One thing that wasn't mentioned...or if it was I missed it entirely.
If, and when, you want to start branching out, I suggest lookng around and see if you can find a friend who's familiar with Magic. Not a passing interest or someone just starting out but someone who is an avid player.
You, and your current playgroup, can figure out how to play on your own but things will go a lot smoother if you have someone who can show you. There are a number of common problems that crop up. An experienced player can gently show you what to do unlike a player at a competitive match that's out to gut your deck.
Forums are OK for general questions like, "What is Standard?" But they can't see you play and won't know if you're doing something incorrectly.
Would spells with X in the cost qualify? Hangarback Walker is one such spell. It would seem to give any X based deck bit of an advantage being able to toss out some heavy weights.
Given this card was described as "Gem Mint" and it is clearly not in mint condition, you have excellent grounds to open a case on eBay. I would recommend you proceed with this route first, since you have already attempted to work with the seller to no avail. It is the seller's responsibility to ensure that the item matches the auction title/description. I would anticipate that eBay will side with the buyer (you) as they do in most cases, especially since you have pictures documenting this discrepancy. You would have to send the card back at eBay/the sellers's expense and be refunded appropriately. If for some bizarre reason eBay decides not to side with you, you can always proceed with a charge back via your credit card company.
The OP already mentioned that they opened a complaint with eBay which was closed within a few hours.
I used to do a lot of trasactions as both seller and buyer and eBay started sucking something royal about ten or so years ago. Specifically, eBay changed a number of policies to greatly favor larger, high dollar/volume, sellers and place the majority of buyers and small sellers at a disadvantage. In essence, unless the OP has unequivocable proof the seller ripped him off, I don't think it's very likely eBay will side with him.
Especially interesting is the sellers attitude about a chargeback and how it'll hit only PayPal, not the seller. That hints to me that PayPal is still cheesy and likely follows the same rot policies as eBay. If you think it's hard to deal with eBay, PayPal is downright draconian.
Would this help at all for those stores that stopped hosting MtG or is this more of a band-aid solution to stop the bleeding with existing stores from not hosting?
I don't think Primal Clay would be affected in that manner. The p/t is chosen as it enters the battlefield, at which point it has already gained a p/t. It would lose the text and flying or defender if one of those options was chosen, but it would still retain it's p/t from that ability since the ability has already resolved before Orb of Awe takes effect.
I may be wrong, but I'm almost positive I'm not.
The problem isn't with how things currently work, because the rules don't currently support removing all abilities without setting p/t, its how they would work for a theoretical card. I don't know how the rules would be rewritten to accommodate the function provided, I only pointed out that having a change of (If a creature has an X or * in their power/toughness, treat that value as 0) would mean that cards like Primal Clay would be affected because they have */* printed on them.
This is why every current card that removes all abilities also sets p/t. If you have an actual work around then that would be interesting to see, but currently it doesn't function.
You're missing the (blindingly?) obvious: Have it only treat the p/t as 0 if it can't be defined... exactly the same as when any other effect makes p/t undefined. Only in this case it's the lack of an ability.
I think the issue is by doing so makes Orb a selective creature killer instead of its intended function of turning every creature into a vanilla bean. A permanent that not only strips a creature of all abilities AND prevents */* or 0/0 creatures from entering play is bit much.
Why in the world would anyone think a trade-in program of any sort is a good idea? It's like that NGF nonsense when so-called "collectors" would trade in their original NeoGeo game case sleeves with all the original misprints for a "corrected" case sleeve branded with NGF branded garbage. A real collector would not trade in their cards, even the high dollar ones, because well.... they want to collect them, warts and all.
No investor would think it's a good idea to trade away their premium high dollar cards for a wheelbarrow full of what would inevitably be junk cards.
The people such a program would actually benefit would be the people who don't have said cards in the first place or the people who want to preserve the cards for their collection (there's that word again).
The frame thing, or talking about fakes, or whatever, as a reason for a trade program is just nonsense. If I have the real card, I already know I have a real card, why trade it for a guaranteed real card? If I don't like the frame, it would be better to sell it and buy the new version or trade away for it.
Then there's the money. No way is WotC going to sink that kind of money in validating old cardd and producing a ton of cards only to give them away.
If I bought the card, I want the card. If I didn't want the card, I would sell the card and use the money to get other cards. No reserved list trade in program of any kind is going to convince me, or anyone else, who didn't sell the card already to trade the card in.
Is it the same card as featured in the auction? I assume it is, I imagine the first thing you would do is verify the serials. The artifacts are realy bad in those eBay photos so i can't see any blemishes. The Icy Manipulator auction looks like it has exactly the same back photo as the Dual Land.
A
I'm not on my PC so I can't really analyze the photos. I tried to eyeball the differences but I can't tell what's part of the photo or what's the fault of this platform I'm on. If he is using stock photos for say... the backs....
Edit: sorry, I'cm not sure what I'm doing wrong with the link.
A simple jig to accurately and consistently position and compres the card and sleeve would be a must. It could get a little crazy though, I can see someone using an inner sleeve, seal the outer sleeve, the use an outer outer sleeve.
My friend hooked me on the single strap bags issued to some military branches. They're often labeled as top load duffle bags since these bags are meant to be worn like a backpack with one strap. The opening is on the end.
They're also somewhat popular with the hippie crowd who make a version out of hemp. I dislike the look and feel of hemp so I never bothered with that version. Not too many civilian versions out there so military surplus for the real deal or Amazon for the cheap clones.
I detest marking any cards permanently so if I use the checklist cards, I either mark the perfect fit sleeve with a positive or negatively print solid black and trim using an X-Acto blade. I tried using stickers, but they proved easy to spot as marked cards.
But I must ask, if such "perfection" is desired, would it not be better to use a very dark backed sleeve, double sleeve and flip as necessary or have "spare" double sided cards you can easily swap out. Those checklist cards are terrible.
Edit: removed my inking suggestion because the same technique can be used to color white cards.
If, and when, you want to start branching out, I suggest lookng around and see if you can find a friend who's familiar with Magic. Not a passing interest or someone just starting out but someone who is an avid player.
You, and your current playgroup, can figure out how to play on your own but things will go a lot smoother if you have someone who can show you. There are a number of common problems that crop up. An experienced player can gently show you what to do unlike a player at a competitive match that's out to gut your deck.
Forums are OK for general questions like, "What is Standard?" But they can't see you play and won't know if you're doing something incorrectly.
Toss in Lotus Petal.
Not sure if Sol Ring wpuld be an issue...
Would spells with X in the cost qualify? Hangarback Walker is one such spell. It would seem to give any X based deck bit of an advantage being able to toss out some heavy weights.
The OP already mentioned that they opened a complaint with eBay which was closed within a few hours.
I used to do a lot of trasactions as both seller and buyer and eBay started sucking something royal about ten or so years ago. Specifically, eBay changed a number of policies to greatly favor larger, high dollar/volume, sellers and place the majority of buyers and small sellers at a disadvantage. In essence, unless the OP has unequivocable proof the seller ripped him off, I don't think it's very likely eBay will side with him.
Especially interesting is the sellers attitude about a chargeback and how it'll hit only PayPal, not the seller. That hints to me that PayPal is still cheesy and likely follows the same rot policies as eBay. If you think it's hard to deal with eBay, PayPal is downright draconian.
I think the issue is by doing so makes Orb a selective creature killer instead of its intended function of turning every creature into a vanilla bean. A permanent that not only strips a creature of all abilities AND prevents */* or 0/0 creatures from entering play is bit much.
Take a look at similar spells
Turn to Frog
Turn // Burn
Gift of Tusks
Humble
Ploymorphist's Jest
That's just a few and they all set the P/T. Note the costs as well. An Artifact permanent that does that w/o setting P/T is clearly undercosted.
It would be great for MTGO, but it would drag out paper games fiddling with the randomness.
For a paper version, I would limit the randomness to a single target opponent for all creatures, not a random opponent for each creature.
Or are you talking about a sacrifice type ability ala Lake of the Dead?
Then there are singleton like Dawn's Reflection and Market Festival
Is that what you were looking for?
No investor would think it's a good idea to trade away their premium high dollar cards for a wheelbarrow full of what would inevitably be junk cards.
The people such a program would actually benefit would be the people who don't have said cards in the first place or the people who want to preserve the cards for their collection (there's that word again).
The frame thing, or talking about fakes, or whatever, as a reason for a trade program is just nonsense. If I have the real card, I already know I have a real card, why trade it for a guaranteed real card? If I don't like the frame, it would be better to sell it and buy the new version or trade away for it.
Then there's the money. No way is WotC going to sink that kind of money in validating old cardd and producing a ton of cards only to give them away.
If I bought the card, I want the card. If I didn't want the card, I would sell the card and use the money to get other cards. No reserved list trade in program of any kind is going to convince me, or anyone else, who didn't sell the card already to trade the card in.
Is it the same card as featured in the auction? I assume it is, I imagine the first thing you would do is verify the serials. The artifacts are realy bad in those eBay photos so i can't see any blemishes. The Icy Manipulator auction looks like it has exactly the same back photo as the Dual Land.
A
I'm not on my PC so I can't really analyze the photos. I tried to eyeball the differences but I can't tell what's part of the photo or what's the fault of this platform I'm on. If he is using stock photos for say... the backs....
Edit: sorry, I'cm not sure what I'm doing wrong with the link.
Dragon Whelp Lowlander?
A simple jig to accurately and consistently position and compres the card and sleeve would be a must. It could get a little crazy though, I can see someone using an inner sleeve, seal the outer sleeve, the use an outer outer sleeve.
My friend hooked me on the single strap bags issued to some military branches. They're often labeled as top load duffle bags since these bags are meant to be worn like a backpack with one strap. The opening is on the end.
They're also somewhat popular with the hippie crowd who make a version out of hemp. I dislike the look and feel of hemp so I never bothered with that version. Not too many civilian versions out there so military surplus for the real deal or Amazon for the cheap clones.
But I must ask, if such "perfection" is desired, would it not be better to use a very dark backed sleeve, double sleeve and flip as necessary or have "spare" double sided cards you can easily swap out. Those checklist cards are terrible.
Edit: removed my inking suggestion because the same technique can be used to color white cards.