This column attempts make sense of set rotation on the prices of individual Magic: The Gathering cards by putting my own money on the table. Experience is the best teacher. Here, I'll share my lessons so you don't have to learn them yourself.
The purchases in this post were made on December 19th 2018 through TCG Player. This article was written shortly after and published on January 17. Because holidays'n'things. You know how it goes.
Why Buy M19 Now?
With the community focused so heavily on Ultimate Masters, I felt it was time to pick up some M19. I had been stalking M19 prices for a few weeks looking for the time to strike. An MTG Fast Finance episode put me over the edge. Crucible of Worlds has been sitting near the top of my watch list for a while. I've been toying with the idea of building a lands EDH deck next year.
So, when Travis recommended buying at foils at $20 and holding for a double up, I dove in. Older edition foils are sitting between 60 and 80. Dummy's rationale was that Crucible of Worlds is classic staple and while the M19 foils probably won't hit 60-80, but they are likely to close the gap somewhere between their current price and the price of the old edition foils.
Emulating the MTG Finance Pros
Those two gentlemen sell direct via TCG, that's not exactly my modus operandi. I typically buy low on coupon or credit back/cashback event and later buy list into a retailer for store credit when the card spikes. The margins aren't as good, but it's less work on my part. I then cash in the store credit for higher priced targets that I want to add to my collection. I acquired all my dual lands through this method.
My M19 Buy List
*The purchases in this post were made on December 19th 2018 through TCG Player. Neither tax or the 5% bonus bucks are included in the prices shown.
With the weekly delay, I'm not a ProTrader, my entry point on the Crucible of Worlds M19 Foils was 21.50. My exit point for the extra copy will be 31.50 store credit. That equates to a purchase price around 41. I'll keep the first copy around in the collection. If the it spikes in a year and I'm not using it in something fun, I'll probably dump it for a non-foil and repeat the process during the next foil reprint.
The Omniscience foil follows the same thought experiment, the smaller expected profits. In at 10.88, out at 20 store credit equating 26 purchase price. In the event the prices don't move, I'm happy adding the first copies of both to the collection. I can sell the second Crucible for what I purchased it for.
The remains of the list are scattered among projects in the pipeline. Neheb is up in the EDH brew queue. Lands and ETB Dragon Tokens are lurking behind. I intend on keeping all of these as they are first copies. It will be fun to see if picking them up now was a mistake when compared to the prices after rotation. My thoughts are that the Mythics will survive the rotation and eventually rise, where the Rares will stay about the same. I'm probably wrong about that.
There, that's the plan, I'm sure nothing will go wrong.
Keep Tapping Left,
Benjamin