[Official] Bitching About Prices, Buyouts and Reprints Thread

[dsck]

Sensei's Divining Top is about 300 times better, I hope the hoarders flop and take some losses.

[rxavage]

It seems that with enough capital and knowledge of mtg the market would be pretty easily manipulated. Especially since sellers are quick to raise their prices and slow to lower them. The fact that there are more than a few people out there that will pay inflated prices out of fear of missing out because they aren't able to objectively evaluate the true value of a card makes the situation worse. I believe Quiet Speculation takes advantage of this along with a few other tactics and schemes.

[Leftconsin]

So, I walk into FNM today and someone starts talking to me about how he recently bought out eBay and TCGPlayer of couple dozen Scroll Racks. I responded "OMG! You're that guy!"

I know he did this with Force of Wills a while back and bought 50 or so all at once. I also remember him doing it with Exploration and Manabond when 43lands was the flavor of the month.

[dontbiteitholmes]

So, I walk into FNM today and someone starts talking to me about how he recently bought out eBay and TCGPlayer of couple dozen Scroll Racks. I responded "OMG! You're that guy!"

I know he did this with Force of Wills a while back and bought 50 or so all at once. I also remember him doing it with Exploration and Manabond when 43lands was the flavor of the month.

So Explorations are worth roughly the same as they've always been and Manabond is a $2-3 card, Force it really depends on when he bought them, but is this really a winning strategy for him?

[CorpT]

So Explorations are worth roughly the same as they've always been and Manabond is a $2-3 card, Force it really depends on when he bought them, but is this really a winning strategy for him?

I think the idea is that you do it early and get out quickly. You're not making any money sitting on a card. Buy up all of an old card with a limited supply and you can quickly adjust the price up. It will settle back down once the market adjusts, but if you sell while it's up, you can theoretically make money. The problem is that the market adjusts quickly, it require a lot of capital and is somewhat risky. If you had the capital already, it would probably smarter to just spend your time playing the actual market.

[dahcmai]

Actually, you make more on the long run. I tend to sit on cards that are obviously not going to get reprinted better than the current version. I stay away from reserve list cards unless they are legacy viable, which is a very short list. I'm way ahead by doing that.

I could make quick cash in short term sales, but it's more volatile. You can lose your ass quite easily.

[majikal]

This weekend the price of Firestorm jumped to $40 on-site. I don't think that will be the settled price, but it will be far more than the $10ish it has been for a while.

[caiomarcos]

This weekend the price of Firestorm jumped to $40 on-site. I don't think that will be the settled price, but it will be far more than the $10ish it has been for a while.

WHAT??? People are indeed crazy.

But on-sute prices don't mean much, availability is too limited and the hype too strong in those situations. Ebay still has dozens of Firestorms selling for around U$10.

[dahcmai]

About time that one jumped. Some cards just make you wonder why they are cheap at all.

[Pippin]

About time that one jumped. Some cards just make you wonder why they are cheap at all.

Right.

Firestorm was $4 a year ago... to suggest it's normal to bump it to $40 and have a 10 times increase is just...

Anyway, no place to panic, there are still lots of copies for $10, or a bit under available both on ebay, online shops and MKM. I seriously hope that speculators will fail with this one.

[bfeingersh]

SCG is sold out of Sneak Attacks and almost sold out of Show and Tells at $40 and $50 respectively. Quite a bump there for Sneaks.

[dontbiteitholmes]

SCG is sold out of Sneak Attacks and almost sold out of Show and Tells at $40 and $50 respectively. Quite a bump there for Sneaks.

I think a lot of SCG prices for old playable Legacy staples is driven by the fact that they will ship overseas, where 95% of Ebay sellers will not ship overseas and SCG prices after conversion are usually equal to prices in Euros or Pounds or whatever. Show and Tell is just getting really popular state side I'm guessing there is quite the shortage overseas compared to other Legacy staples from that era.

[ESG]

Also, Sneak & Show made the finals in the last two SCG Opens, winning the last one. People always scramble to build what's perceived as the strongest deck, and that obviously drives up price. Incidentally, the power level of Show and Tell will continue to rise as long as WOTC continues printing more ridiculous cards to cheat into play. We had a thread somewhere mention how Progenitus pales in comparison to Griselbrand, and WOTC seems to have unending love for pushing the power level of huge creatures, so if Griselbrand doesn't break the card, something else will.

[UnsungHero]

Something that I have wondered is how Volcanic/Tundra/Tropical are all $120 (starcity prices) cheaper than Underground Sea ($150). All of those Blue Duals have seen much more play than Sea has as of late. Granted duals really aren't losing value, but still im surprised they haven't shot up to the same price as Sea, if not higher.

[xfxf]

Vintage maybe? Tundras are not that popular in Vintage and Trops/Volcanics are more like support for a UBx base, am I wrong?

[csy]

its all about Usea in vintage. its basically THE land.

[dahcmai]

Vintage and typically the pro tour if it's Legacy sees a lot of Useas due to storm.


But seriously back on the Firestorm thing, how long has that card been cheap? I doubt it will stay up at $40 for long, in fact I expect that one to go right back to where it was. There's a lot of those out there.

It just reminds me of a few cards like Gemstone Mine, Ill Gotten Gains, or one of my favorite cheap wonders Argothian enchantress. Obviously used cards that stay at the same price forever. Not that I am complaining, but it seems weird after all this time for them to not jump like so many others do.

[frogczar]

It seems that with enough capital and knowledge of mtg the market would be pretty easily manipulated. Especially since sellers are quick to raise their prices and slow to lower them. The fact that there are more than a few people out there that will pay inflated prices out of fear of missing out because they aren't able to objectively evaluate the true value of a card makes the situation worse. I believe Quiet Speculation takes advantage of this along with a few other tactics and schemes.

Whatever happened to just aquiring the cards one needs to play with? This is a disturbing trend. I can't see it sustaining itself.

Magic should not be a stock market with speculators who buy and sell "shares" of a card to make a profit.

How this is resolved eludes me, but I can't see it going on this way forever. It's a game and I would hope the players want to keep it that way. Demand for a card should not be driven by someone buying 100 copies of a card strictly to sell them at a profit.

ugh.

-Frog

[CorpT]

Whatever happened to just aquiring the cards one needs to play with? This is a disturbing trend. I can't see it sustaining itself.

Magic should not be a stock market with speculators who buy and sell "shares" of a card to make a profit.

How this is resolved eludes me, but I can't see it going on this way forever. It's a game and I would hope the players want to keep it that way. Demand for a card should not be driven by someone buying 100 copies of a card strictly to sell them at a profit.

ugh.

-Frog

Welcome to the real world. If WotC wasn't making money, there wouldn't be a game. If dealers weren't making money, there would be no market to acquire the cards.

[caiomarcos]

Whatever happened to just aquiring the cards one needs to play with? This is a disturbing trend. I can't see it sustaining itself.

Magic should not be a stock market with speculators who buy and sell "shares" of a card to make a profit.

How this is resolved eludes me, but I can't see it going on this way forever. It's a game and I would hope the players want to keep it that way. Demand for a card should not be driven by someone buying 100 copies of a card strictly to sell them at a profit.

ugh.

-Frog

A LOT of things should not be how they are today, but they are because of the opportunity to make a profit. Nothing worng with that...
The good thing, and here I agree with you, is that it is not sustainable. I quit buying staples for a while already, they all have become too expensive. Interesting enough I started to buy sealed product more often, my last sizable purchases were an Innistrad booster box and a couple of Commander decks.