- Thread starter
- #1
In addition to baseball, I also play and collect Magic The Gathering cards (and post hot list suggestions, to the chagrin and illness of some). That hobby has some good things that sportscards don't, and one of those is the importance of trading. Anywhere 2 MTGers meet, trade talk is inevitable. People are always trying to build or refine a deck, or obtain a particular holy grail card, or simply gain value for future trades or ebay flipping. With about 12,000 cards printed, many in esoteric, rare editions, the hobby has less variety than sportscards but it does thrive globally and in a medium of exchange sportscards have all but abandoned, the cards themselves.
Some years ago, there was an apocryphal story of a guy who traded his way from the contents of a single pack of Fallen Empires (8 cards from a much-maligned, underpowered set from 1994) to a complete set of Legends (a 300-card set from the same timeframe with many popular, expensive, and overpowered cards). To put it in baseball terms, he traded his way from the 1899 Cleveland Spiders to, if not the 1927 Yankees, at least the 1931 A's.
Then a few years ago, there was a film about a guy who traded his way from a single paperclip to a house. Trading became a thing to do.
Meanwhile, in Magic land, someone started a blog a couple years ago called "Pack to Power." His goal was to take a single pack, open it, and start trading up to a piece of Power. Power in this case refers to the Power 9, which are nine cards from the original Magic "Alpha" set that are so powerful they are banned from play except in "Vintage" tournaments, where almost anything goes. Very rare, heinously expensive (for Magic), and coveted above pretty much all else in the hobby. Obtaining one's first piece of Power is a significant step in a Magic player's career. It's akin to buying the first Ruth in building the 1933 Goudey set.
For perspective, the cheapest Power card, Timetwister, can be obtained for about $150-200, depending on the edition and condition. The most expensive, Black Lotus, is $500 at a bare minimum for a beat-up Unlimited edition, up to several thousand for a mint Alpha. While this board discusses triple-digit dollar figures pretty casually, in the realm of teenage to mid-20s Magic nerds, these numbers are still pretty stiff.
Anyways, by this time many people have accepted the Pack to Power (P2P) challenge. A guy who writes a column on trading and speculation on one of the major MTG sites recently completed his P2P quest. It's particularly instructive to read the comments. Half of them are congratulatory, half are viciously insulting comparing him to a thief, a terrorist, and a ****** for some of the deals he allegedly pulled off (some of the trades he describes are simply incredible, I wouldn't have the balls to ask for some of the things he got, or maybe even accept them if offered).
And this got me thinking. I have all the Power cards already, though there are other expensive cards I'd like to get, and they aren't all Magic. One of the cards I would most like to own in the world is a 1954 Johnston Cookies Hank Aaron. A fairly rare regional food issue from Aaron's rookie year, I remember reading about it in an article in a magazine when I was a kid. I was always struck by the simple design, odd shape, great tinted photo, and the simple, cool "otherness" of it as an alternative to the Topps RC. A nice-looking PSA 6 has been on ebay for a long time with a $699 BIN/BO. That's the kind of card I'd want if I could bring myself to hit the button. So I'm wondering if it'd be possible to trade my way into one. Specifically, start with a particular pack and trade my way up.
This is going to be difficult. While ebay and the internet has made obtaining almost any card easy, it's also made trading hard. There are almost no shows around here (the first local one in over a year a couple weeks ago was a lackluster affair), and I personally know no collectors in Austin any longer. Even if I did, it'd take a lot of networking across the country, and certainly nearly all trades would have to be conducted by mail, which leads to its own problems.
Hmmm...maybe a box would be a better starting point. Obviously it would be, but a single pack of baseball is so often a complete whiff as far as real value. Finding someone who would want to trade for that base Cole Hamels or Martin Prado card or whatever is likely impossible. And trading such a thing by mail? Forget it. Even trading the whole pack for a single somewhat desirable card is an uncertain event. The sheer variety of cards available somewhat dilutes demand for any particular card. At least in a Magic pack, there is nearly always a card or three that could be flipped into something else. Or maybe the junk box of things to list on ebay would be better. I could start a new Photobucket with just the stuff for trade and go from there. Yeah, that sounds like I'd at least have a fighting chance. Take, say, 15 cards as the seed "pack" from which a Johnston Cookie will grow.
What do you think? Anyone with me?
Some years ago, there was an apocryphal story of a guy who traded his way from the contents of a single pack of Fallen Empires (8 cards from a much-maligned, underpowered set from 1994) to a complete set of Legends (a 300-card set from the same timeframe with many popular, expensive, and overpowered cards). To put it in baseball terms, he traded his way from the 1899 Cleveland Spiders to, if not the 1927 Yankees, at least the 1931 A's.
Then a few years ago, there was a film about a guy who traded his way from a single paperclip to a house. Trading became a thing to do.
Meanwhile, in Magic land, someone started a blog a couple years ago called "Pack to Power." His goal was to take a single pack, open it, and start trading up to a piece of Power. Power in this case refers to the Power 9, which are nine cards from the original Magic "Alpha" set that are so powerful they are banned from play except in "Vintage" tournaments, where almost anything goes. Very rare, heinously expensive (for Magic), and coveted above pretty much all else in the hobby. Obtaining one's first piece of Power is a significant step in a Magic player's career. It's akin to buying the first Ruth in building the 1933 Goudey set.
For perspective, the cheapest Power card, Timetwister, can be obtained for about $150-200, depending on the edition and condition. The most expensive, Black Lotus, is $500 at a bare minimum for a beat-up Unlimited edition, up to several thousand for a mint Alpha. While this board discusses triple-digit dollar figures pretty casually, in the realm of teenage to mid-20s Magic nerds, these numbers are still pretty stiff.
Anyways, by this time many people have accepted the Pack to Power (P2P) challenge. A guy who writes a column on trading and speculation on one of the major MTG sites recently completed his P2P quest. It's particularly instructive to read the comments. Half of them are congratulatory, half are viciously insulting comparing him to a thief, a terrorist, and a ****** for some of the deals he allegedly pulled off (some of the trades he describes are simply incredible, I wouldn't have the balls to ask for some of the things he got, or maybe even accept them if offered).
And this got me thinking. I have all the Power cards already, though there are other expensive cards I'd like to get, and they aren't all Magic. One of the cards I would most like to own in the world is a 1954 Johnston Cookies Hank Aaron. A fairly rare regional food issue from Aaron's rookie year, I remember reading about it in an article in a magazine when I was a kid. I was always struck by the simple design, odd shape, great tinted photo, and the simple, cool "otherness" of it as an alternative to the Topps RC. A nice-looking PSA 6 has been on ebay for a long time with a $699 BIN/BO. That's the kind of card I'd want if I could bring myself to hit the button. So I'm wondering if it'd be possible to trade my way into one. Specifically, start with a particular pack and trade my way up.
This is going to be difficult. While ebay and the internet has made obtaining almost any card easy, it's also made trading hard. There are almost no shows around here (the first local one in over a year a couple weeks ago was a lackluster affair), and I personally know no collectors in Austin any longer. Even if I did, it'd take a lot of networking across the country, and certainly nearly all trades would have to be conducted by mail, which leads to its own problems.
Hmmm...maybe a box would be a better starting point. Obviously it would be, but a single pack of baseball is so often a complete whiff as far as real value. Finding someone who would want to trade for that base Cole Hamels or Martin Prado card or whatever is likely impossible. And trading such a thing by mail? Forget it. Even trading the whole pack for a single somewhat desirable card is an uncertain event. The sheer variety of cards available somewhat dilutes demand for any particular card. At least in a Magic pack, there is nearly always a card or three that could be flipped into something else. Or maybe the junk box of things to list on ebay would be better. I could start a new Photobucket with just the stuff for trade and go from there. Yeah, that sounds like I'd at least have a fighting chance. Take, say, 15 cards as the seed "pack" from which a Johnston Cookie will grow.
What do you think? Anyone with me?
