It sounds like 1 of your Uncommons was from the Rare sheet and 5 of your Commons were from the Uncommon sheet.
Also, I don't remember Alliances packs being searchable. I'm pretty sure that the boxes can be mapped, but I don't remember being able to see through the packaging like you could with packs like ABU and Revised.
To be fair, they initially set a lower MSRP for Masters packs, but stores just jacked up the prices anyway, so WotC decided to get their share of that price markup. I can't say I blame them for that.
I don't know if that's actually the case. To me, it seems that WotC realizes that if a sealed product has a higher EV than the MSRP then stores/dealers will have more incentive to open the product and sell the singles and/or increase the price of the the sealed product. When they put together Commander products and Masters sets they seem to be very careful about the EV of the product so that the product can get to players at the desired price and availability.
Grand Prix DC 2004. Team "369 a Pack" came in 5th overall and won $1500 as a team. One of the team members won 1 match the entire tournament. They had 2 byes to start the tournament - so he won $500 for going 1-8 in matches that he actually played.
Definitely use pen and paper to keep track of both life totals. Over the years I have had plenty of opponents at pre-releases who used very inaccurate methods of tracking their own life total.
I have not yet heard any ban supporter, or media outlet, compare the old "regular" vetting to the "extreme" vettingv that this ban was supposed to buy time to set up. That is, what was so wrong with our already vigorous processes
This is exactly what I've been saying to people about Trump's ban. It looks to me like the processes the US has been using to vet people coming from these countries (and other countries linked to terrorism) have been working very well since 9/11. What was the need to institute more extreme vetting?
At the time, there were 3 "Levels" for Magic products.
Starter - which was for Portal, the product designed to teach people how to play the game.
Advanced - which was for Core sets, the base sets which only included reprints of older cards.
Expert - which was for all expansion sets.
They stopped using these classifications many years ago. I think Future Sight (2007) was the last expansion with the "Expert" label on it.
Urza's Saga packs don't have the word "Premium" printed anywhere on them.
Urza's Saga didn't have foils. Foils first showed up in the following set, Urza's Legacy.
In general, the place to put promo singles of tournament cards like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar would be in the combination packs of big box retailers, so basically like the Mythical Collections mentioned earlier. I don't think a FTV style product would sell well in a big box store since the majority of people who would buy from the store wouldn't see the value. They tend to go by what gives the most cards, so it would be boosters and pre-con decks over a FTV.
Putting stuff like this for sale at big box store would just mean that the first person to get there after the product went on the shelf would buy out everything with any value to it. That's already the case at plenty of big box stores. While the average Walmart/Target customer might not know anything about M:tg card values, there are more than enough players/collectors who know exactly what is available at these stores. How quickly did these stores sell out of BFZ and OGW fat packs or Origins clash packs (the one with Collected Company)?
Just remember, box mapping was a real thing when those packs were printed. Make sure you fully trust the seller if you're buying the packs just to open them.
Trump is the last person who should be saying anything about fake news considering how much time and effort he personally put into the questioning of Obama's birth certificate.
Trump's entire political career was kick-started by him promoting a fake news story.
local game stores should earn money by holding *Games* and tournaments. Their income should come from people attending events they organize, and sponsorships. Cards should be free for everyone and everyone should have access to all cards without being prejudiced by how much money they earn.
Local game stores make their money by selling games. Tournaments are just events that help promote sales of games. They don't make nearly enough money from tournament entries alone to keep their store in business. Using your model, the entry fees would be have to be so high that people would not show up and/or they would spend all of their time complaining here about the high entry fees.
If the games are free and the stores aren't profitable, who is going have the money to sponsor tournaments?
Just make sure you follow all of eBay/Paypal's policies before going through your credit card company. I'm not sure how it is now, but in the past if you went through the credit card company before going through eBay/Paypal, you'd lose your right to dispute through eBay/Paypal. That policy may have changed, but make sure to check it before doing anything.
Also, I don't remember Alliances packs being searchable. I'm pretty sure that the boxes can be mapped, but I don't remember being able to see through the packaging like you could with packs like ABU and Revised.
I don't know if that's actually the case. To me, it seems that WotC realizes that if a sealed product has a higher EV than the MSRP then stores/dealers will have more incentive to open the product and sell the singles and/or increase the price of the the sealed product. When they put together Commander products and Masters sets they seem to be very careful about the EV of the product so that the product can get to players at the desired price and availability.
Worship combos with Crystalline Sliver pretty well.
This is exactly what I've been saying to people about Trump's ban. It looks to me like the processes the US has been using to vet people coming from these countries (and other countries linked to terrorism) have been working very well since 9/11. What was the need to institute more extreme vetting?
Starter - which was for Portal, the product designed to teach people how to play the game.
Advanced - which was for Core sets, the base sets which only included reprints of older cards.
Expert - which was for all expansion sets.
They stopped using these classifications many years ago. I think Future Sight (2007) was the last expansion with the "Expert" label on it.
Urza's Saga packs don't have the word "Premium" printed anywhere on them.
Urza's Saga didn't have foils. Foils first showed up in the following set, Urza's Legacy.
Putting stuff like this for sale at big box store would just mean that the first person to get there after the product went on the shelf would buy out everything with any value to it. That's already the case at plenty of big box stores. While the average Walmart/Target customer might not know anything about M:tg card values, there are more than enough players/collectors who know exactly what is available at these stores. How quickly did these stores sell out of BFZ and OGW fat packs or Origins clash packs (the one with Collected Company)?
Trump's entire political career was kick-started by him promoting a fake news story.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/announcing-standard-showdown-2016-11-14
Local game stores make their money by selling games. Tournaments are just events that help promote sales of games. They don't make nearly enough money from tournament entries alone to keep their store in business. Using your model, the entry fees would be have to be so high that people would not show up and/or they would spend all of their time complaining here about the high entry fees.
If the games are free and the stores aren't profitable, who is going have the money to sponsor tournaments?