Question about packaging...

Questions about Magic items and events.

Moderators: cataclysm80, hammr7, l0qii, Apocalypse2K, berkumps, dragsamou, mystical_tutor, pp

implode
Legendary Dragon Master Collector
Posts: 326
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 10:08 pm
Location: Columbia, MO. USA

Question about packaging...

Post by implode » Fri Jul 13, 2012 10:10 pm

Can anyone tell me how to know the difference of a Japanese 2012 box of 36 boosters with 15 cards vs a Japanese 8 Card box from the same 2012? I saw a non descriptive item selling 2012 boxes of JP cards dirt cheap and didn't want to walk into a trap.

http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-J ... magic+2012

I hope I'm not screwing myself. I own many magic 2012 boxes, and they look similar to the picture. I thought 8 packs were more vertical...so if this listing is purposely misleading...

caquaa
Librarities Legend
Posts: 235
Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2009 1:38 pm
Location: USA / Oregon

Post by caquaa » Sat Jul 14, 2012 12:36 am

Seems fine. Just google the codes given in the auction... nothing comes up w/ the 8 card packs. Seems like someone just wanted to dump, $50 a box doesn't sound bad. Just not sure what value the set holds outside of ripping sweet foils.

implode
Legendary Dragon Master Collector
Posts: 326
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 10:08 pm
Location: Columbia, MO. USA

Post by implode » Sat Jul 14, 2012 12:42 am

Well bought them out of $50 JP boxes (they had 3), I thought I could minimally get $75 back...but maybe as much as doubling up. Where I am if you have $2 packs, people will go nuts. All shops sell at MSRP...and people love cheap drafts.

implode
Legendary Dragon Master Collector
Posts: 326
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 10:08 pm
Location: Columbia, MO. USA

Post by implode » Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:11 pm

Well boxes came today, as far as I could tell everything looked right to me. Shrink wrapped in logo wrap, tightly sealed. Anything else I should be concerned about...given I bought these boxes for investment purposes I want to keep them sealed.

Image

User avatar
magic-belgium
Librarities Legend
Posts: 1932
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:19 am
Location: Belgium

Post by magic-belgium » Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:34 pm

I'm not sure investing in a Core set, be it Japanese, can show to be very lucrative in the long run.

But these boxes are legit, for sure.

implode
Legendary Dragon Master Collector
Posts: 326
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 10:08 pm
Location: Columbia, MO. USA

Post by implode » Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:50 pm

magic-belgium wrote:I'm not sure investing in a Core set, be it Japanese, can show to be very lucrative in the long run.

But these boxes are legit, for sure.
I don't think its unreasonable to think I can double up where I'm at in this now...and the boxes will become harder to find.

User avatar
magic-belgium
Librarities Legend
Posts: 1932
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:19 am
Location: Belgium

Post by magic-belgium » Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:42 pm

Since you are talking about it on the forum publicly, I just give you my point of view.

Except for Worldwake, very few expansions see a big increase in prices lately.

The market is flooded with products. And Japanese is not as attractive as it used to be. Korean is not as rare either as some sellers pretend it is.

The market is flooded with cards, and some sellers see sales decreasing because everyone sells cards now...

random
Librarities Legend
Posts: 388
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 8:17 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Post by random » Tue Jul 17, 2012 11:55 pm

I remember when DaCardWorld had Unhinged boxes for like $19 bucks per at the lowest point. I bought tons of it. Nobody wanted it. Sat on it (cause I couldn't get rid of it) and wound up making a killing- Literally, I bought my house last year with the money I made off of cheap DaCardWorld boxes and a few art sales. Economy helped me too...

I think you can't lose buying cheap boxes. FE was obviously an outlier but if you mix it up you're pretty safe to make a nice profit if you're patient. If you look at MTG in the context that it is an "investment" at least.

GlobalBoosterHunter
Legendary Aussie Booster Hunter
Posts: 1299
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 3:38 am
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by GlobalBoosterHunter » Wed Jul 18, 2012 12:59 am

OK, I am really showing my ignorance here but do I take it from the first post that the Japanese sets are being released in 15 card Packs and 8 card Packs?

The only recent ones I have been able to get hold of are the long boosters with the hole in them for hanging. I only get one of each so I don't open them. The early boosters I have are all the normal style and have the number 15 written on them.

I would be interested in any info on this as being a booster collector I would hate to miss out on anything!

I occassionaly buy a box but only if it is going cheap, you can always make money on something if you get it cheap enough. I figure even if you can't make any money you can at least draft it or spend an afternoon cracking packs so it is not money wasted (which is why I always get the English Language version)

If you are paying retail I guess it is a bit of a gamble, I bought a box of Ice Age as an investment, everything up until that point had been hard to get hold of so I figured it was a sure thing.

One of the good things about magic is that old cards can suddenly become useful when the new cards are released, I have a few Land Taxes (from 4th Ed) sitting around which I have never used but are apparently going up in price, no one in our group used Force of Will because we just used counterspell but now FoW is really popular, if you sit on a box long enough its time will come. (Maybe not Ice Age, even with Cold Snap that did not jump in price, although I also bought a box of that too!)

Prices for boxes have recently jumped in price but there is so much choice for foreign editions that it is hard to know what could appreciate at a faster rate than just putting the money in a bank.

User avatar
magic-belgium
Librarities Legend
Posts: 1932
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:19 am
Location: Belgium

Post by magic-belgium » Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:03 am

random wrote:I remember when DaCardWorld had Unhinged boxes for like $19 bucks per at the lowest point. I bought tons of it. Nobody wanted it. Sat on it (cause I couldn't get rid of it) and wound up making a killing- Literally, I bought my house last year with the money I made off of cheap DaCardWorld boxes and a few art sales. Economy helped me too...

I think you can't lose buying cheap boxes. FE was obviously an outlier but if you mix it up you're pretty safe to make a nice profit if you're patient. If you look at MTG in the context that it is an "investment" at least.
Times have changed in the last few years... MTG is definitely NOT what it was some years ago...

A Core Set in 2012 is NOT an investment. A box is worth what it potentially has inside. What cards are worth something in M12 ? Seriously ?

To give another example : Russian.

Russian is only good for foils for pimpers. All the rest is junk. Single non foil Russian cards don't sell, complete sets don't sell, there is no market for Russian cards anymore.

You can't get money out of cards from a Core set that are reprinted over and over again.

Anyway, everyone can have a theory about MTG investments. And a forum is here to express one's opinion.

I've only been collecting for 6 years, but in these 6 years, I haven't seen Japanese stuff skyrocketting. No one cares about Japanese stuff anymore except promo cards maybe ? Look at Chandra Japanese duel decks... They were a flop when everybody was expecting the decks to sell at $140 apiece.

GlobalBoosterHunter
Legendary Aussie Booster Hunter
Posts: 1299
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 3:38 am
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by GlobalBoosterHunter » Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:29 am

magic-belgium wrote:Times have changed in the last few years... MTG is definitely NOT what it was some years ago...

A Core Set in 2012 is NOT an investment. A box is worth what it potentially has inside. What cards are worth something in M12 ? Seriously ?
Maybe not a great investment and maybe not if he had to pay retail price but $50 is worth a gamble!

Japanese boosters are going for anything like $5-$9 for meh! series, some collectors will pay just to add the boosters to their collection and they need five so straight away that is a big chunk out of the cost of one box. Granted there are not that many booster collectors around to fund everyone who buys a sealed box.

I also find expansions to be higher priced than core sets, a relatively modern expansion will generally sell for more than an older core set, I can still pick up 4th and 5th for about $4-$5 a booster.

It is hard to know whether to buy a box which is already a proven seller, Tempest, Ravnica, The Portals and hope they go up in value or to buy a sleeper and hope that a new card combo is going to push the prices up.

My only problem is storage, I sit on a booster box for ten years and maybe double my money, is it worth storing a booster box for $10 profit a year? Chuck in inflation and you are barely breaking even (over here prices double every 17 years, sitting on a mass produced item for that long might not be worth it when it comes time to sell).

If you have the space it isn't an issue but real estate is a premium in my house, I can't even keep boosters out on the table overnight, I have about 20 sealed boxes and my wife keeps trying to get them moved to the shed.

Revised is the last Core set that has done really well, I bought a box for the riduculous price of $700 three years ago because there weren't many sellers who would sell to Australia. Now they are being offered for $1250+, not sure if they are selling but I will hold onto them anyway, might go up or I might miss the window, even if they maintain that price for the next 10 years I would still be giving a 3-4% discount each year.

At least if the US dollar collapses you won't be left holding useless fiat, you will have tangiable goods which you can sell for the Amero or whatever will rise to replace it.

User avatar
thulnanth
Librarities Legend
Posts: 345
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 2:26 pm
Location: Minnesota, USA

Post by thulnanth » Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:46 am

GlobalBoosterHunter wrote:At least if the US dollar collapses you won't be left holding useless fiat, you will have tangiable goods which you can sell for the Amero or whatever will rise to replace it.
I thought that was why we were hanging on to all the silver coins? :-P

Take it easy,
Jared
Ray Thiel (1964-2007) - the man who showed me more wonderful games & gaming sessions than I ever dreamed possible... you ran out of hit points too young, my friend.

GlobalBoosterHunter
Legendary Aussie Booster Hunter
Posts: 1299
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 3:38 am
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by GlobalBoosterHunter » Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:17 am

thulnanth wrote:
GlobalBoosterHunter wrote:At least if the US dollar collapses you won't be left holding useless fiat, you will have tangiable goods which you can sell for the Amero or whatever will rise to replace it.
I thought that was why we were hanging on to all the silver coins? :-P

Take it easy,
Jared
That's why you are hanging onto the silver coins, no idea why I am as I don't hold American Dollars.

When Belarus "revalued" their currency to about half what is was people rushed out and were buying anything they could before prices effectively doubled, people were buying brand new toasters so they could resell them to recoup their money. Magic cards and silver are way more exciting things to stack in times of a financial crisis than toasters.

(I was about to buy some more silver coins but then Alien Starfighter Pilot decided to go on a world tour instead, I can only afford to buy one asset class at a atime :'-( )

User avatar
magic-belgium
Librarities Legend
Posts: 1932
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:19 am
Location: Belgium

Post by magic-belgium » Wed Jul 18, 2012 8:41 am

$ is going up against the € now.

In the past, when the € was high against the $, MTG prices were going up.

Let's see if this is the other way round now.

-----

If he paid $50 per box (Jap M12 I mean), then, it was not bad. But I would then try to resell quickly. Because if he could get them at that price, it's just because overstocks are unloaded for the release of M13.

I remember the Jap 5th boxes that flooded the market 3 or 4 years ago... They were selling at 30€ each, sometimes less.

I don't know exactly for M12 because no one told me about it, but M13 is not selling well.

Those new Core Sets were exciting in the beginning, but the concept is ageing now, and I bet they will soon find a new way of increasing sales...

User avatar
dry cereal
Legendary Part of a Complete Breakfast
Posts: 1016
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2003 12:31 am
Location: New York CitY!?
Contact:

Post by dry cereal » Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:42 pm

i think this is an important point. Legacy staples rose in price because the euro got strong and there was a void of those cards in Europe. Now, cards exist there and they will be worth "less". I don't suspect US buyers will be buying them back at anywhere near that price.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests