I have been buying sets from others regularly on OfferUp and Craigslist for over 4 years to accumulate trade bate. One thing that is usually w/ collections are basic lands. I have boxes upon boxes of basics (my guess... around 10,000+ basics).
I can't seam to get myself to throw them away. You know how when a Native American kills an animal, he uses the entire body, not just strip the meat (bones for jewelry & weapons, fur & skin for clothing, organs for stew or feeding a domesticated friend, etc.). I like to do that w/ the collections I buy. I keep the cards I want for decks. I trade off the 35 cent & up commons, uncommons & rares on Puca Trade (as well as the dollar+ cards), go to the surrounding LGS's w/ the unwanted commons & uncommons for store credit to packs, as well as use any sleeves or dice that come w/ the collection. The only things I truly toss are the advertisement cards, damaged cards that are three dollars or less, or anything torn or damaged that is misc.
What I have left that I am a loss what to do with is all of the basic lands. Now I'm not talking about breaking out the craft glue and getting creative or treating them as proxies until the real card comes in the mail. I want some ideas to how to either flip them for a profit or trade them away. Now I'm not interested in duping some poor schmo into thinking a particular box of cards is the cat's meow.
Now, I do check semi-frequently dawnglare.com to see what basics are higher than 35 or 40 cents - I keep those for Puca Trading off... and yes, there are many looking for particular art or lands from a peculiar set.
Some questions:
1) Are there any online dealers that will take bulk lands where I will get much more than the cost to ship them?
2) Are there any complete sets of lands that are sought after outside of misprints, Edgar basics, or promos?
3) Has anyone had luck going on Craigslist or an app like OfferUp and just listing something like 2,000 basics: $10?
I know this sounds like a moot point or a banal idea, but I would like to find a way to flip all/most of the basic lands I have.
I believe most LGS's just give these away. I would suggest you adopt that model and just donate them to whoever needs them and write it off as a good deed and making things a little easier for someone else just getting started in this game.
To your questions..
1) Why would there be? Do they stay in business by offering anything more than what the competition does? Do they stay in business by paying more, absorbing those costs and just charging more for basics than their competition? Again, seems unlikely.
2) Probably not, but here you go. (You might try running down the author on Facebook and ask him for some tips here. DJ also regularly writes for TCGPlayer, I believe.)
3) No idea but seems unlikely. Again...WHY would someone pay anything for them when, again, they can literally go to any LGS and just TAKE the basic lands they need? That said, is it really worth the potential risk of dealing with potentially very sketchy CraigsList people just to squeeze out $10?
If you figure out a way to spin straw into gold here, please let the rest of us know. We'd like to do it too!
I believe most LGS's just give these away. I would suggest you adopt that model and just donate them to whoever needs them and write it off as a good deed and making things a little easier for someone else just getting started in this game.
To your questions..
1) Why would there be? Do they stay in business by offering anything more than what the competition does? Do they stay in business by paying more, absorbing those costs and just charging more for basics than their competition? Again, seems unlikely.
2) Probably not, but here you go. (You might try running down the author on Facebook and ask him for some tips here. DJ also regularly writes for TCGPlayer, I believe.)
3) No idea but seems unlikely. Again...WHY would someone pay anything for them when, again, they can literally go to any LGS and just TAKE the basic lands they need? That said, is it really worth the potential risk of dealing with potentially very sketchy CraigsList people just to squeeze out $10?
If you figure out a way to spin straw into gold here, please let the rest of us know. We'd like to do it too!
I kinda figured there's not much luck for selling bulk lands, but I asked in the hopes I had missed something, somewhere. That is a good article. I already knew about some of the basics he mentioned, but the history to the "why" of the value was interesting. If I find an answer to where I can sell them, I'll let all of you know (once, of course, I unload my stacks of basics first :unibrow:).
I am still hoping another pitches in their two cents here and share w/ us. There might be a Rumpelstiltskin among us yet!
There is nothing inherently honorable about living without waste.
The idea that a native american learns to use all parts of an animal should be a good lesson in resourcefulness.
No matter how you cut it, our existence requires resources. Eat a meal and how much energy do you have before you have to eat again?
The cost of 6 hours of your time is at least the price of one meal.
What about the resource of your time? In the long run, for every 16 hours of being awake, you need to spend 8 hours sleeping.
16 hours - work - commute - eating - miscellany = your discretionary free time.
The price of your resources far exceeds any value you would get trying to figure out a way not to "waste" your lands.
If you had infinite time and the marginal cost of your energy and time were zero, then certainly you could figure this out.
But you have surely figured out by now, there isn't enough to be gained by not wasting lands, or not keeping your mtg cards in perfect alphabetical order, or cataloging every card you have into a database. There's a reason why most people dont do that stuff. It's not worth the time. Your natural intuition isn't wrong.
This is a bit of a necro, but I wanted to come back to this question.
Recently I've been trying to get rid of some junk rares and have felt the OPs dilemma a little more personally.
I want to offer a better answer:
Give away your unused magic cards.
No really.
I think all of us have this issue, where the vast majority of our collection of commons and uncommons are just sitting in a box somewhere. The time it takes to sort out the cards is more valuable than the cards themselves.
At this point, the greatest value that can be extracted from the cards is to give them away.
By giving away cards, you pique the interest of other people, and give them the opportunity to enter into a game. Give your cards away to your little cousin or sibling, or other friends. At the very least they can play without buying into the game. In the longer run, perhaps several years, the people they introduce to the game will themselves be customers, keeping the game alive.
This is a bit of a necro, but I wanted to come back to this question.
Recently I've been trying to get rid of some junk rares and have felt the OPs dilemma a little more personally.
I want to offer a better answer:
Give away your unused magic cards.
No really.
I think all of us have this issue, where the vast majority of our collection of commons and uncommons are just sitting in a box somewhere. The time it takes to sort out the cards is more valuable than the cards themselves.
At this point, the greatest value that can be extracted from the cards is to give them away.
By giving away cards, you pique the interest of other people, and give them the opportunity to enter into a game. Give your cards away to your little cousin or sibling, or other friends. At the very least they can play without buying into the game. In the longer run, perhaps several years, the people they introduce to the game will themselves be customers, keeping the game alive.
No matter how many basic lands I acquire, I never seem to have enough islands. I don't know why. I have plenty of other basics, but I always seem short on islands. Quite mystifying.
But I digress. I would be careful giving away the unwanted cards. Lands are sure fire. But others.. eh...
Can you imagine how little Timmy might feel walking into the LGS with a spiffy brand new deck made from cards you gave him only to realize that Impale isn't actually very good or gets hammered before being able to cast Cinder Storm? Not saying you should give anyone your Lightning Bolts, but you should always be careful about giving away cards to someone who has never played. You want a good experience to turn them into Magic.
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I can't seam to get myself to throw them away. You know how when a Native American kills an animal, he uses the entire body, not just strip the meat (bones for jewelry & weapons, fur & skin for clothing, organs for stew or feeding a domesticated friend, etc.). I like to do that w/ the collections I buy. I keep the cards I want for decks. I trade off the 35 cent & up commons, uncommons & rares on Puca Trade (as well as the dollar+ cards), go to the surrounding LGS's w/ the unwanted commons & uncommons for store credit to packs, as well as use any sleeves or dice that come w/ the collection. The only things I truly toss are the advertisement cards, damaged cards that are three dollars or less, or anything torn or damaged that is misc.
What I have left that I am a loss what to do with is all of the basic lands. Now I'm not talking about breaking out the craft glue and getting creative or treating them as proxies until the real card comes in the mail. I want some ideas to how to either flip them for a profit or trade them away. Now I'm not interested in duping some poor schmo into thinking a particular box of cards is the cat's meow.
Now, I do check semi-frequently dawnglare.com to see what basics are higher than 35 or 40 cents - I keep those for Puca Trading off... and yes, there are many looking for particular art or lands from a peculiar set.
Some questions:
1) Are there any online dealers that will take bulk lands where I will get much more than the cost to ship them?
2) Are there any complete sets of lands that are sought after outside of misprints, Edgar basics, or promos?
3) Has anyone had luck going on Craigslist or an app like OfferUp and just listing something like 2,000 basics: $10?
I know this sounds like a moot point or a banal idea, but I would like to find a way to flip all/most of the basic lands I have.
To your questions..
1) Why would there be? Do they stay in business by offering anything more than what the competition does? Do they stay in business by paying more, absorbing those costs and just charging more for basics than their competition? Again, seems unlikely.
2) Probably not, but here you go. (You might try running down the author on Facebook and ask him for some tips here. DJ also regularly writes for TCGPlayer, I believe.)
3) No idea but seems unlikely. Again...WHY would someone pay anything for them when, again, they can literally go to any LGS and just TAKE the basic lands they need? That said, is it really worth the potential risk of dealing with potentially very sketchy CraigsList people just to squeeze out $10?
If you figure out a way to spin straw into gold here, please let the rest of us know. We'd like to do it too!
I kinda figured there's not much luck for selling bulk lands, but I asked in the hopes I had missed something, somewhere. That is a good article. I already knew about some of the basics he mentioned, but the history to the "why" of the value was interesting. If I find an answer to where I can sell them, I'll let all of you know (once, of course, I unload my stacks of basics first :unibrow:).
I am still hoping another pitches in their two cents here and share w/ us. There might be a Rumpelstiltskin among us yet!
The idea that a native american learns to use all parts of an animal should be a good lesson in resourcefulness.
No matter how you cut it, our existence requires resources. Eat a meal and how much energy do you have before you have to eat again?
The cost of 6 hours of your time is at least the price of one meal.
What about the resource of your time? In the long run, for every 16 hours of being awake, you need to spend 8 hours sleeping.
16 hours - work - commute - eating - miscellany = your discretionary free time.
The price of your resources far exceeds any value you would get trying to figure out a way not to "waste" your lands.
If you had infinite time and the marginal cost of your energy and time were zero, then certainly you could figure this out.
But you have surely figured out by now, there isn't enough to be gained by not wasting lands, or not keeping your mtg cards in perfect alphabetical order, or cataloging every card you have into a database. There's a reason why most people dont do that stuff. It's not worth the time. Your natural intuition isn't wrong.
Recently I've been trying to get rid of some junk rares and have felt the OPs dilemma a little more personally.
I want to offer a better answer:
Give away your unused magic cards.
No really.
I think all of us have this issue, where the vast majority of our collection of commons and uncommons are just sitting in a box somewhere. The time it takes to sort out the cards is more valuable than the cards themselves.
At this point, the greatest value that can be extracted from the cards is to give them away.
By giving away cards, you pique the interest of other people, and give them the opportunity to enter into a game. Give your cards away to your little cousin or sibling, or other friends. At the very least they can play without buying into the game. In the longer run, perhaps several years, the people they introduce to the game will themselves be customers, keeping the game alive.
No matter how many basic lands I acquire, I never seem to have enough islands. I don't know why. I have plenty of other basics, but I always seem short on islands. Quite mystifying.
But I digress. I would be careful giving away the unwanted cards. Lands are sure fire. But others.. eh...
Can you imagine how little Timmy might feel walking into the LGS with a spiffy brand new deck made from cards you gave him only to realize that Impale isn't actually very good or gets hammered before being able to cast Cinder Storm? Not saying you should give anyone your Lightning Bolts, but you should always be careful about giving away cards to someone who has never played. You want a good experience to turn them into Magic.