Need to burn up some store credit...

Economics forum

Posted on Sept. 4, 2013, 5:14 p.m. by actiontech

I've got just under $200 credit at an online card store. I can use it toward a box of modern masters (and pay an additional $114.95) or pre-order two boxes of Theros (and pay an additional $52.28) Or I can hold onto it until the Theros singles stabilize, that's an option too I suppose.

I'm probably going to end up buying (in total) a case of Theros so I can stash a couple of boxes for posterity, so I'm leaning MMA right now and then just order the whole case at once to save another 7-10%. Am I nuts to buy more modern masters or can they only go up from here?

Ruric says... #2

if i where you i would wait for theros and get two boxes of Theros since many good things should be comming up (Thoughtseize ) even if you dont play black you can trade it for anything you may be looking for

September 4, 2013 5:29 p.m.

sylvannos says... #3

IMO buy up some staples for older formats if you play them. Personally, I'd pick up a playset of Dark Confidant s if I had that much at an online vendor.

September 4, 2013 5:43 p.m.

DaggerV says... #4

Goodness shipping must be high o.O

September 4, 2013 5:48 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #5

You're going to be waiting a long time if you're specing on boxes, especially if you need to recoup investment value plus shipping. Shipping is actually the worst part.

You might want to consider just buying singles for a deck.

September 4, 2013 5:52 p.m.

Stygian333 says... #6

Such a good question. I'm basically trying to figure out if its better to also preempt Theros with a few boxes, or should I just save it all for building the post-rotation standard deck I'm most interested in playing? I'm think I'm leaning a little more towards the second, but Thoughtseize really is the hinge isn't it? A playset is almost the same as a box... makes the math so hard. Does anyone think that Thoughtseize HAS to drop in price in some way, eventually?

September 4, 2013 5:53 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #7

@Stygian333: Thoughtseize will continue to rise in price. I doubt it will drop unless it continues to be reprinted.

September 4, 2013 5:55 p.m.

Stygian333 says... #8

Even the new Theros Thoughtseize ? I guess what I'm asking is "current" price the new norm after Thoughtseize already taking a hit from the Theros reprints? And its going up from there? Thank you for the response, this is defiantly changing the way I'm going about collecting my cards for the better.

September 4, 2013 6 p.m.

ShadowLand says... #9

Stygian333 the pre-order Thoughtseize is already $25 on most websites, and anywhere I have read says it's only going to go up from there. Pretty crazy. I have actually been debating as to whether to order a playset of them now before they hit $30+

September 4, 2013 6:06 p.m.

actiontech says... #10

I've mostly built out all the decks I want for the time being. I got time and space, and patience, so I'm not looking to make a profit so much as 5-10 years from now have packs of cool "old stuff" I can share with my kids who are 16 and 4 now. That's kind of why I like the modern masters boxes the most. I have two packed away already, but it's so fun to draft I thought about picking up another one just for that.

Already have 2 Dark Confidant s (thanks 2austin5!) but maybe investing in fetchlands or something like that makes more sense...

Shipping is $11 for one box and $12 for two, and yeah I agree they're gouging on that.

September 4, 2013 6:08 p.m.

Schuesseled says... #11

Either get the cards that you need, or buy some staples that will retain there value.

September 4, 2013 6:17 p.m.

actiontech says... #12

Just coming back here to list what I ended up buying with that credit. 2x Liliana of the Veil (had 2 so this finished my playset), 3x Snapcaster Mage , 1x Marsh Flats and 1x Sunken Ruins . The ruins was tacked on due to the oddball amount of the credit balance coming out weird. Anyway, I figured these would all have eternal value which is why I went that route. Shipping was free woohoo...

September 6, 2013 11:26 a.m.

WovenNebula says... #13

I would recommend singles from my experience just like what you ended up doing. For example: I got two boxes of RtR and 4 Gatecrash ( thats all my shop had at the time or I would of got less gatecrash and something else. ) I pulled to sphinx's, one being foil out of one box of rtr but for the rest just mainly crap lol. I got two boros off the 4 boxes and thats a rare, maybe about 1-3 shocklands of each skewed about. A few other notable rares but that was really it. I used 500 store credit on that, the rest of my credit was used towards singles. All in all I would never do that again ever lol. I know some guys who are buying 3t of theros boxes just to get 4 thoughtseize and I argue it out with them that your odds are not in your favor. Though they want a few others things. Your always best off buying the card singles you need rather than spending 200 over on crap rares you don't need.

September 6, 2013 11:44 a.m.

SharuumNyan says... #14

If your credit was at SCG I would have suggested buying Mutavault as it's only $16.19 on sale right now.

Hard to go wrong with Snappy though. People will want him for decades to come. Good investment!

September 6, 2013 11:48 a.m.

actiontech says... #15

It wasn't at SCG, was a company called Cape Fear Games. They paid out decently for my MTGO collection which is where the credit came from. I hadn't played MTGO in 3 years so it was just rotting.

September 6, 2013 11:51 a.m.

Ruric says... #16

Sphinx's Revelation is Mythic rare and Thoughtseize is just rare, so you get more chances to get 1 or more in the same box, but yeah you will still need to buy the rest, in the other hand it will give you card base from the new block which is good, i can see the cards value worth pretty good favor wise and money wise i can see that, those Gods will be kind of pricey (red one, black one and blue one)

September 6, 2013 11:54 a.m.

WovenNebula says... #17

@Ruric but at the same times you may only get one or none. From all the boxes of gatecrash I got I still didn't get some .25 rares. My personal belief your just better off buying the singles, unless your doing the box for fun and sometimes you just get amazing pulls every blue moon.

Also on another slightly different note, I read somewhere on tappedout in forum somewhere, that when they do reprints they do slightly less prints than the other rares. I would like to know if that's even true

September 6, 2013 noon

Ruric says... #18

well WovenNebula i repect your opinion but in case you are a standard player you will eventually buy the box from the latest block

also i see it more content wise i do not consider the value of Gatecrash as good as what will come in Theros, is not that there are not good cards in Gatecrash there are, but the cuantity of good cards in Theros as far as it goes now i see it higher, and as it happened before they are rising the utility/value of the cards in the battlefield again and that goes attach to the price, this is IMO

September 6, 2013 12:14 p.m.

WovenNebula says... #19

Of course I agree with you on that measure. You may even keep an opened box to hold for value years later and yeah you'll get your moneys worth, I just mean if your looking to get a playset of things this is not the way to go.

September 6, 2013 12:18 p.m.

WovenNebula says... #20

@Ruric by the way check this other sweet Theros card, kinda off topic, but its sweet nonetheless lol. Forum Link

September 6, 2013 12:22 p.m.

Ruric says... #21

WovenNebula agreed with you again, if you are looking specific few cards then single buy will be best, personally id go online, not that im a big fan of it but is not hard to find reasonable prices

September 6, 2013 12:22 p.m.

WovenNebula says... #22

I always definitely prefer trading but when push comes to shove you may have to do it. I jumped when pre orders for Thoughtseize were 19.99 because no one I know has them and the few people at my local shop that do I would have to trade big since they are from Lorwyn.

September 6, 2013 12:25 p.m.

Ruric says... #23

man that gorgon is pretty good, and im pretty sure she is not the only one

September 6, 2013 12:30 p.m.

This discussion has been closed