Rags to Riches: Week Twelve

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Plejades

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  2. Haha, what a deceptive excerpt. I am glad that I was able to sell some cards and the Negator was definitively an “old friend”.

  3. I guess if you hoard enough of a card that is already in short supply, then it might seem like DMU does not apply, since once you have a monopoly or a pseudo-monopoly on the card, you are then a price maker rather than a price taker, and you can throw your weight around by selling the card at a higher price that you set.

    However, this is deceptive since once you start selling your cards, you then lose your market power as the monopolist. The very people to whom you sold may decide to undercut you because you’ve set the price too high and there are supernormal profits to be made. You then run into the trouble of not being able to sell off your cards at your original high price, and therefore will be forced to lower your price by your competitors. Therefore hoarding exhibits symptoms of DMU too, and it’s rarely recommended since any supernormal profits you reap in the short run will then be cannibalised by your own selling.

    NB: In this I’m defining “hoarding” to be buying enough of a card to be a price maker and have significant influence over the market, not just buying some cards and selling them later to make a profit – that’s simply speculation.

  4. Hello Arthur,

    while this strategy might work if you have tons of tickets to trade with I do not have the option to manipulate markets. I rather not do that in general even if I do have tix – sometimes I buy 15 or so of the same card if I see it cheap or believe that it will go up but usually I just try to find good deals.
    In our case it’s a lot of speculation but educated guesses that mostly turn out well.

  5. I like the breakdown of tix to rares/mythics. Are you going to become more liquid for the scars release, or are you looking to hold onto the rares/mythics you have in hopes they increase once rotation occurs?

    I’m about the opposite to you at them moment (2:1 tix to rares) and looking forward to the rotation.

    Another question – Terastodon, Thada Adel and Blade of the Bloodchief are all Zen block cards that have increased from bulk 0.1 tix prices to 0.5 or 1 tix. Do you see any other bulk cards worth speculating on? Splinter Twin has been kicked around for comboing with the Myr, but I’m not sure if any others will.

  6. can’t believe this started out with just a new acct!

    i know a lot of buddies who drive their accounts into nothingness :( fueled partly by losing in events but also because they are not savvy/decent/patient trader. this should be an inspiration to those guys (which i’ll link to here)

    can you smell the foily FOW? i can =) it’s close!

  8. I’m curious do you have a method of what commons you do decide to pick form the freebots or do you pick randomly?

    I usually just pick one ofs so I know the bots I sell them too will be more likely to buy them. Just reading your articles makes me want to play MTGO and do more trading.

  9. some cards have value in high amounts. really bad cards like Chimney Imp or Tome Scour, or staple commons like Lightning Bolt or Brainstorm have a market of people collecting them.

  10. back in the days (1998) or so I once got a arabian nights near mint juzam djinn for 320 laces (the laces were a cycle of 1 mana cards to change the color of a card, often called worst rares ever (at that time)

    I was getting laces left and right, as it was known I was the crazy guy collecting laces. i thought i had a few at 300+. Until i got the mail from some guy (after I advertised them)

    “Great, this will really help!’ He apperently had 937 laces at that time and offered the Juzam I was looking for. Of course in those days, it included a few alpha, beta and unlimited laces.