Building complete collection of MTG back to Alpha!

[magiccollectorsworld]

A few months ago, my dad and I came across MTG. We had both always been long time collectors of various random things. I was heavily into sports memorabilia and pokemon when I was younger and he enjoyed anything antique with a piece of history attached to it. Needless to say, I took immediate interest in Magic and decided I wanted to start a collection. I sold a few things on ebay and did a couple garage sales and I finally had enough money for some cards. I showed my dad what I was doing and he took an interest. We decided to kinda work together on this and go for gold, building an entire collection of Magic: The Gathering all the way back to Alpha....with no money...genius right? Welp, we made the youtube channel anyways and put up our first bit of content yesterday.

www.youtube.com/magiccollectorsworld

So we've found something we enjoy and wanted to spread the word. Maybe you guys will find the content entertaining as well.

If you like it, support us! If not, well, you read this post for nothing. Congrats. :laugh:

[MirrorMask]

Why don't you just play the game? Collecting pieces of cardboard while interesting (for you) makes no sense if you don't play it in the same time. It is a very good game. Try it.

[Dan Turner]

Good luck even with a large chunk of money it takes a ton of work to find every card in a condition making it worth collecting. And if you are not playing the game your doing it wrong.

[Royal Ass.]

Good thing you started this project before all the prices went up....

[Will_L]

Why don't you just play the game? Collecting pieces of cardboard while interesting (for you) makes no sense if you don't play it in the same time. It is a very good game. Try it.

Because that's not OP's interest. It's also pretty laughable to say something isn't worth collecting if you don't plan to use it/them. You can appreciate the art and enjoy the process of collecting and accumulating. That's very enjoyable for a lot of people. I know at least two people who collect very seriously and one of them only ever plays EDH a couple of times a year and the other guy has never built a deck ever and has an insane mtg collection.

[apple713]

Good luck even with a large chunk of money it takes a ton of work to find every card in a condition making it worth collecting. And if you are not playing the game your doing it wrong.

its really not that hard, but expect to spend close to 100K+ for everything....id rather buy a house.

just some quick math for ya

alpha - 25k
beta - 20k
unlimited - 10k
revised - 1k
arabian nights 1k
antiquities - 700
Legends - 2k
Urza's Saga - 550
tempest - 200
worldwake - 200
zendikar - 300
Mirage - 200
onslaught - 400
Ravnica - 200
Guildpact - 200
Future Sight - 250

total misc above average sets = 62,200

factor the rest of the sets at like 100 on average

11 core sets
52 remaining expansions

63 total expansions at 100 average = 6,300


68,500 All sets through Dragons Maze. This doesnt include promos or duel decks or FTV series. Also, if all you are doing is collecting 1 of every card then you wont ever be able to play anything but commander and vintage.

Also if you add the judge promos in there expect the add about 5k as most of them go for $75-$100 each

[Phelix]

id believe Alpha is rated too low. shitty rares from Alpha are 160 dollars (see laces) where the beta versions are 25.

[apple713]

id believe Alpha is rated too low. shitty rares from Alpha are 160 dollars (see laces) where the beta versions are 25.

i dont think its really quite that extreme. especially since my alpha time vault and beta time vault dont differ that much in price. Either way, like i prefaced, it was quick math.

[dontbiteitholmes]

A few months ago, my dad and I came across MTG. We had both always been long time collectors of various random things. I was heavily into sports memorabilia and pokemon when I was younger and he enjoyed anything antique with a piece of history attached to it. Needless to say, I took immediate interest in Magic and decided I wanted to start a collection. I sold a few things on ebay and did a couple garage sales and I finally had enough money for some cards. I showed my dad what I was doing and he took an interest. We decided to kinda work together on this and go for gold, building an entire collection of Magic: The Gathering all the way back to Alpha....with no money...genius right? Welp, we made the youtube channel anyways and put up our first bit of content yesterday.

www.youtube.com/magiccollectorsworld

So we've found something we enjoy and wanted to spread the word. Maybe you guys will find the content entertaining as well.

If you like it, support us! If not, well, you read this post for nothing. Congrats. :laugh:

So you want to collect one of every card and you have no money to do it with...

You are talking about building a collection going back to Alpha and your Youtube channel is just videos of you opening fat packs of Dragon's Maze...

Yeah dude I'm just gonna be honest here, give up while you are behind. If you don't play and your aim is to have 1x every card and you are opening fat packs of the latest set you are so far off the path that you aren't even on the map.

[apple713]

So you want to collect one of every card and you have no money to do it with...

You are talking about building a collection going back to Alpha and your Youtube channel is just videos of you opening fat packs of Dragon's Maze...

Yeah dude I'm just gonna be honest here, give up while you are behind. If you don't play and your aim is to have 1x every card and you are opening fat packs of the latest set you are so far off the path that you aren't even on the map.

+1

He put it nicely

[apple713]

So you want to collect one of every card and you have no money to do it with...

You are talking about building a collection going back to Alpha and your Youtube channel is just videos of you opening fat packs of Dragon's Maze...

Yeah dude I'm just gonna be honest here, give up while you are behind. If you don't play and your aim is to have 1x every card and you are opening fat packs of the latest set you are so far off the path that you aren't even on the map.

+1

He sugar coated it.

[MirrorMask]

Yep. They are right. You are doing it wrong.

[Kayradis]

I do believe we are acting a bit like bullies here.

The guy has an idea he wishes to put forward and lacks the means to meet his goal. We all know how much time and dedication this will take since we are all collectors/players that invested a ton of cash and time into our common passion.

I do see the point all of you are bringing forward. I know as well that hoping to build a COMPLETE MtG collection going all the way back to Alpha is a far fetched idea.

My advice would be to try to complete the current "in-print" set and slowly gather the cards from older set by trading the doubles and triples of value cards you will end up with.

It ended up being kind of a fight at home. My gf pointed out how much we are all acting like elitist spoiled children.

That was my own 2 cents.

[Dan Turner]

I do believe we are acting a bit like bullies here.

The guy has an idea he wishes to put forward and lacks the means to meet his goal. We all know how much time and dedication this will take since we are all collectors/players that invested a ton of cash and time into our common passion.

I do see the point all of you are bringing forward. I know as well that hoping to build a COMPLETE MtG collection going all the way back to Alpha is a far fetched idea.

My advice would be to try to complete the current "in-print" set and slowly gather the cards from older set by trading the doubles and triples of value cards you will end up with.

It ended up being kind of a fight at home. My gf pointed out how much we are all acting like elitist spoiled children.

That was my own 2 cents.

Weird my wife said I was being too nice to him and should just let them know that without a serious amount of money and a huge amount of dedicated time to hunt down NM copies of every card printed (this includes summer and cards like proposal and all promos variations and alternate lanquages/art) that it is a failure in the making. I know I have dropped close to $40k+ and I am no were near 1 of every card printed.

[Picc]

I agree that the OP sounds like they don't really know what their getting into but I'm not going to be the one to tell anyone not to collect magic.

I would suggest they come at it from a slightly different angle though. Trying to do it by opening packs is going to kill you. If your goal is to just build one of every card rather then be able to play any given format I would suggest looking for small older collections to buy at the bulk rate on craigs list. Its usually not hard to find small collections with nothing special from from a few years back for far less then retail. Ya your unlikely to get gold buying 10k commons uncommons for $100-200 dollars but its not a bad way to start filling in the pages and you can usually resell what you don't need at the same rare. Also build relationships on sites like these and with your local community (your going to need them). Talk to the big time players in your area and see if you can strike a deal to buy some of their un needed bulk at a discounted rate (most competitive players are only to happy to help you out with something like this).

I would also strongly suggest limiting the collection (at least at first) to regular sets. Maybe start with something like all the core sets/expansions from 1995 forward. Chasing after stuff like alpha/beta/summer/misprints/or judge foils is going to raise the difficulty of the project by several orders of magnitude (ie expect to pay as much for a summer set as you would for the rest of the project alpha included and expect it to take years to find the cards even if you have the cash ready).

It might also be a good idea not to focus to much on standard while is in season, the cards usually are much cheaper after they roll. Also look at ebay when a new set is coming out you can usually grab a common uncommon playset for around $40 and start filling in the "junk rares" when the prices stabilize. Then go after the good rares one at a time once their decks aren't seeing as much play. That's how I'd come at it anyway.

Anyway rambling advice aside I wish you luck, its a monumental task but the journey is what will make it worth while.

[catmint]

The only way I can imagine making it happen is by some sick MTG charity project.
Make the collection with the plan to sell it "all at once to the highest bid" giving the money to some charity organization.

Get a website pushed by major sites/wizards/communities,.. so the player base starts sending you some of their cards. People like me would easily send some not needed 5-40$ cards to such a project before getting to work with trading or MKM if you have a cool way of presenting the progress online knowing that it will result in big $$$ for charity. Even people who try to take every $ in MTG cards to use their advantage might lose their selfishness for a second and give something away if it's hip.

At some point you will have enough "moneycards" to trade them up for stuff that people won't send like power/alpha/beta. Although some people are just freaking rich and/or like the image and would give away their beta u-sea.

Some sick millionair-collector will buy it and wizards can get publicity.

The money could go to
50% some kids in Africa
50% The "please get rid of the reserved list" foundation.

[Kayradis]

50% The "please get rid of the reserved list" foundation.


Where do I sign for that one?

[SteakKnife]

I'm curious how you are planning on tracking this collection. I have maybe only 20k cards but I need to organize them and track them including where they are stored. Is there a site you are looking at using or are you creating your own management tool(eg Google Docs or Excel)?

[Dan Turner]

I'm curious how you are planning on tracking this collection. I have maybe only 20k cards but I need to organize them and track them including where they are stored. Is there a site you are looking at using or are you creating your own management tool(eg Google Docs or Excel)?

I use this to keep all my trade stuff listed.

http://mtgpeertrader.com/Trade/UsersCollection?username=DLTurner

i see no issue why it could not be used to list a full collection. I was going to do it but the time just to list my trade binder was insane.

[MTGPeerTrader]

I use this to keep all my trade stuff listed.

http://mtgpeertrader.com/Trade/UsersCollection?username=DLTurner

i see no issue why it could not be used to list a full collection. I was going to do it but the time just to list my trade binder was insane.

You can easily use the site to set your "Want List" to 1 of each card as well, which would help find you a number of trades. As well you will see your "Want List Value" which will show you exactly currently you are looking at getting into :) Everyone has to dream right?

Steps to do so (You can also do it set by set if you wish)
1 - Open your Collection page (you have to have a registered account to do this)
2 - Go to the "Advanced Collection Updating Options Tab"
3 - Choose the "Export Collection" button
4 - Choose the "Export every card in MTG PeerTrader"
5 - Open with Microsoft Excel (or your favorite Spreadsheet tool) and set the "Want List Amount" to 1 for every card you don't already have
6 - Save the File
7 - Choose the Import Collection under the "Collection", "Advanced Collection Updating
8 - Pick the file you saved, Choose the "Import a MTG PeerTrader Formatted file" option, and click "Import"
9 - Be patient, there is a lot of information to import!
10 - You will get a status message on how the import went, but if all went well you now have a "Want List" for every Magic the Gathering card on MTG PeerTrader

The next time the site updates your Want List Value (every 30 minutes). You will see how much your remaining "Want List" is going to cost. (You can find your MTG PeerTrader Collection value, Trade Collection Value, and Want List Value on your "Account" page)

I did this for a test account it came to a whopping $126,176.15

Like I said...everyone can dream :)

[dontbiteitholmes]

To anyone saying I'm being a bully or anyone's girlfriend saying the same, give me a break.

No one is helping this guy by blowing smoke up his ass or sticking a gold star on his worksheet, this isn't elementary school.

Absolute best case scenario at the rate he's going is to just lose a bunch of money.

It's not mean to tell someone buying scratch off lottery tickets that they are never going to be a millionaire like that.

[Kayradis]

I'm not saying you are. I'm just sharing an opinion. I know that is a far fetched idea to build a complete collection. But I do believe there is probably an easier way to pass that message.

[Finn]

There is certainly an easier way, but nothing as effective. This site is for cold hard truth. If it were less I would not be bothered with it. There are plenty of sites for group hugs. This ain't one of them.

Also, note that the guy made an account just to post the link. Where I come from that is called advertising or worse, looking for handouts. I'm not interested in the least about his feelings.

[Pizzatog]

I haven't posted in years, even though I lurk on this site almost daily, but all the people acting like idiots in this thread just made me want to put my two cents in.

Is it that hard to understand?

He wants to start a collection of Magic cards.
He wants to have one of each, with the ultimate (probably impossible to achieve in the near future) goal of getting them all.
He wants to get them by trading, not going out and buying them.

Really... if a person posted on a stamp collector's forum or a coin collector's forum saying that they want to start collecting those, you would not expect the people there to start shooting him down because it's so expensive to get absolutely all of them.

He's not asking how much it would cost to go out and buy every single card there is, or obsessively hunt them all down. He opens a few packs of Dragon's Maze, and starts trading the duplicates. He doesn't want every single card there is by next week. It sounds like a cool hobby and I could see a dad and his son having a ton of fun for a very long time before they have to start worrying about actually spending real money on it, but a bunch of you are being inexplicably hostile.

[dunk]

Social experiment: Create a new account and open a thread on the source. Lay back and watch what happens.

Can't tell if you guys get trolled or just troll each other...

[Kayradis]

Social experiment: Create a new account and open a thread on the source. Lay back and watch what happens.

Can't tell if you guys get trolled or just troll each other...


I just got hit by that idea.....

Well played sir, well played...