Hello everyone,
As the owner of a Magic website I cannot help but surf other MtG sites for information and inspiration. Just recently I stumbled across a great idea on mananation. They have an article series called “From Pack to Power” where they aim to turn a single booster into a piece of Power Nine*. When I saw that I remembered that I was trying to figure out a good way to promote some economic content on our site. We already have a great “Magic economist” writing for us – Kelly Reid provides useful information about the financial part of Magic, but I felt we can expand this side of the Magic universe. Everyone needs to keep his finances under control after all.Long story short, I decided to start something similar for MTGO, just tweaking some of the parameters.
*If you don’t know what I refer to, “Power Nine” is a common term for some of the most valuable cards that appeared in the first MtG set in 1993.They are Mox Jet, Mox, Sapphire, Mox Ruby, Mox Pearl, Mox Emerald, Timetwister, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, and the “Holy Grail” of Magic, Black Lotus.
I will try to prove that it is possible to turn a single MTGO booster into the most expensive Magic card online – a foil Force of Will!
Is that a challenge or what?!
To boldly go where no one has gone before! »
Time is money, of course, so as additional restriction I am going to limit my time working on the task to 1 hour a week only. You will be able to follow the tactics and strategies I am using and see the progress in the follow up articles. I hope that you will find the task educational AND entertaining.
We will start of by opening a Rise of the Eldrazi booster to define our starting collection. I do that solely to simulate a small collection and actually do NOT recommend cracking boosters as the singles inside are often less valuable then the pack itself! So this is the first and last time you will see me cracking a booster pack without using it in an sanctioned tournament.
We will keep track of the collection value and use our pricelist to determine progress and failure.
A few rules to which I will abide during our journey:
1. I will not rip off beginners to increase the value of my collection.I do, however, have no problems trading in my favor with experienced players that simply don’t care or need the cards I have badly.
2. I will use all legal and ethical means towards my goal.This includes raiding “freebots,” advertising for donations in the classifieds trading with people I don’t know for cards and speculation on singles.
3. I am not allowed to use any external resources to aid me in my quest such as inventory on other accounts or friends that feel generous.That does not mean that I cannot take donations from “strangers.”
4. This is as much about having fun growing the collection as it is about making it affordable!
Cracking the Pack
After opening our pack we find ourselves with Consume the Meek – not the jackpot but at least no penny rare either. The other cards are of little significance. That is a starting point, so let’s get going!
My first action after opening the pack is to visit the “Freebots.” There are a few accounts online that provide free cards, either one time per account or limited to one trade per month. You can find them by searching for “free” in the search bar at the top of the classified list.
I unfortunately have used one of the freebots on this account already in the past, therefore I don’t have that option. But one of them is providing me with 64 new commons from various expansions. You will never get the newest set there, but it’s nonetheless a good way to start.
After hitting the freebots I immediately create a Classified ad that basically reads: “Beginner with new account appreciates any spare commons you might want to give away. Thank you in advance!” My hope is to find a few generous souls.While I am waiting I start to scan the Classified board for either
a) Trade opportunities with other “beginners” or anything that sounds like a good deal.Soon enough I spot the following ad from “Haruki.”
He provides me with around 100 commons and a handful of uncommons as well as basic lands.Thanks!
Finally my attention returns to my opened pack.Cards from new sets can lose value quickly as demand decreases and supply goes up. While this is not true for a few (which no one can name for sure), it holds true in general. I am going to try to sell my rare Consume the Meek as my last action for today (remember the 1 hour limit!), hoping to find a player that gives me two event tickets in exchange. I am satisfied with this result as the tickets will give me a little wiggle room to buy and sell cards.
That basically wraps it up for today. A few statistics that I will update each week:
Total Rares: 3 (Avatars)
Total Uncommons: 28
Total Commons: 130
Total Tickets: 2
Total Value: Will be updated from next week when the Rise of the Eldrazi cards have stabilized a bit.
Thank you for joining me on my tour and if you happen to catch me online feel free to donate some commons (or rares) 
See you next week!
Marin
Good luck! Is there a end date for this to happen, or it happens when it happens?
pretty cool experiment
Good luck Marin! I’m looking forward to following your progress.
I have not planned a fix end to this as you can really not realistically predict how long it will take. I might increase the trading time at some point to 2 hours if I see it necessary but for now I stick with my 1 hour time limit. I think the start is always the point where you progress the slowest as you don’t have much to work with. Thanks for the comments and hopefully this will work out at some point.
Hey Marin. Fascinating article. I look forward to seeing it pan out. Any chance you’ll be playing any PREs, or does this not fit into the time frame?
Hey NecroSavant!
I will most likely not play PREs as they require more then the 1 hour per week. I am also not allowed to use outsided resources so currently I do not have enough cards to build decks. Tough job, I know
Cool concept, I will definitely be following this.
Not attacking you. Just want to start a conversation about this for people who might be interested in trying to do this too.
Don’t you think its a little unethical to post an ad that says that you are a beginner and are looking for donations if you are not a beginner? When I donate cards to people at the weekly pauper tournaments it’s because I believe they are new players and I want them to have fun, come back and in general enjoy playing the game. I might be more hesitant to do it, if I new the person I was donating to was going to turn around and trade up some of the cards I gave him to a really expensive card.
Maybe a more ethical classifieds posting would be one seeking donations but not mentioning you are a beginner. And if someone asks you what you plan to do with the cards or whether you are a beginner then be honest.
Just a thought.
I also have a question. Where did you go to sell your Consume The Meek? Did you post on the Classifieds board? Just wondering where a good place would be to go and sell a card.
Cool idea, cant wait to see it unfold
Hello nukethewhalesagain,
What I am trying to do here is to show how a beginner can trade his collection up over time. Most people that donate cards don’t really care about them much because they are frankly not worth much. I am still going to follow your suggestion and will NOT advertise “beginner” anymore even though it might be an option for true newbies. The Consume the Meek was traded on Classifieds. Thanks for the comments and thoughts!
Okay, this is the best thing to come out of Magic. I like to think that this sort of game will be a Pro Tour format some day soon.
Hey Marin glad to see you doing this however I would up the time you allow yourself to collect each week to 2 hours of dedicated trading time.
Also allow yourself to play in PRE’s because any beginner should do that, infact thats how i gained most my experience and collection to start out!
However also being slick about how u utilize your time helps as well (Such as keepin a classifieds ad up while playing casual game or while in PRE’s and not have that count against your trading time).
To wrap this up and clarify what i’ve said.
1) 2 hours of time spent exclusively searching out profitable trades a week is reasonable even for a casual player!
2) Remember people usually join MTGO to PLAY! So dont be afraid to spend 5-6 a week in a single pre as even a casual new player will usually spend at least that during a week!!
A good start would be a standard pauper event, Most of the old regs would be more then willing to help out a new player build up to their first deck to have fun with and enjoy the format and MTGO if not also be willing to teach them the hows and whys of things. (also this is usually the cheapest format to join while also having the same prizes of more costly pauper formats.)
3) If you have a Classifieds ad up during the PRE so be it you’re not spending dedicated time searching out deals and profits these are ones that have come to you. You have not spent more time in the system then you would have normally!
I hope this series helps some newer players and hell possibly some older ones while we’re at it!!
PS. i think you sold the Consume the Meek for a tic to low!
Thanks for the tips and advice. I know that Consume is selling higher now but don’t forget that we have a time lag here. At the time of the trade Consume was available on Classified for 2 tickets and I thought it’s a good start to get some “cash”.
I dont see how this can work on MODO. IRL people actually trade cards for other cards they need, where on MODO all trades end up based on Tix. Even if someone does card for card trades they will still say something like “this is worth 2.75 tix and yours is only worth 2″.
Also IRL there is more room to maneuver with price differences. Card A and Card B may be worth $1 in difference and $2 in difference on another site, this gives you a way to compare prices with other players and get more value from your cards.
The other difference is on MODO there isnt much real demand for cards. If someone needs a card there are many many people with that card to sell so you find the cheapest price. IRL if I have a Jace the Mind sculptor and somone wants it they have to trade hard with me to get it rather than pay cash. On MODO you can just sell your existing cards then add a few more tix to get what you need.
Its a nice idea but I dont see it happening unless you cheat.
Don’t Forget to have the account post in the community cup thread. That way if the community wins you will get a Full Mirrodin draft set. The way I really got my account going was from last years free CCC Momir event where I went 4-2 and got 9 free avatars and sold them for 60 tickets.
@magic_gazz – I think you are making the mistake to assume that everyone online is using price guides to determine card values. Even if they are aware of price lists there are so many different types of players out there that you will always find opportunities to trade for value.
One person might collect foil cards, the other is looking for Elves for his tribal deck another doesn’t care about Standard staples and is happy to trade them for EDH cards and so on. The market is not nearly as efficient as you are implying and I am simply speaking from experience that it works as well if sometimes not even better then in paper.
@Kensiky – Thanks for the hint. That is indeed something I should do:-)
coooooooool post,thank you for sharing
Where is this about posting your handle in the community cup thread?!?
yup… nevermind, found it.
Kind of fun, it can be a race between you and Medina.
You have pretty strict time constraints, he has a longer way to go.
You sure got one heck of a deal on that Consume The Meek as its only worth about $0.20 now.
so what happened next
-garganeraboy in mtgo