Fell off the wagon; collection tracking advice needed

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GlobalBoosterHunter
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Fell off the wagon; collection tracking advice needed

Post by GlobalBoosterHunter » Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:33 am

So I fell off the wagon again.

After 13 years of not playing I taught some friends how to play over the Christmas break and it was a pretty good experience.

Reminded me of the olden days. I had no idea which cards were available, no ideas what cards I was going to come up against, had to read all my cards to see what they did. Opened boosters and saw a whole load of cards I had never heard of before, no idea what decks were being played or what cards I needed, no playsets of all the best cards, no dual lands, no thoughts of first turn kills and I was playing with people who didn't like to attack so I got to see a lot of my deck before they eventually killed me.

After we opened all the 'free' starter decks of 30 cards, mixed them all in together and then bought boosters and mixed them in we eventually bought some Commander Decks and the Commander Anthology.

Decided I should change a few of the cards out and found that individual card prices have changed a bit since I last played the game, almost afraid to put any of my old cards in a deck in case they get damaged and I lose $$$.

Anyway, I bought some old cards for my Commander Deck to replace the filler cards because I have no idea if I already own them, I have no idea of what I actually own, or how many copies. Cards I used a lot seem to have been reprinted but other cards I didn't like seem to have grown in popularity and now command $$$ prices.

I am going to go through all my cards.

I am going to sleeve any that merit it.

I am going to count how many I have of each type and I am going to try to put them in some sort of order.

I might try to grade them if I can find an easy enough guide.

Does anyone know of any software, preferably free, that I can use to keep track of my collection. I don't mind paying a flat fee but not too keen on monthly ongoing fees as I am not intending to open new sets, just play with my old sets. The people I play with seemed to enjoy it and liked cracking packs open but I have plenty of older packs they can have, they don't know about Homelands and Fallen Empires.

What sort of thing should I be looking for?

All I know is that I want to wake up in the morning, turn on the PC and see how much money I have made or lost overnight, in real time.

Bearing in mind I still have pretty much every card that I have ever bought or opened and the likelihood of me ever selling even one of them is very slim.

I would like to know how rich I am on paper though. Plus, if I can sort it so I can always keep the $$$ cards in a single place there is a slight chance they won't get given to a charity shop with all the others if I get hit by a bus.

Also it would be handy to know how many cards I have and of what type.

Any advice gratefully received

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TheJGit
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Re: Fell off the wagon; collection tracking advice needed

Post by TheJGit » Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:24 pm

I personally don't use any, but an online collection tracker might be what you're looking for. I think https://deckbox.org/ might be one of the more commonly used ones? I'm sure some google searches will get you more specific information about the features and pro/cons of each site and you can figure out which one will be best for you. I'm pretty sure deckbox can handle everything you're looking for.

cataclysm80
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Re: Fell off the wagon; collection tracking advice needed

Post by cataclysm80 » Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:31 am

Wow, welcome back to the game! :-D
Remember to have fun, that's what it's all about.
DON'T open your global sealed collection though!

In addition to Deckbox, which was already mentioning, there's also
https://store.tcgplayer.com/collection
and https://www.echomtg.com/
I'm pretty sure that MTGprice.com also has a collection tracker, though they may not call it by that name.

I've been wanting to upload my collection into some kind of tracker also, but haven't done it yet, so I'm not sure which platform is best.
I've been collecting for over two decades, and that's going to be a lot of data entry, so I want a company that will be around for a long time. I'd hate to have the tracking company shut down and then have to start data entry all over again. For that reason, I'm leaning towards TCG player. They've been around a while, and many people seem to use them for pricing cards anyway.
Until then, I'm still using the paper checklists that I printed off the old WotC website, and hand writing my card quantities in the margin.

Let us know which tracker you try, and how well you like it.

GlobalBoosterHunter
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Re: Fell off the wagon; collection tracking advice needed

Post by GlobalBoosterHunter » Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:08 am

Thanks folks.

I will give all of them a quick try and see which ones have the best features.

Portability would be good, so anything I can save in excel on my hard drive would also be a bonus.

I have heard of TCG being used as a price guide on some of the Facebook forums so it could be a winner.

I am now playing magic for fun and not to crush my opponents in as few moves as possible. Don't know why I didn't think of this before!

Cheers

GlobalBoosterHunter
Legendary Aussie Booster Hunter
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Re: Fell off the wagon; collection tracking advice needed

Post by GlobalBoosterHunter » Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:04 am

Alrighty

Just uploaded two boosters to all three tracking systems.

Not much to pick between them. All of them pretty intuitive to use.

On balance I think
Deckbox is for people looking to complete decks and trade amongst themselves.
EchoMtG is for people who want to invest in MtG
TCGPlayer is for people building up a collection, keeping track and filling gaps


TCGPlayer Collection Tracker
Seems to be integrated into their sales operation, but I don't buy from them so not useful to me. The values they give are used as a sort of benchmark. Looks to be handy for buying cards from them

Pros
Inputting cards is very easy
You can even select the individual basic lands within a set
You can add from a list of cards or type them in.
Cons
My set is worth between $1.05 and $20.39 but more likely $4.24
Summary page for values is very scarce on info
No downloadable CSV option (but copy-and-paste into excel is doable)
If there is a way of adding a whole set, I couldn't find it

EchoMTG
Seems to have a focus on the investment side of the hobby, e.g. which cards are going up, what a full set is valued at etc.
Pros
You can add a completed set, i.e. one of every card in the set, saved me 306 clicks for Revised
Really in depth stats on individual or set performance, expected box value, profit / loss
Cons
Having trouble selecting a basic land from the correct set let alone the individual card
The free version only lets you have 360 cards, after that it is $2/month minimum.

Deckbox
Looks to be for people wanting to trade amongst themselves
Pros
You can get a list of cards from elsewhere and add the whole list. E.g. magic card info > excel > Deckbox or from preconstructed deck lists
Cons
You need the premium version in order to download a full set in one go.

Looks like I am going to be using TCG but Deckbox is also looking good.

Found a few others as well but these look to be the best

cataclysm80
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Re: Fell off the wagon; collection tracking advice needed

Post by cataclysm80 » Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:28 am

Thanks, that's very helpful!

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