Will Work For Magic: How far would you go for an expensive card?
General forum
Posted on Aug. 5, 2016, 8:35 a.m. by Mortlocke
How far would you go to complete that mythical $1,000, $2,000, or even $3,000 deck you built on tapped out? For me - I helped paint a friends' ~600 sqft deck, for $20 an hour. In total it took us about 6 hours to finish. In return I paid only $50 for a revised MP condition Tundra, and a NM Flooded Strand. Unfortunately for me, that's only one out of the five original dual lands I need to acquire. If you're curious, here's the decklist - The Queen's Egg. But tell me your stories!
EmblemMan I have a very good job as well! However i'm getting married...and let me tell ya...having a girlfriend alone will hurt your wallet...but a soon to be wife!? I've never been so broke in my life! Ugh. That's why I had to go so far :(
August 5, 2016 8:54 a.m.
Also she's an amazing woman, and my best friend. She even got me the custom deckbox for deck!
August 5, 2016 9:01 a.m.
That's a cool way to afford those extra twinklies that may not be justified in the regular monthly budget! I like your approach. Maybe I will think about trying something similar.
I too have a job but there are so many things competing for funds that I limit MTG to a hard $60/month limit and since I am trying to keep something to play standard with up, that's mostly the budget right there. Anything like playsets of fetches or snapcasters that doesn't fit in that budget doesn't happen so I don't build decks around those cards or I collect them slowly.
When I didn't have a job yet, I organized all my brother's cards for him and he let me pick some from his collection that he wasn't using for that.
August 5, 2016 9:30 a.m.
I do it two ways.
I often place well during FNM, Game Days, Tournaments, etc. so I will rack up store credit and buy things. I once had $300+ in store credit from packs alone and used that for MM and Legacy singles.
I also budget for hobbies, and use that as I need. It's kind of funny now that I think about it. The government pays me and I use that for magic. So I guess the government is paying me to play magic. lol Among many other things of course.
So to answer your question, I haven't had to go out of my way to acquire expensive cards, but if someone offered me a playset of Tarmogoyf
I would probably do unspeakable things. Maybe. Well, likely. lmao
August 5, 2016 12:48 p.m.
iBleedPunk says... #7
Hey DrFunk27, I got a playset of foils Goyfs in my van over in that dark alley ;D lmmfao
August 5, 2016 2:02 p.m.
I have sold cards that I wasn't using, use that to buy a collection, and then trade, and repeat. Can be time consuming
August 5, 2016 2:24 p.m.
I make spreadsheets for people to organize magic cards, but that hasn't taken off yet.
August 5, 2016 2:33 p.m.
I could buy a (unlimited...) Black Lotus if I wanted to. Since I got a job and is not old enough to move out, I got a decent amount of money. Though, I really dislike spending money on cards. Just the thought about how much I've spent on cards annoy me.
August 5, 2016 2:38 p.m.
demonicgrizzly says... #15
I have been trying to get a part time job at the LGS to help pay for my habit but they never hire anyone. It's unfortunate.
I would do just about anything to finish my jund deck. I just need the goyfs and Lilly's but that is unfortunately the most expensive part of the deck
August 5, 2016 7:39 p.m.
So today, I went on ebay looking to acquire more (Revised) Original Dual lands for my deck (see description up top) and I managed to sneak in at the end of an auction for both a Bayou and an Underground Sea for $355. What a steal. My fear however, is that the seller is brand spanking new with no reviews or anything. They did respond to a question I had where I wanted to know what the back of the card looked like (because they didn't post that image), but they were nice enough to explain that they simply had issues uploading the image to the bidding post. Additionally, I asked if the cards were indeed genuine, as they looked to be in lightly Played condition. The seller said they were legit so I made my payment, now all I can do is hope and wait I didn't get screwed by some awful troll on ebay. Worst case scenario I just get my money back...but I it is actually all above board I will have three of the five original duals I need. Wish me luck!
September 19, 2016 7:46 p.m. Edited.
Oh, also I will TOTALLY be taking these cards to my local card shop to get them to assess if the cards are the real deal as well. Once I get the cards I'll post their pics here, and then I'll go to the shop and post what they have to say about them.
September 19, 2016 7:48 p.m.
Winterblast says... #18
I happened to play legacy and vintage until around 8 or 9 years ago - threw out a lot of money back then when I was still living at home and had no "upkeep" costs to pay on my own. After a break (because the local shop closed and I didn't like the others that have tried to succeed there) I started again a few months ago and was astonished how much the prices have increased since then. I sold 2 moxen and 3 Workshops (because vintage is dead here now) which financed a shitload of fetchlands, duals and other useful stuff, especially expensive cards for commander (which is the most frequently played format now, I view that as "vintage-light").
Now I try to fund new cards by trying to sell everything up to the cheapest crap rares I have in binders and piles and by finding cheap stuff on ebay and reselling it for regular prices later. I don't really succeed with that though, because more often I want to buy more of my want list than I could sell...so it's still a hobby that eats Money, but not as much as back in the days when I started.
September 22, 2016 10:06 a.m.
Winterblast if you look at my page, I just spent about $790 on lands alone and i'm not even done yet! However, I have most of the cards I need...but I feel your pain on the hobby eating up money. Fortunately I have a job that pays me enough to afford a house, a an amazing fiancee, a car, and ONE expensive hobby. I don't foresee it being expensive for too much longer though, as my goal is clear and simple build an all out competitive sliver deck, and make it awesome. That will be my -one- deck. Then i'll just buy a few (two or four) pre-constructed commander decks, make a few minor changes using cards I already own and call it a day.
EmblemMan says... #2
Surprisingly I have never had to do that....I have a job so I just make money and budget accordingly. I did used to trade A LOT to get everything I wanted though which often times meant going through ever binder one tappedout with a certain card and asking to trade for it.
August 5, 2016 8:43 a.m.