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Flag ViashivanDragonRules January 10, 2013 12:47 PM PST
Where is the best online location to trade in cards for credit so that I may purchase more cards/booster boxes etc?

I have been out of magic for heck, over 8 years. It was huge in high school and tinkered with it a little in college.

Now i'm married and have a 1 year old baby, the wife and I needed a late night hobby when the little one went to bed.

I bought a booster box of 2013 Core and picked up a Thundermaw Hellkite, Sublime Archangel, Nicol Bolas. I'm assuming that is good based on what the hellkite/archangel are worth?

This is just a family hobby, so I won't be going to tournaments and trading with others like I used to do. Just a man trying to hold onto some of his past and the wife gets dragged into it!

Would love to jump in on the previous sets I missed, but holy god are the booster boxes expensive. I can't believe how much some of them are that were out when I played back in the day. Wowsers.


Thanks ahead of time for anyone's precious responses, appreciate it.            
Flag Enigma256 January 10, 2013 12:54 PM PST
first off buying boosters just to get cards is not economical
you sorta lucked out in that you made your money back, but still, don't expect that every time

a better way to build a collection is to buy playsets (4 copies) of commons+uncommons, those will run you $20-40 depending on the shop and set

as for your actual question I sadly can't help you, since I don't buy that much paper product, so I can't recommend shops
Flag ViashivanDragonRules January 10, 2013 1:06 PM PST
Thanks for the reply mate. Wonder where I can buy playsets online...
Flag Enigma256 January 10, 2013 1:10 PM PST
for example here
www.mtgmintcard.com/magic-2013-core-unco...

I have no personal experience with the shop, it was just the first google result
Flag ViashivanDragonRules January 10, 2013 1:19 PM PST
Cool man, thank you kindly!
Flag Hreth January 10, 2013 1:39 PM PST

Jan 10, 2013 -- 12:47PM, ViashivanDragonRules wrote:

Where is the best online location to trade in cards for credit so that I may purchase more cards/booster boxes etc?


The value you will get as trade in is a fraction of its market value, but (and this is a big but), you don't have to spend any of your own time setting up an auction entry, etc. If you sell stuff on ebay anyway, that is where you will get the best price. If not, simply look at the buy lists of the big card sellers and see which gives you the bes value (in no particular order I would check: channelfireball, trollandtoad, coolstuffinc, cardkingdom, and starcitygames).

Just as an example to illustrate the above, the best ebay "buy it now" price on Thundermaw Hellkite in NM condition is $28. The buy price at starcitygames is $20.

Flag ViashivanDragonRules January 10, 2013 1:52 PM PST

Jan 10, 2013 -- 1:39PM, Hreth wrote:

Jan 10, 2013 -- 12:47PM, ViashivanDragonRules wrote:

Where is the best online location to trade in cards for credit so that I may purchase more cards/booster boxes etc?


The value you will get as trade in is a fraction of its market value, but (and this is a big but), you don't have to spend any of your own time setting up an auction entry, etc. If you sell stuff on ebay anyway, that is where you will get the best price. If not, simply look at the buy lists of the big card sellers and see which gives you the bes value (in no particular order I would check: channelfireball, trollandtoad, coolstuffinc, cardkingdom, and starcitygames).

Just as an example to illustrate the above, the best ebay "buy it now" price on Thundermaw Hellkite in NM condition is $28. The buy price at starcitygames is $20.




I did notice on a few sites that you get 25-30% more in store credit, which would be just fine for me as I just want to trade in high priced cards for a more complete set of uncommons/commons. Since i'm not doing tournaments and such, i'm assuming if I dont turn them in within the next few years that they'll drop somewhat in price if they're no longer usable in some tournies?

Flag Enigma256 January 10, 2013 1:55 PM PST
it depends
cards that are useful in "eternal" formats such as Vintage/Legacy or Modern will keep their price or increase, for example the Shocklands are at their lowest price right now, having just been reprinted and will slowly get back up to the $20-30 they were before

but most cards will drop in price when they rotate out of Standard
Flag Hreth January 10, 2013 2:03 PM PST

Jan 10, 2013 -- 1:52PM, ViashivanDragonRules wrote:

I did notice on a few sites that you get 25-30% more in store credit, which would be just fine for me as I just want to trade in high priced cards for a more complete set of uncommons/commons. Since i'm not doing tournaments and such, i'm assuming if I dont turn them in within the next few years that they'll drop somewhat in price if they're no longer usable in some tournies?


You are right that you'll get more if you take store credit, that is a good point. Still, generally the margins you get selling to a store vs. an open market are much lower, since the store has to recoup fixed and overhead costs.

Trying to predict card prices is tricky. Cards in Standard tend to drop as part of rotating out, but prices are also affected by other formats and cards can and do rotate back in.

Flag Dragon_Nut January 10, 2013 2:58 PM PST
Try finding a collector nearby. A lot of experienced players have literally boxes of commons and uncommons they don't care about. Quite a few of them would likely be willing to part with literally a thousand of their extra cards for a single copy of Jace, Architect of Thought . Well, I would at least since I'm honestly not using most of them. The only reason I haven't trashed them or given them away is that I tend to give them away a starter deck or two at a time, which doesn't get rid of them anywhere near as fast I gain them.
Flag Jandrem January 11, 2013 8:25 AM PST
I've traded cards into some sites, including Cardkingdom.com and Trollandtoad.com. Who I traded cards to depended on several things;

Does this site even want my card(s)? (not all buylists are identical)

If multiple sites want this card, who's giving the best offer?

How much in store credit will I get? Cardkingdom.com gave me 25% more in store credit, Trollandtoad.com only offered 10%.

Do they have things I want? (sometimes sites are sold out of the exact card I'm looking for)

Trading cards in can be very lucrative, but it pays to take the extra time to shop around and compare prices, stock, trade-in, etc.
Flag ViashivanDragonRules January 11, 2013 9:01 AM PST

Jan 11, 2013 -- 8:25AM, Jandrem wrote:

I've traded cards into some sites, including Cardkingdom.com and Trollandtoad.com. Who I traded cards to depended on several things;

Does this site even want my card(s)? (not all buylists are identical)

If multiple sites want this card, who's giving the best offer?

How much in store credit will I get? Cardkingdom.com gave me 25% more in store credit, Trollandtoad.com only offered 10%.

Do they have things I want? (sometimes sites are sold out of the exact card I'm looking for)

Trading cards in can be very lucrative, but it pays to take the extra time to shop around and compare prices, stock, trade-in, etc.




thank you sir. I don't really want the hassle of throwing it on ebay, as i've done in the past and since they take their share and paypal takes their share....i probably won't take a huge bit by just trading them in for store credit.


again, since i'm not going to tournaments and such (just a family hobby), it just seems pointless for me to hold onto a thundermaw that could get me $30 in store credit.

i still need to find a place to buy the playsets as the previous poster mentioned. I think the site he sent me to was in hong kong...      

Flag Enigma256 January 11, 2013 9:08 AM PST
trollandtoad has it as well: www.trollandtoad.com/p374173.html
albeit a bit pricier

cardkingdom only has the uncommon playset: www.cardkingdom.com/catalog/item/188133
much pricier
Flag bay_falconer January 11, 2013 9:34 AM PST

Jan 10, 2013 -- 12:54PM, Enigma256 wrote:

first off buying boosters just to get cards is not economical
you sorta lucked out in that you made your money back, but still, don't expect that every time




I am convinced that game shops refer to the markup as "house advantage". Basically, if you buy booster boxes in bulk (like a game shop does), you can make your money back fairly easily (since that's their business model), but if you buy them the way a normal player does, you shouldn't expect a miracle, even in Avacyn Restored.

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