plug but honestly have you tried a centralized or reserve service? Not saying my website specifically, but even something like TCGDirect or COMC.com. If you've ever preordered anything, you've used a reserve service as you give money out for a preorder, then they reserve that thing for you. They're fairly new compared to retail (which has been around since the start) but it's a strictly more efficient way to do things.
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Buy and sell Magic: the Gathering cards on the handy dandy itty bitty website I made: https://SpeedMTG.com
I hardly ever trade cards, pretty much for the reasons listed. The only things of mine that people want are things that are too valuable or rare to give up; I don't have any cards with a high value that I don't want (which I suppose is a good thing). The last time I traded with someone, I kind of planned it out and got them the two playsets of cards they wanted, and they ended up not needing one of them, while the other one was only 80% of the price I bought it for when we traded (we were going for equal value if possible). Afterward, I just thought that if I want specific cards, I can just buy them myself, since I'll be doing so anyway, and it's pretty well pointless to trade unless someone actually wants the stuff I'm getting rid of.
I love to trade, but I exclusively play EDH (with one Modern deck for tournaments that I adjust every so often). I love building weird, janky EDH decks, so my binder is unappealing if you play standard or modern.
Binders come in two flavors: the Binder of Whoa (tons of expensive cards, no chaff) and the Binder of No (Weird EDH cards, and mostly low cost stuff). Mine is the latter, named for when people look through it, the first word out of their lips is "no". I may have some cool semi-expensive cards like Wanderwine Prophets or Mesmeric Orb, but not as many Snapcasters. So trading just doesn't happen unless the player is new to EDH.
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Level 1 Judge
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
These days each card has a very real market value. There are a number of ways of calculating that but a distinct value exists whatever your calculation method. Trying to get the better deal or trying not to get taken to the cleaners should not even be a thing unless that's a game that people like to play. The biggest problem I run into is people disregarding actual value because they don't believe it's a true indicator even though it's the very definition of market value. If one speculates that a card is or will be worth much more then take it out of your damn binder already. Had some fool a couple of weeks ago send me a pic from eBay of a 3 month old sale to establish a price. Based on the last sale and mtgtrader market value his proposed price was 1/3 it's current value (pretty rare card with few on the market). The fact that he even tried to pull that jazz is not only a waste of my time but it warrants a swift kick to the nether regions. Disclaimer: I don't advocate violence and all, even when deserved.
As Bran mentions above, to the penny is silly. Within a dollar on sizable trades or rounding bulk rares a reasonable amount works fine and doesn't tie up nearly as much time.
It's sort of hard to trade cards when the singles market is so volatile and the costs are so high on the cards. It feels bad to trade and then end up having one person become the next big loser.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I used to trade back in high school. But now that I have a job.. it's not worth the time and effort anymore. Paying a little extra by buying things online is still better than the hassle and time consuming effort in trading for cards that I need.
Also, I don't buy packs and boxes anymore... so there's almost no more trash cards piling up at home.
Back when I was in high school playing, I loved trading. I was always trying to get a good deal, trying to find someone who had the cards I wanted to build my deck. I kept a curated collection of trades in clear binder sheets, ready to whip out at a moment's notice. Rarely did I pay for cards if I could avoid it. I traded to get my first dual land, a beat up badlands. Still, I was ecstatic.
When I got a real job making real money, trading kind of started to seem a bit less appealing. Trying to find people willing to part with duals and the other older cards I wanted to complete my collection was difficult, and I was making enough that dropping a hundred apiece (yeah, remember when duals were $100 each?) to save myself the hassle seemed like a reasonable trade. But now I had all these draft rares sitting around, now that I was drafting more and trading much less. Rares worth significant money, which would sit in a box, and then eventually become worthless once they rotated. I knew I was losing a ton of money on them, but actually finding anyone interested in specific cards was really tedious, and generally I was just trading for other cards that would also lose value. So mostly they just sat there.
Enter my current girlfriend, who's gotten into magic and was moderately appalled at my enormous boxes full of bulk rares of years of frequent drafting. She's been slowly going through them and pulling out the valuable ones - to a degree that I can't help but feel it probably isn't worth her time. She makes six figures yet she's sorting and selling cards worth, in vast majority, ten cents apiece. Still, I'm glad they're getting out the door and we're getting something for them, and she seems happy to do it.
These days I've tried to keep trading alive at least a little, by trying to trade myself into a complete set of each new expansion as it comes out. It feels like a damn shame to buy the sets online only to end up getting most of the cards over the course of the limited season, but if I want to play them ASAP (which I generally do) then I have to either buy or trade. And trading seems like a good way to avoid the cut that the shops take when you sell them.
But every set I hate it more and more. Here's a few reasons why.
1) most people have seemingly no interest in trading. Which is fair, but I remember when trading was as much a part of the game as actually playing it. But most people at LGSs these days don't bother to bring trades at all. Mostly this is annoying because, when I'm asking around for trades at a prerelease or FNM or whatever, I feel like some beggar that everyone is trying to politely excuse themselves from. "Do you have any trades?" "Oh, no, you don't want any of my cards...anyway I just remembered I have a dentist's appointment."
2) People are weirdly reticent to trade cards they've just gotten. Even if they have no earthly use for the damn things. Today I sat across from someone while building battlebond who cracked the UR rare partner commanders. At the end of the event, I asked if he'd be interested in trading them, and he decided he preferred to hold onto them. This is a man who openly disdains commander. He plays exclusively competitive constructed and limited formats, where these cards stand no chance in hell of ever appearing. Yet he doesn't want to trade them. And that's not a rare scenario. Many people want to hold onto the cards they opened, even if they have no use for them, even if they are interested in trading in general, even if I'm offering them more value than they're worth, even several times over.
3) and to continue on that point...even people who are willing to part with cards often will not trade them unless I have something specific they want. These are cards that have no value to them except as trade fodder, but for some reason they won't accept other, equally trade-fodderable cards of higher value in exchange for them. All I can guess is that they're paranoid that, IF the card they opened should spike in value, they'd feel bad, whereas if the cards I'm offering were to spike they would feel less bad.
4) Even for people who are willing to trade and can either find something they want, or are willing to take some reasonable value trade...most of them nickel and dime. Personally I'll happily lose half my trade value if I get something I want, if it's just a couple bucks, but some people are just not satisfied until they've got exactly as much value as you. This wouldn't be a huge problem - I'd just toss in more random value until they shut up - except that often this exacerbates the previous problems, so that I have to find sufficient value of exclusively cards they actually want. In exchange for cards they have no attachment to or use for.
tldr: I think I'm done trading. At this point asking around trying to find cards is humiliating, few people are cooperative and even when they are, it's usually a lot more time than its worth trying to make everyone satisfied. From now on I think I'm just going to sell my draft chaff online, buy the cards I want online, and never trade again.
I feel like the "trading" aspect of the game has morphed into selling and buying them online, losing money on every transaction because the alternative is to waste a ton of time and headache trying to haggle with people who act like you're trying to con them out of their family heirlooms. Is this just the way things go once you become an adult and it's no longer worth your while to haggle over trades for hours? Is this anyone else's experience too?
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
She's probably making six figures because she has the drive, focus, and willingness to do something like sift through bulk rares that are worth $.10 a piece
I've encountered many of the things you're talking about with trading. People often seem to hesitate when I ask if they have trades, and give a "Uh...sure..." and then pull out their binders like it's contraband and police are watching. I often see people with entire pages of chase cards like Snapcaster Mage, almost like they're showing off, but never willing to part with one unless I'm offering another modern/legacy staple as a trade.
As an EDH player, my binder contains mostly one-offs of random cards that I've acquired over the years. There is some significant value in it (Though I recently traded in about a thousand dollars worth to Star City Games), but they're never the cards other people are looking for, and since I'm actually trying to convert my collection into a modern deck or two, I find this very frustrating. People seem to only want to trade for high value chase cards that will maintain their value, and are not willing to accept a bulk trade of five to ten lesser cards though the value is equal.
On one hand, I do understand this apprehension, but it seems to stem from the general culture around trading. I'm only looking for modern cards at this moment, or sometimes a specific EDH card. Since no one seems to want to trade for "non-essential" cards, I'm not going to get anything out of trading for a card that I don't need, even if there is the possibility that I could use that card to trade with someone else, simply because no one else will trade for them. It seems to have reached a point where you either have a binder full of Jaces, or you have nothing "of value"
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
Currently, I only own a handful of cards: three prized decks and virtually nothing else. I can't build new decks all the time like I used to, but I've since found more satisfaction in tuning existing decks over great lengths of time than I have in building new ones. And since I don't draft or buy boosters, no new cards ever enter my hands unless I purchase them. (If I'm buying singles, it probably isn't to trade them away.) As such, no new blood is ever really entering my collection, making it harder and harder to trade with anyone as my collection continues to dwindle in both number and value over time. Also, the cards I want are so niche that trying to find anyone who has them (and is willing to part with them) is usually so grueling that I'm rarely willing to bother, especially considering that the few individuals who do have what I want may not necessarily be willing to part with their cards given what's left of my binder.
It's weird. You could offer a Snapcaster up to me for $5.00, and I genuinely wouldn't be interested in the card save for the obvious fact that I could flip it at the drop of a hat and make a profit. Most cards just don't hold any kind of value to me. I only want what I want, and that's that.
Personally, I've always hated the collectible aspect of the Magic TCG. I'd much prefer it if Wizards would just print entire sets in a box like many living card games do. That would make the game so much more accessible; players would be able to play the game at a competitive level without having to fork out an arm and a leg to do so. Of course, I'm sure Wizards realizes this too. They just likely continue printing booster packs since the lottery ticket model makes more money overall. Opening boxes has always been a painful experience for me, but some folks just can't get enough of it.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
If somebody walked up to me and asked for a Sin Prodder I can't be bothered to find out if it's worth more or less than $1.50, so I'd probably just ask for a goblin token in return. Trying to find something worth trading it for is just too much effort and I'm not really getting anything out of it.
Modern:R 8Whack R|W White Knights W
On the topic of trade binders, I would never bring a trade binder to an event anymore. Magic cards are too easy to steal as they're tiny and valuable. If you're going through my trade binder, I can't play games while you search (unless I trust you). So trading has become this tedious exercise where someone spends 5-10 minutes in your binder then offers you a dumb trade for cards you don't want. Repeat with the next guy.
Plus how many stories have we heard of people getting their binders or decks stolen at events. It's much easier to only bring a deck and watch it closely than bringing multiple valuable items and keeping track of all of them.
This is partially why I prefer playing with friends. You all know each other and the goal is to have fun, not necessarily to win. The only downside is you're limited in terms of the larger Magic community.
My gameshop also has a bunch of people that are in the same boat as me. So what happens is the new hotness starts posting Mtgo results and then all copies of a specific card are snatched up from the LGS and everyone is scrambling to finish playsets of the same card for standard. It's frustrating as crap. Trading for the card is a no go because no one wants to part with card that may be broken for the next two years.
in return, many people dont seem to get this, and will just say " no, nothing i want " ... for a ONE pound / dollar card, for gods sake
I also often offer to trade sealed product, doesn't make much difference. I guess box mapping is a thing?
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
I've previously turned spare cards into papercraft projects, like folding the cards into dice boxes, or making Menger sponges. A level 0 sponge (cube, 2.5" on each side) takes 6 cards. A level 1 sponge takes 20 level 0 sponges (120 cards, 7.5" on each side). A level 2 sponge takes 20 level 1 sponges (2400 cards, 22.5" on each side). A level 3 sponge takes 20 level 2 sponges (48000 cards, 67.5" on each side). Building Menger sponges can use up a lot of spare cards, if you've got the space.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
It used to be more about what I needed vs. what I was willing to give up. Now people are freaking out of a few cents since they can look up real-time values on their phone.
I trade with my close friends, otherwise I just buy the ***** I need....
As some values shift very much thats not a bad idea ; even some random old cards you have for years might just randomly be very expensive, till the moment someone wants it, you probably didnt bother looking what the card is worth.
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I enjoy trading for some special cards, with people i know. It has a very special plus as i remember more from a card, i know who got it, who traded it to me, have some nice-chit-chat during trading and enjoy the time.
If you just "need" a card, buying them online is the much easier way.
But trading can be very enjoyable, as long as its done in a very casual manner and not to make a profit on either side.
If someone really needs a bunch of cards for a deck i would be willing to trade them the cards even for bulk and other stuff i dont need (but then you get a lot more stuff, which is usually still totally fine, as they get what they need).
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I also get annoyed if someone wants to trade a bunch of cards and if they are somehow bothered by giving me more value (in crap bulk rares that is) , then well, they clearly just dont want to trade then.
The moment someone learns that it simply doesnt matter if the values match perfectly, as long as nobody is "deeply" ripped off during a trade, its usually in everyones best interest to make the affair as enjoyable as possible (nothing is more annoying than trading for like 20 minutes and then they just dont want to trade and put everything back ; super sketchy, i just never trade with them again if i can avoid it).
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
Problem is alot of value has shifted to the top, its harder to move, Back in the old days (very old days like IPA/OTJ/OLS/MD5 era their were alot of $5 cards that suprise suprise were worth $5, the value was shifted more all around. It was like trading four five dollar bills for a $20. More or less even across the board, Now however the market is voltile and what worth small money is likely NOT worth that value. In times of uncertenty people flock to stability, in economy that would be hard mettels and bonds in magic its legacy/reserve list cards.
However, that was 15 years ago. Now I am in my 30's and I have disposable income. I usually find it easier to just buy the cards I want. The only people I trade with are close friends. I have grown very tired of wheeling and dealing with strangers who try to screw me or low ball me, like I am a flea market merchant, desperate for any deals I can make.
now that im collecting magic. if i dont have the card in my collection i want it. the only time i wouldnt trade is if i only got one copy of the card.
my point is i love trading and i soon as i get a nice trading list anyone that wants to trade holler at me cuz im a trader
as long as i got doubles, pricing and rareity dont matter to me
lets keep trading alive
chandra stole my heart
link to my card list
https://deckstats.net/collection/6022/
Binders come in two flavors: the Binder of Whoa (tons of expensive cards, no chaff) and the Binder of No (Weird EDH cards, and mostly low cost stuff). Mine is the latter, named for when people look through it, the first word out of their lips is "no". I may have some cool semi-expensive cards like Wanderwine Prophets or Mesmeric Orb, but not as many Snapcasters. So trading just doesn't happen unless the player is new to EDH.
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
As Bran mentions above, to the penny is silly. Within a dollar on sizable trades or rounding bulk rares a reasonable amount works fine and doesn't tie up nearly as much time.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Also, I don't buy packs and boxes anymore... so there's almost no more trash cards piling up at home.
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