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Post by gabochido on Apr 13, 2012 12:53:05 GMT -5
I've noticed that there are a couple of interesting articles in PureMTGO about investing in cards in Magic Online. They are following more or less what I have been doing in the last year to great success. For anyone with some time on their hands who doesn't want to spend any real money on MTGO but who's playing skills aren't strong enough to "go infinite" I highly recommend this strategy. There are various strategies involved: - Keeping track of volatile cards and buying when they are low - Purchasing the low costing mythics while they are being drafted then selling them after the next block comes in. - Purchasing some of the cards that historically tend to go up, like lands. - Purchasing medium priced mythics that could potentially go up if the right deck comes up. - Buying cards from larger expansions during the pre-release/release weeks for their smaller counterparts. Of course, you need an initial investment budget and you need to be careful but it can certainly work. I started just playing limited events and used up some of my winnings to start investing little by little and eventually started increasing the value of my investments. You also need to put a good bit of time into keeping track of the prices so that you can make informed decisions with low risks. I unfortunately don't have much time these days so I've stopped my investment activities, but I'm pretty sure its still lucrative. Here are the two articles from this week: puremtgo.com/articles/putting-my-money-where-my-mouth-speculatingpuremtgo.com/articles/state-program-april-13thThe latter one is the State of the Program series and I very much recommend looking at those articles every week since it gives good insight on what is going on in MTGO. One more thing. The fact that these strategies are being published could potentially change the way the market works if enough people start playing the stock market, we'll see.
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Post by yugular on Apr 13, 2012 13:15:47 GMT -5
One more thing. The fact that these strategies are being published could potentially change the way the market works if enough people start playing the stock market, we'll see. It can have small effect but "mainstream" will never read these articles or make any decisions/action based on them. Good links! Glad you brought them up!
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Post by RockBass on Apr 13, 2012 14:42:45 GMT -5
Gabo,
What would you say your time investment is in doing this, personally? It seems like a good way to maximize drafts and winnings, but my concern would be needing to spend hours on MTGO daily just to get the most out of it.
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Post by gabochido on Apr 13, 2012 15:29:18 GMT -5
You don't really need to spend time on MTGO daily. I tend to do these things in bursts of time.
When I'm actively playing the stock market (I am currently not), twice a week I will spend about 1 hour filling out an excel sheet with the prices of cards I'm following (all the rare/mythic cards current in standard). (NOTE: I'm interested in writing a program that can do this automatically, but I haven't had the time to look into it).
Then on certain key days, for example just before a big Pro Tour or SCG or banning announcement, or after the first week of a release or anything that might shake up the field, I'll spend a few hours, about 4-6 during the course of a couple of days to decide what the best purchases are and look for good deals (looking for good deals is what takes the longest). I'll usually buy from bots because its most often easier to find a bot selling cheap than a human willing to part with their valuable cards at a comparable price, but sometimes you'll find some good human deals.
If I'm really into it and have the time, I might do this on random days, just basing my choices on cards that seem to be at a low point, regardless of the fact that there aren't any upcoming events that could change them.
Then I sit on them for a bit. I often obsessively watch my investments grow (or shrink) on Marlonbot's site, since I can have it just display the cards I bought. Waiting and watching doesn't really take much time, but it does require having constant access to the internet because if something happens to affect any of your cards negatively, you are often able to bail out of those cards if you do it quickly.
Then comes the time to sell them. Once you are convinced your cards have reached a good value for profit, the best way is to put them in the classifieds. For this, you require a desk job so you can just leave an add there while you work and deal with potential buyers when they contact you. Otherwise, your next best option is to look through the bots (using web sites) to find the best buy prices, but this is just as time consuming as looking for good deals to buy. Obviously you can also leave a classified while you're playing, whenever that is, but you sometimes need a few hours before you get a bite.
One very important thing to note. I do this because I enjoy the feeling of making a virtual profit. Its like a minigame in a video game. Its important to realize that, unless you make huge investments and get lucky, or use an actual bot and have a store, its very difficult to make even remotely as much money as you would in a minimum salary job during the same amount of time, and in fact the same goes for just playing on magic online for profit.
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Post by yugular on Dec 12, 2012 8:05:38 GMT -5
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Post by Fan of History on May 3, 2013 7:04:26 GMT -5
I love mtggoldfish too! It is really good! Just wish they had commons on there. I have no idea why they provide only info for Rares! Just got into making MTG Finance videos: Here is the first one! Gatecrash cards to buy right now! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt0mAC-tnXc
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Post by Fan of History on May 3, 2013 7:05:34 GMT -5
BTW, I miss you, Gabo! Come back to us!!! You were my Finance mentor!
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Post by yugular on May 3, 2013 8:39:34 GMT -5
I love mtggoldfish too! It is really good! Just wish they had commons on there. I have no idea why they provide only info for Rares! I imagine it would not be as beneficial/wanted that it is worth the effort to make it work? In the end rares and mythics matter the most. But yeah I would love if it had all the cards.
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Post by Fan of History on May 3, 2013 11:26:19 GMT -5
I think actually the most gain in trading is to be gained by commons. My best speculations have all been commons for Pauper
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Post by yugular on May 3, 2013 13:36:59 GMT -5
I think actually the most gain in trading is to be gained by commons. My best speculations have all been commons for Pauper And mythics. But yeah commons are easy to begin with. I know I got some 90-95% return for my investment last time when ME was drafted and I bought some Chain Lightnings when they were cheap. But to continue our discussion from the mtgostrat comments. If you think Primordials are so good investment are you also considering picking up Dead-Eye Navigators? AVR is the third set which is always the most expensive, they are only 0.05 (like Primordials) and it is maybe the best Commander card from the set. If there ever is one really...
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Post by Fan of History on May 6, 2013 13:25:07 GMT -5
Mythics seldom move above 100%, do they? Whereas Kaervek's Torch moved 2400% in six months
Dead-Eye Navigator! Noted! I will get me some right now
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Post by yugular on May 6, 2013 16:45:59 GMT -5
Mythics seldom move above 100%, do they? Whereas Kaervek's Torch moved 2400% in six months True, but Kaervek's Torch can be described as an exception, don't you think? In general mythics have better potential to see their value shifting than commons. Dead-Eye Navigator! Noted! I will get me some right now Do you see potential for them? It's "only" a rare (which is very different from mythic) and even though it is from the third set, the set was drafted alone so there must be some amount of them in the system... I don't know, I wouldn't keep my hopes up too high, but maybe picking a dozen up doesn't hurt.
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Post by Fan of History on May 7, 2013 2:16:26 GMT -5
Mythics seldom move above 100%, do they? Whereas Kaervek's Torch moved 2400% in six months True, but Kaervek's Torch can be described as an exception, don't you think? In general mythics have better potential to see their value shifting than commons. Dead-Eye Navigator! Noted! I will get me some right now Do you see potential for them? It's "only" a rare (which is very different from mythic) and even though it is from the third set, the set was drafted alone so there must be some amount of them in the system... I don't know, I wouldn't keep my hopes up too high, but maybe picking a dozen up doesn't hurt. Absolutely not. Mythics start out fairly high and then perhaps they rise 100% over their standard cycle, if they are played and were overdrafted at the beginning. Pauper staples have much bigger shifts. Nettle Sentinel just sold at 1.39 and is the third most played creature in Pauper. Do you think it will not see $3 again in the coming year? One very important lesson from stock trading is that it never matters how much the stock costs per stock, only what kind of percentage journey it can do. If you buy 200 Nettle Sentinels for $280 or 7 Sphinx's Revelation at $280, its the same amount of money. But the percentage potential is vastly different Also, Mythics tie up a lot more capital per card, which could be relevant unless you are comfortable having tens of thousands locked up in your MTGO account Having said that, I am just getting into Mythics, having bought all the ones that seemed cheap in RTR and GTC at the draft peak. I hope to make that 100% from them in April of 2014
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Post by Fan of History on May 7, 2013 2:21:10 GMT -5
Other commons I have speculated in during the last six months with over 200% gain:
Spidersilk Armor Raze Crop Rotation Cloud of Faeries Unearth Temporal Fissure (5000%!!!!) Hydroblast Pyroblast (700%!) Chain Lightning (twice! It fell down to 0.24 in february and I could do it AGAIN!) Choking Sands Quirion Ranger Rolling Thunder Snap Curfew Gush Brainstorm Crypt Rats Ancestral Mask Mogg Raider (700%) Fireblast Echoing Decay Exclude (600%) Benevolent Unicorn (800%) Gorilla Shaman Thermokarst Diabolic Edict
No Mythic has been over 200%. A few rares have, like Mizzium Mortars and Blasphemous Act
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Post by Fan of History on May 7, 2013 2:24:06 GMT -5
Mythics seldom move above 100%, do they? Whereas Kaervek's Torch moved 2400% in six months Do you see potential for them? It's "only" a rare (which is very different from mythic) and even though it is from the third set, the set was drafted alone so there must be some amount of them in the system... I don't know, I wouldn't keep my hopes up too high, but maybe picking a dozen up doesn't hurt. The big question here is if Commander is a big enough format to drive prices at all. If it is, like in paper, Deadeye Navigators and Primordials are a real good buy. If Commander is too small online to drive prices (and supplies are too big), then any speculation based on Commander is probably wrong. I have assumed that Commander is big enough to drive prices in the long run, based on the prices on older (2+ years card) that are not in Standard anymore. A signifcant amount of the non-bulk rares seem to be non-bulk because of commander (Doubling Season is an example that comes to mind, there are probably a lot better examples)
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