Buying Magic Cards - New Set

[Crackdown]

How do you purchase magic cards from a new set? The suspense of opening the packs from a booster box ends quickly, all to often with my wanting several more copies of some uncommons and wishing I had different rares.

I was looking at Ebay and noticed several stores sell a set of 4x uncommons and commons from Betrayers for between $35 and $40 including shipping. That would leave about $45 - $50 to purchase the rares one really wants for deckbuilding, all for the price of one booster box. It sounds like an interesting way to purchase cards from a new set in the future.

Do you do this for MTGO as well?

 

[TheCasualOblivion]

I did that myself. I put out about 120 for the rares though. 12 Rares, 4 of each for that. Picked up Shining Shoal, Higure, Ink-Eyes, Toshiro with those.

I'm really not sure if I ever have to buy Betrayers again. I like the Commons/Uncommons thing though. Really good deal.

 

[Notepad]

Yes, the commons and uncommons are the awesome stuff in the set. Crackdown, you described my booster box purchases to the letter. I feel abysmal about my rare selection (usually end up with half crap rares or rares I don't want to use, AT LEAST, usually 2/3) and I love my commons, but always seem to be stuck with 1 or 2 of the uncommons I really, really wanted.

Though funny enough, I bought 7 packs the other day and ended up with RBU shoals, Toshi, and RGB genjus and a sosuke's summons. I was pretty happy, about that. However, I was ticked as the only ninja I got was the 1U, draw card one. I wanted a few, at least, to build a nice deck.

 

[jorael]

I always acquire the common and uncommon playset (all cards 4x) of a new set. If you buy a box you pay more and still don't have all the uncommons complete. Sure you don't get any rares, but I buy those at ebay, only buying the less expensive ones.

I may miss all high quality tournament rares that way, but more than enough rares that are very good for casual play are pretty cheap.

 

[Spiderman]

(Moved because Classic Question Forum is really for those threads that have been around for a long time)

I've just been buying a booster box and trading for any extra cards, but I really haven't been playing Magic enough to change my ways. But I'd probably do what you guys do since that sounds pretty good - ever since I got a Mirrodin box and got NO Loxodon Warhammers or another uncommon which I forget, I got kinda soured on buying a box.

 

[jorael]

I started buying the uncommon playsets with Mirrodin. I had a LOT of the uncommons already but missed some I really wanted (talismans, scepter, warhammers, a lot more). So bidded on a auction on ebay and won all uncommons 4x for 50 euros.

That's a lot of money, and suddenly I had multiple cards 8 times. No problem however: most of the cards I had extra I traded away or sold them to friends for bottom-prices (did not want to make a profit). The rest went in the crap-draft box.

Buying a box has its charms, however. A couple of friends and I used to buy 1 box together to do a limited sealed evening. Champions of Kamigawa is last set we did it with. Everyone is buying the playsets of betrayers and we'll hold a "constructed betrayers non-rare evening" (OMG, the metagame!).

 

[Spiderman]

Ah, the Isocron Scepter. That was the other card.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind doing drafts from a box but my group as a whole weren't interested in that either

 

[Killer Joe]

I may have said this before but I have three friends who are judges and they get paid with product. So every now and again we have a sealed tournament (One of my friends sometimes requests a starter box instead of a booster box). So last Friday Night we had an 8 man (okay, there were two hot women included in the 8 ) and we did 1 starter CoK and two BoK boosters. I think its a great way to attain cards. I got an Ink-Eyes and 4 other rares that went right into my binder (I can't remember what they were though ).

Cost to play: $10 total
Cost for pizza and wings that night: $12
Cost for being 4 - 0 after four rounds: Priceless

 

[Crackdown]

I just wanted to update those who were interested in this purchase concept.

Using Ebay, I bought a 4 x Uncommons and 4 x Commons set from a seller in Texas for $29 plus $6 shipping. I'll absorb the shipping as a cost of business and also convenience in not having to find the cards.

I can make Kamigawa Block and Type 2 decks all I want now and the kids love having the cards. Assuming we would have bought two booster boxes, we are left with $145 with which to purchase rares from the set. There aren't that many good ones though and I've purchased the ones we want in 4x playsets.

This is going to be my standard way of buying Magic cards for new sets from now on.

 

[TheCasualOblivion]

Totally agree there. Only problem now is going back and buying all the old crap.

 

[Ferret]

I like the idea of sealed deck tourneys. In betweeen the release of Fourth Edition and Stronghold, my friends and I would completely abstain from buying the new sets (and try to avoid spoilers) until our usual night and each buy a Starter and Three Boosters (one went to the prize pool) and play each other Round Robin (w/ the two players w/ the highest scores competing for the prize pot). It was great. Every game was also for ante (I got two Shivan Dragons from the Fourth and Fifth Ed tourneys!) By the end of it, two players walked away w/ a lot of great cards and the others still had new cards to add to their favourite decks.

-Ferret

"Then it was back to buying three boosters every time I went to the comic book stores..."

 

[Mr_Pestilence]

Um, guys, have you tried the Trading Post on this very site? I used to try it myself, but I got tired of being ignored. People who post there only seem to want the same "money rares" that everybody wants on other sites.

The one thing you never, ever do is buy anything from StarCity (unless you just like paying 3-5x the reasonable price).

 

[jorael]

Good point Mr. Pestilence, BUt I'll pass.

I still need a lot of old cards. But trading away other cards I only have 4 of isn't going to work. Besides, U.S. - Netherlands ship[ping costs will make it less profitable

 

[Spiderman]

There was an old article in the Duelist how not trading because it's your only card (or four for a playset) doesn't get you anywhere. Of course, this is assuming you trade a lot so it doesn't matter because you can pick up that card again in another trade. If you don't trade a lot, you're probably better holding onto that card, especially if you play with it.

But I would see the international shipping as more a problem

 

[TheCasualOblivion]

I almost never trade anything. Granted, the fact that I buy 75-80% of my collection as singles(or more recently complete sets of Commons/Uncommons) has something to do with it. Back in the old days, the local players would trade the power cards back and forth amongst each other as they built different decks on limited budgets. They avoided trading with me since they knew if they traded me something it was gone forever.

I spend a bit more money than is normal, and I like nothing more than having a huge collection that carries a really impressive binder and the ability to carry 14 working decks to go play.

 

[Killer Joe]

They avoided trading with me since they knew if they traded me something it was gone forever.

Ya KNOW! NOW I know why I wasn't THAT popular to trade at the "Old Shop" I played at. It's true, I almost never gave up good stuff once I got. I say 'almost' because the day I traded my Cursed Scrolls away everyone was shocked, I got lots of good stuff I wanted including Dual Lands and Morphling and such.

 

[Spiderman]

But have you traded away the dual lands and Morphlings? Or are you holding out for some piece of the Power 9?

 

[Spiderman]

I'm bringing this thread back up because I got the money to buy some common/uncommon playsets... I'm looking on eBay though and can only find a handful of sellers (about 5) for common/uncommon playsets for BOK and SOK. Am I using the right search words and is this normal? I'm just searching on "BOK common playset" (or SOK).

 

[jorael]

On the dutch Ebay site I usually only see playsets being offered when a new set comes out.

I get my playsets (and rares) from a friend of mine these days and he has his seller-contact in the U.S. I'll ask him if he can advise some seller (who you can contact for such sales). This friend I'm talking about lives across my street, but I met him because of an Ebay auction

 

[Crackdown]

I'm bringing this thread back up because I got the money to buy some common/uncommon playsets... I'm looking on eBay though and can only find a handful of sellers (about 5) for common/uncommon playsets for BOK and SOK. Am I using the right search words and is this normal? I'm just searching on "BOK common playset" (or SOK).

I'd say that I usually see perhaps 1-4 offerings at a time. They usually run $35-$50 for a complete playset of commons/uncommons, including shipping.