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Thread: MTGO Booster Resale Prices in Relation to Tournament Queues

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    MTGO Booster Resale Prices in Relation to Tournament Queues

    Bots are buying Theros packs for $3.10 and selling Theros packs for $3.25 on the MTGO trade boards. Currently, the prize payouts for Legacy 2-man and 8-man queues are Theros boosters.

    I enjoy playing competitive (vs. tournament practice) queues because I find the competition to be more fierce, my opponent's deck to be of a higher quality, and my opponent's dedication to the game to be higher (no rage quitting and if rage quitting does occur, then I get a free pack ).

    However, the repurchase price on the secondary market is very low, which acts as a type of tax or rake on playing in the competitive matches. When you enter a match, it costs 2 tickets ($2). When you win, you receive a booster pack that you can sell for 3.1 tickets ($3.10), so $.90 is lost with every win. When you lose, you get nothing.

    Given the poor resale value of the Theros packs, a player's win rate needs to be unrealistically high in order to break even or make money playing in 2-man queues (a player needs to win 2 matches for every match loss - possible over short intervals, but impossible over the long-term when playing against other highly-competitive players).

    Therefore, I am stuck in a conundrum:
    Do I continue to play the more competitive 2-man queues and pay to play (lose money because I cannot consistently win 2 out of 3 matches)?
    Do I play in the tournament practice room and face less competitive opponents (and thus lower my enjoyment of playing the game)?
    Do I take a respite and wait for pack prices to rebound (depending upon the packs and block release cycle, packs can be resold for $3.75-$3.80 (much less of a tax - money can be made with a more realistic win percentage) and occasionally, packs can be resold for over $4 (when the prize packs are the first release of a 3-release block and the third release is out booster drafts dictate that the first block booster pack will be sold at above $4 per pack))?
    Do I stop playing competitive queues all together?
    Do I write Wizards and attempt to have their payout structure changed to a structure that is less taxing?

    I don't understand why Wizards does not distribute tickets as prizes. Two tickets in by both players, four tickets out to the winner, easy does it- no need to worry about fluctuation in the secondary trade market.
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    Re: MTGO Booster Resale Prices in Relation to Tournament Queues

    Quote Originally Posted by Water_Wizard View Post
    I don't understand why Wizards does not distribute tickets as prizes. Two tickets in by both players, four tickets out to the winner, easy does it- no need to worry about fluctuation in the secondary trade market.
    It's like repair costs in a multiplayer RPG, it's a way to decrease inflation. Outside of players redeeming sets, no tickets would ever leave the system. At least that's how I feel about it.

    However, I remember some core set selling as low as 2.x which was like the worst. But honestly, 2 mans have always been negative EV. Daily Events however were fine as you will usually have to cash in only 1 out of 3 events to break even. Looking forward to them returning.
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    Re: MTGO Booster Resale Prices in Relation to Tournament Queues

    There's no way around it, if you want to be profitable on MODO you need to be crazily good and do a lot of winning, especially in format like Legacy. The real value in MODO lies on honing your chops so in real life magic you can beat all the poor plebes at your local tournament scene who haven't played their deck at least a couple hundred matches with prizes on the line.

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    Re: MTGO Booster Resale Prices in Relation to Tournament Queues

    Quote Originally Posted by BKclassic View Post
    There's no way around it, if you want to be profitable on MODO you need to be crazily good and do a lot of winning, especially in format like Legacy. The real value in MODO lies on honing your chops so in real life magic you can beat all the poor plebes at your local tournament scene who haven't played their deck at least a couple hundred matches with prizes on the line.
    Doesn't really help as I don't play irl and I doubt that there is much of a Legacy scene in Hawaii.

    On a related note, it doesn't seem like the big tournaments are even that profitable - Owen won $3,500 when he won GP DC - a plane ticket, hotel stay for three nights, rental car, and food is going to cost you $1,200 for the weekend. I imagine that there are other benefits, like the publicity, opportunities to write articles, etc.
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    Re: MTGO Booster Resale Prices in Relation to Tournament Queues

    Quote Originally Posted by Water_Wizard View Post
    Doesn't really help as I don't play irl and I doubt that there is much of a Legacy scene in Hawaii.

    On a related note, it doesn't seem like the big tournaments are even that profitable - Owen won $3,500 when he won GP DC - a plane ticket, hotel stay for three nights, rental car, and food is going to cost you $1,200 for the weekend. I imagine that there are other benefits, like the publicity, opportunities to write articles, etc.
    IRL magic only caters to the conveniently located. Unfortunatly thats california, new england, and virgina area (SCG). If your not in those locations don't expect to play a lot of competitive tournaments unless you want high costs for travel.
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    Re: MTGO Booster Resale Prices in Relation to Tournament Queues

    The only thing that surprised me is that bots are paying $3.10 for a virtual copy of the worst Standard booster pack I can remember.

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    Re: MTGO Booster Resale Prices in Relation to Tournament Queues

    Quote Originally Posted by lordofthepit View Post
    The only thing that surprised me is that bots are paying $3.10 for a virtual copy of the worst Standard booster pack I can remember.
    What might surprise you even more is that us humans are, in essence, paying $4.00 for what you claim is the worst Standard booster pack that you can remember.

    We are then able to resell that booster pack for $3.10, which sucks even more.
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