Keine Antworten in diesem Thema

[RSS-Bot]

Hi and welcome to the second edition of MKM.insiDe. Magic 2011 is about to hit the shelves, the prerelease is only a few days away, and people are very excited about the set.

• “The best core set ever. E.v.e.r.”
• “Incredibly strong.”
• “The Very Best Core Set of all Times”

Remember when the release of a core set was about as exciting as the news that Angelina Jolie adopted yet another child? Those days are gone since Wizards changed their policy and core sets have 50% of new (and powerful) cards. With some of these cards being Mythic and therefore available in very limited quantity, we now witness prices shooting through the sky, as for the following future (?) power-houses:





The current prices are of course purely speculation-driven, and it’s too early to give a reasonable forecast about how these cards will position on the market. We’ll discuss this in depth next Wednesday.


In the meantime, here’s a little subject, I wanted to bring to you, although it might be rather stating the obvious:



A. Online vs. Real life trading




Honestly, I cannot understand why people are still trading in RL. At least, if your goal is to trade for value (or for fun and profit).  How many times have I seen two players trying to fix a trade, only to let it be after a long discussion, because:

• “No. Actually I don’t trade any of these cards.”
• “Lightning Helix is rather 2 euros, you know, so we’re still missing 1 euro here”
• “Err, I think that finally, I’d rather keep that FNM promo Counterspell.”
• “OK, so next time, you bring that Fact or Fiction and we can make the deal.”

So, what’s happening here:

• The player is bringing cards just to show off, without wanting to trade them.
• Lacking a reference, the players couldn’t agree on a price.
• Sudden sentimental attachment to a pet card breaks the deal.
• A card is missing, so everything has to be postponed until “next time”.

These are typical examples, why real life trading may be fun and cozy but not efficient at all. It’s ok, if you enjoy to show off what cards you have, if you enjoy discussing about card values, but if you’re really looking to trade cards you don’t need for ones you need, I doubt this is the right way to go. After all, effective trading is all about supply and demand, so reaching a high number of potential clients (i. e. people willing to trade with you) is crucial. So think about these two alternatives:


Real life: 10 people looking through your binder, 2x a week.


vs.



Online: Thousands of traders available, 24h a day.


Okay, granted, there is a “downside” to online trading, although it’s rather an emotional one: the fear of being cheated. Whereas in RL you are sitting face-to-face with your counterpart, on the internet, people communicate with each other using nicknames and aliases, so as to not reveal their identity. Of course, upon contract conclusion, the real name and address of anyone participating in the deal are revealed, but this data may have been falsified by pure mischief. So you might be asking yourself:


“Can I really trust this guy who sells Vengevines at 9,99 euros apiece?”






I guess, that by thinking only one second about this question, everyone should be aware that the above seller is either crazy or trying to cheat on you. So, the answer is “No.” Although this seems just too obvious, running MKM, I’ve seen just too many cases where people did jump on these “great offers” buying without insurance from a seller with no or very few positive feedbacks. We’re already trying to make life hard for cheaters on MKM, but we can’t fight ignorance. I mean, if someone offered you “this original Rolex, i make it 100 euro just for you” you wouldn’t buy it, would you? So why would you do it here? Stop thinking that MKM is full of little kids that don’t know anything about Magic, chances are that the “great bargain opportunities” are rather opportunities to be cheated on.


So, if you’re a reasonable person and can identify unreal offers, trading on the net is rather secure as you have tools like PayPal and the MKM third-party payment system that protects you and your money. And although it might happen that you occasionally don’t receive an order, my experience is, that it’s much easier to lose in a RL trade, because you couldn’t remember the value of just every card.


So if you’re not trading for trading’s sake, stop carrying around your binder and let the trading take place while you’re playing.



B. The power of Commons (and Uncommons)

Bold statement:





Yes and very much so. Check the average price of Lightning Bolt. A common, reprinted countless times, still worth 1 euro. And there’s more, just consider the following cards:


Ponder, Doom Blade, Duress, Sign in Blood, Llanowar Elves


All commons that reliably sell at 30-50 cents. And these are only the top 5 commons of M10. There’s way more. These are the cards that you should look for if you’re interested in making money with Magic.


OK, that’s it for today. Thank you for reading. Please don’t hesitate to comment on this post and make sure to tune in next Wednesday, when we’ll have an in-depth look at how the M11 “hotties” perform at the market.


Matthias








Artikel lesen