The question of how to get acquainted is a tough one. Do I spend a paragraph introducing myself? What’s the first thing that we should talk about, together? Questions like these are swimming around in my head as I prepare to write this. I am not the type to roll out the resume in hope that I can convince you to listen to me. Instead, I prefer to let my writing do the talking. Even though I don’t have a resume for you, I do want to tell you what I plan to do with this weekly column.
I am here to share my experience and knowledge about selling, buying, and trading Magic cards. Believe it or not, trading / dealing has its own sub-culture. Just like when playing Magic, there are correct and incorrect plays on the trade floor or at the dealer tables. The financial side of Magic has its own language, etiquette, and techniques that should be mastered for you to stay in the green. Throughout the weeks ahead, we will talk in-depth about all the intricacies of this sub-culture, but before we can go deep, we need to start with some core elements.
Today I am going to cover the fundamentals of trading Magic cards. Some of you already know some of this stuff, so bear with me. With this first article, I want to acquaint people who are new to the concepts and build a foundation for future articles. Let’s jump right in.
Some people trade only for the cards that they need to play the game. This usually means that there is a combination of methods that go into getting a playset of cards. They may open the card that they need in a draft, then buy one or two from a store, and finally, when they see an opportunity to trade for the last one or two that they need, they’ll trade. There is nothing “wrong” with acquiring cards this way, but using this model causes you to spend unnecessary money.
When you buy a card, you are using the most sought-after resource in this business: money. Everything that we do as floor traders and dealers ends with the dollar. If I buy a collection, the first question that I ask myself is, “What’s the worst- case-scenario return on this collection?” It’s typical for me to sell most of the collection to recoup my initial investment, and then trade the rest. Even if I have to sell the cards at dealer buy prices or lower than retail, it’s worth it to me to get my money out quickly, because at my level, cash flow is key. I understand that you may not be at this level, but it’s important to understand how I think, both for the future when you get to this point and for the present when you deal with guys like me.
When I talk about trading, I am not talking about getting off a Baneslayer and some other stuff for a Primeval Titan. Everyone does that. To be successful at trading, you shouldn’t view trading as an act, but as an infrastructure. This infrastructure includes three pillars: a way of thinking, a binder, and an outlet.
Pillar One: How to Think
Like many things in life, trading is eighty percent mental. Defining the outlook of a successful trader could be an article in itself, but I will summarize with these three points: need nothing, trade for everything, and trade with everyone.
Need Nothing
When a new set comes out, I make a list of all the cards that I think I will play. My mission is to get these cards before the end of the release tournament. I trade whatever I need to complete the playsets of these cards, even the commons and uncommons. I will even trade for cards on my list at a high value if necessary. On release weekend, I gave a kid six fetch lands for my third Jace, the Mind Sculptor. That’s a sick deal now, but at the time, the trade was heavily in his favor. The logic here is simple: needing cards makes you vulnerable on the trade floor. When you need something, it makes you emotionally invested in the cards on the table.
Think about how powerful it is to be on the flipside, trading with people who need stuff. That gives you the power to essentially name your price. You have the option to scoop the cards up at any time, and say, “Sorry we couldn’t work something out.” For someone who needs a card, the threat of losing the opportunity to complete their playset is enough for them to give extra in the trade. This is why you should have a good selection in your trade binder.
Trade for Everything
Everyone has different needs in terms of cards. As a trader, your goal is to meet those needs. Having the cards that people need consistently will gain you the reputation as the go-to guy for getting cards. Most of the guys in my local store will come to me with hot new cards looking to shop from my binder. It’s like they just got a paycheck and they are going to the grocery store. This reputation allows me to move the cards that I am getting while restocking at the same time, and with every transaction I am gaining value. If you want to solidify this reputation for yourself, you have to have everything, which means trading for anything.
Trade with Everyone
I make it a point to trade with everyone possible at every Magic event. This can be summed up in one word: opportunity. The more people you trade with, the more opportunity you have to gain value. This weekend I was trading with some people at GenCon, and in the middle of the trade they pulled an Imperial Seal out of their EDH deck and threw it on the table. They said, “Oh, are you interested in this?” Needless to say, I handed them my binder and asked them to go shopping. The point is that had I not been trading with everyone in sight, I would not have had the opportunity to trade for the Imperial Seal. This is one reason to trade with everyone; the other reason is because it gives you an outlet for the cards that you are getting.
Pillar Two: The Binder
This topic is deep. I have been getting a lot of requests to write an article about how to organize a trade binder. I am only going to touch on the topic today, but you can expect an article on binders in the future.
First things first: your binder requires a strategy. For this article, I’ll assume that you have been playing Magic for at least a few months, and that you have a trade binder or a box of trade stock and a few decks. Your strategy will be to trade with the guys at your local shop, trading for everything. You might be tempted to make the strategy to trade for the cards that you still need, but, as we discussed, this weakens your position at the trade table. The best way to eliminate this need is to run a deck that you don’t need cards for and put the rest of your cards into the trade binder.
Don’t worry; the plan is to eventually get the cards that you want… just not right now. The strategy right now it to build your binder’s equity by trading. Eventually, your binder will have so much value that you can take out a playset of Primeval Titans for yourself and still have a good amount of trade stock. Now that we have a strategy, let’s move on to the next step.
I’m asking you to do some pretty uncomfortable things, like possibly run a subpar deck, while you build your collection, but if you want to succeed, then sacrifices need to be made. Let me encourage you by clarifying what we are fighting for here. Imagine growing your collection to such a point that you don’t spend a dollar on playing Magic, building any deck you want, traveling to events, and even foiling out your EDH deck. It’s my hope that this column will help you go infinite with Magic. Before you go infinite, you have to make an initial investment, but instead of spending money, we are going to do what I call purging.
The mentality behind purging is to squeeze as much value out of your collection as you can. There are three ways that you can do this: cannibalize your decks, un-pimp your cards, and dig up Commons and Uncommons.
Cannibalize your Decks
If you are like the Magic players that I know, you have a handful of decks built that you play. The most effective aspect of purging is this: pick one deck per format and dismantle the rest, then throw all the playable and tradable stuff in a pile on the floor.
Un-Pimp your Cards
Go through your remaining decks and collection for any playable foil or foreign cards, and replace them with normal English versions. Then throw all the pimp cards into the pile on the floor.
Common Uncommons
Go through your stacks of draft decks and all the chaff that you have lying around. Look for playable uncommons and super commons like Lightning Bolt, Dark Ritual, Lava Spike, stuff like that. Once you have all those, throw them into the pile.
When deciding what goes in the pile, be vicious, like a group of bandits that are pillaging a village. Sever your emotional attachments to any and all cards. Putting cards in the pile will be therapeutic for correcting your way of thinking. Adopting the attitude that everything is for trade will increase your opportunity to gain value. The next step is using the pile to build a trade binder.
If you don’t have a trade binder, then this part is easy. Take all the stuff in the pile, and make a trade binder. If you do have a binder, then you should take out all the bulk rares and add the stuff from the piles. A bulk rare is something that hasn’t seen any play in any format. You need to do some research for this part. In the binder article, I will talk about how I organize the binder and the different strategies involved in using multiple binders. For now, the important part is that you add the cards from the pile and that you take out the bulk rares.
Bulk rares are like static on your TV. They distract your trade partner from seeing the full picture. You don’t want people to flip through pages of bulk rares while you are working out a trade. It’s true that if you don’t have bulk rares in you binder, you might miss an opportunity to trade them for value, but you have to weigh the cost of the opportunity missed because someone didn’t pay attention while looking through your binder. I recommend that instead of carrying the bulk in the binder, you put them in a box in you bag.
Pillar 3: Outlets
Outlets are basically ways to get value out of your cards. There are three outlets that I use regularly: bulking, selling to buylists, and trading.
Bulking
Bulking is the process of selling bulk rares to a big online store like StarCityGames.com. If you look at their buy list, you’ll see that SCG buys bulk rares at .10 each. This comes in handy when someone wants a card but they don’t have anything that you can move. You can offer to trade them the card for bulk for example. I had a Baneslayer Angel and there was a guy who needed it. We valued it at $50, and I told him if he gave me 500 rares of his choice, I would give him the Baneslayer Angel. He was happy to get rid of all the garbage cards that were sitting in his binder for a hard-to-acquire mythic rare.
Buylist
This is another guaranteed way to get instant cash for your cards. It’s also a great way to gain value in trades. Sometimes stores pay good money for cards that most people don’t care about. I remember that there was a store that was buying Elvish Piper for $2. When I saw that, I traded for a handful of Elvish Pipers at FNM and sold them to that store. People were valuing the Pipers at between .25 and $1, so it was like I was selling my cards at double value.
Trading
Trading is the most common outlet for moving the cards that you get. It’s important to know your market and do your research. If you trade primarily at FNM, then you should know what Standard cards are hot, and what they are valued at. You should also try to get as many as you can in your binder. The same goes for other formats, or even if you trade casually with friends. Every playgroup of people has different needs; it’s your job to learn them and meet those needs.
As you trade, you should keep these different outlets in mind. This is where you will gain the most value for your efforts.
Before I take off, I want to leave you with a couple of stock tips. I will try to do this at the end of each of my articles.
Stock Tips
I spent the last four days on the trade floor of GenCon, and these are the cards that were the most talked about and the prices at which I was trading them. If you can get them cheaper than I was trading them, then you can probably gain some value by picking them up and trading them at my value.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor — This guy is as hot as they get. I was using him as a cornerstone for trading for Power 9 cards. I was trading him at between $80 and $85. I only see him going up.
Primeval Titan — This was the second most requested card. People were willing to trade for it at $55 to $60. Unless this sees play in Legacy or new Extended, I see the price dropping.
Leyline of Sanctity — I was picking these up at $2 and trading them at up to $6. These are pretty hot right now. They already see play in Legacy and Vintage sideboards.
Fauna Shaman — The price online seems to fluctuate. You can buy them for as low at $10, but people were trading for them at $15. I see the price to behave much like Nobel Hierarch and Knight of the Reliquary.
I hope that you enjoyed my first article here at StarCityGames.com. Hit me up on the discussion link below. I am open to all feedback. Thanks for reading.