[Official] Bitching About Prices, Buyouts and Reprints Thread

[sdematt]

I have my playset, but I'm still struggling to find the right shell for them, they just don't seem to do anything.

If you're a deck that doesn't run Equipment, nor Top, you run this card in the side. It's a tank against Storm, Miracles, and Equipment.deck

So turns out, you can pay $50 USD for English Null Rod due to fake spike, or $45 CAD for Korean when you don't play into the hype. Get rekt.

[Quasim0ff]

If you're a deck that doesn't run Equipment, nor Top, you run this card in the side. It's a tank against Storm, Miracles, and Equipment.deck

So turns out, you can pay $50 USD for English Null Rod due to fake spike, or $45 CAD for Korean when you don't play into the hype. Get rekt.

30€ for a Null Rod is still insane, though.

Waiting for German ones to spike. (Selling german Null Rod, 30$ each)

[Richard Cheese]

I have my playset, but I'm still struggling to find the right shell for them, they just don't seem to do anything.

No - it does nothing.

igotthejoke.ra

[Bosque]

No - it does nothing.

igotthejoke.ra

;)

[Mr.C]

They are buying stuff out because it does actually move the market, in the majority of cases. My article is oddly relevant again:

http://mtgfinance.blogspot.com/2015/...on-why-it.html

[MaximumC]

You had 19 years to buy a set of Null Rods. If you are crying about it now, fuck you.

Ah, yes, no one should ever complain about anything. Look, not everyone started playing in the 90s. (DISCLAIMER: I did. I am not negatively affected by any of these spikes.) Each time these price spikes explode, fewer and fewer players can get into the formats we like. Can you IMAGINE having to buy into Legacy as a new player today? Impossible for anyone with a reasonable budget.

They are buying stuff out because it does actually move the market, in the majority of cases. My article is oddly relevant again:

http://mtgfinance.blogspot.com/2015/...on-why-it.html

Yep. What you're seeing the THE MACHINE in action. I believe there are probably hundreds of people now with access to algorithms that quickly let them dump cash into buying out older cards in limited supply. Once this happens, the card spikes to a stupid-insane price, but it never does quite go back down. It trends down to somewhere between just shy of the spike and double the old price, almost without fail. (P.S. One With Nothing may break this trend, lol).

Speculators will tell you this is because the old price was not "correct," and the spike was necessary to "balance" supply and demand. Of course, their definition of "correct" is "the maximum the market will bear." The libertarians will get all in my face for saying so, but there's really nothing sacrosanct or morally good about everyone figuring out the maximum price they can charge for an item. It's probably a market inevitability, but it's not (as nedeels seems to imply) immune to criticism.

[Mr.C]

All I know is that sooner or later, the market will implode. It always does.

[H]

I figure I'll ask here, because I don't really see a better thread (and it's kind of a waste to make a new one).

Where would be a good place to check the price of some "rarer" item, like foil Japanese cards from say, 7th or Apocalypse?

Specifically, I have a friend who is looking to trade some foil Japanese Mystic Snakes and so is looking for a reasonable valuation of them, but most places don't even have any for me to gauge the price.

EDIT: Nevermind, I found some on MCM, I should have just checked there first.

[phonics]

All I know is that sooner or later, the market will implode. It always does.

At this point in time it is worth it to buy every fringe playable card less than 5$ when a set comes out, even if most don't pan out the few that do at least triple in price. MTG cards are the only market I can think of that has practically no risk at all.

[Megadeus]

Scorched Ruins got bought out. 2 sellers at 19.99, and 1 at 100.00. LOL

[apple713]

All I know is that sooner or later, the market will implode. It always does.

Has it ever inploded for magic before? Not to my knowledge. Traditional indications and fluctuations that suggest it will happen are not present in the mtg marketplace.

Traditionally where stocks are bought forbinvestment there is a means to an end, a target gain or something. In mtg there is no natural get out point. Legacy cards are more or less consumed when a legacy player purchades them. Sure stores buy and sell them but there are fewer sellers and alot more buyers.

[thecrav]

At this point in time it is worth it to buy every fringe playable card less than 5$ when a set comes out, even if most don't pan out the few that do at least triple in price. MTG cards are the only market I can think of that has practically no risk at all.

About once a year I go through the stack of cards that I opened from one I still bought boxes. Every time, I find something new that has gotten absurdly expensive.

Someone gave me a box of their old stuff a few years ago. It was mostly crap and I sold everything worth anything. I put the rest of it back in the box. I went through the box last weekend and pulled out $50 worth of random crap (woo pain lands!).

[Jo11ygrnreefer]

WOW, I bought Null Rods for 2.99 each last year, thank you Eldrazi, the speculation market worked in my favor for once!

[jrsthethird]

WOW, I bought Null Rods for 2.99 each last year, thank you Eldrazi, the speculation market worked in my favor for once!

This is one thing Eldrazi have literally nothing to do with. lol

[Jo11ygrnreefer]

This is one thing Eldrazi have literally nothing to do with. lol

LOL, you are actually correct. Due to being on the reserved list, small set run, and being a spectacular artifact hate card. I apologize, I should read more before trying to make a valid comment.

[jrsthethird]

Here's another issue. Last night, Magmatic Force was bought out on TCGPlayer, causing the price to go up from $1.75 to $11. Even so, earlier today, SCG had 50 copies listed to sell at $2.99. So the card was bought out at TCG, but nowhere else. This points likely to people trying to manipulate the Pucatrade market (which is a system that's broken and you shouldn't do it). They go by TCG Mid prices, so if you can adjust the TCG price by buying all the cards, list at an arbitrarily higher price to set it, then you can dump your crappy cards on unsuspecting folks who have the card on their Puca lists. If I have it on my Puca list, I pay an arm and a leg for the card (and there's a big "buyer beware" clause in the Puca agreement that allows this), and then they rack up Puca points to spend on real cards.

There's a function to set a maximum allowed point value to spend on any one card, but Puca only gives that function to Rare members (the maximum subscription level). Anyone using it for free, or using the cheaper Uncommon subscription is, probably unknowingly, subject to random price spike exploitation.

Meanwhile, the card is now out of stock on SCG, which is likely an SCG reaction to the spike and not because someone bought all their copies.

[Mr.C]

Has it ever inploded for magic before? Not to my knowledge. Traditional indications and fluctuations that suggest it will happen are not present in the mtg marketplace.

Traditionally where stocks are bought forbinvestment there is a means to an end, a target gain or something. In mtg there is no natural get out point. Legacy cards are more or less consumed when a legacy player purchades them. Sure stores buy and sell them but there are fewer sellers and alot more buyers.

Not with Magic, yet. For every other collectible in history, yes.

[apple713]

Not with Magic, yet. For every other collectible in history, yes.

that's the thing tho, i can't think of any other collectibles that are actively played with.

[Davran]

that's the thing tho, i can't think of any other collectibles that are actively played with.

Therein lies the problem. WotC has decided that "collectible" is more important than "card game" when it comes to certain cards. They keep doubling down on this position with things like EMA in an effort to please two distinctly different groups of people, and here we all are bitching about just how expensive this card game has become. Meanwhile, some cabal of collectors somewhere is sitting back and watching the value of their cardboard retirement fund appreciate in some dusty old shoebox tucked in the back of a closet. They could care less about the "card game" aspect, because maybe they never even played in the first place.

Just last night some guy walked into my LGS with a bunch of sealed boxes (legends, antiquities, revised) and unloaded them for cash. Bully for him, boo for us, as any "staples" locked away in that shrink wrap have been out of circulation for decades. You think those packs are getting opened anytime soon? Probably not.

[maharis]

Just last night some guy walked into my LGS with a bunch of sealed boxes (legends, antiquities, revised) and unloaded them for cash. Bully for him, boo for us, as any "staples" locked away in that shrink wrap have been out of circulation for decades. You think those packs are getting opened anytime soon? Probably not.

wait, what? A guy walked into your LGS and made a 5 figure transaction on sealed product?

Granted, I'm sure they didn't give him what SCG prices those at, but.... even 7-8k seems like a lot to drop on such a product. i'm not sure my local store would even want to acquire that because it would be so hard to move for profit.