Grand Prix. It's french for, uh. Big race, or something like that. Actually, it's French for "large prize", and true to its name, the GP series run by WotC does in fact provide a healthy prize purse for an open invitation tournament. Chances are, if you're looking to QuietSpeculation.com for advice, you're probably more likely to "win" a tournament on the trade floor than you are in the main event. With that in mind, I'm going to recap my weekend in Columbus, during which I played precisely zero games of Magic. That's right. None.

Why didn't I play any Magic? Well, there's a big difference between attending a GP for fun and for profit. I was upfront and honest about my presence at the event being strictly "business". Magic is a ton of fun for me, but when I attended the GP, I was working. Thus, any time I spent playing Magic was time I wasn't spending working. Granted, there are late-night shenanigans that involve neither work nor Magic, like having dinner with the other brains behind QuietSpeculation.com and tipping back a delicious microbrewed Hefeweizen with the 02drop.com guys and a few of my local regulars, but when it's Magic time, it's business time. Regardless of the size of your bankroll or collection, this is the attitude you need to have when you attend these events. I didn't do this at Grand Prix: DC, mostly on account of making Day 2, but the point is that you should not play the main event if your goal is to "floor trade."

Let's talk about floor trading for a second. There is a massive difference between floor dealing and floor trading. As a small-time dealer, I respect the big dealers who spend money and time to set up a booth at the event. They are "renting" some very costly real estate, and when you transact cash on the floor, you are directly taking business away from them. Not cool. I don't do it (not even under the table; ask anyone who's ever tried to sell me something) and neither should you. I don't even condone the "we'll trade outside" thing, although that does occasionally happen without prior arrangement. I have no issue selling cards off-site, in a hotel, or anywhere sufficiently far away from where the dealers I aspire to one day mimic are working. It's just a matter of professional courtesy. Sam Stoddard just wrote a piece about how valuable your reputation is, and I cannot do any better than he. He nailed it. Your reputation is your life. Live and die by it.

Floor trading, on the other hand, is a perfectly reasonable practice. While people with giant suitcases of trade stock are sometimes frowned-upon, I feel like as long as a reasonable effort to not "set up shop" is made, there should be no issue. As anyone who has met me knows; I'm no Linebacker. But I'm a pretty big guy. I can carry a heavy backpack without issue. After 48+ hours of hauling that thing around, even I get very, very tired. Thus, I put my binders in a wheeling duffel bag. I try to keep only a few out at a time, to avoid looking like I'm setting up a mini dealer table, but honestly, anyone who gives me a hard time about having a large collection should volunteer to caddy it for me for a weekend. You'll shut up pretty quickly.

When floor trading, be conscious of the time of day. If it's Noon on Friday, and the event hall just opened, the dealers might still have good deals, high buy prices, and might be low on some newly hot cards. By the end of Sunday, however, buy prices have been slashed to represent overstock, low cash, and general desperation of Magic players realizing the event is over. The last morning of the event is a great time to trade stuff for the PTQ that usually takes place, and the first morning of the event is a great time to trade the stuff relevant to the format. My favorite trade of the weekend was when I gave up my foil Loam Lion to a Zoo player for his Aluren. Sadly, the Aluren deck didn't really go too deep, thankfully the trade was still fine on paper.

Another thing I consider vital to floor trading is the buy list scouting process. Many dealers were paying $4 for Gaea's Revenge at the event, but that is a card I can buy in my store for slightly above bulk mythic rates. Thus, there are clearly a large group of players to whom the card is worth nothing. By knowing aberrant buy prices, or even just disparities in the prices, you can engage in dealer arbitrage.

"Arbitrage" is loosely defined as exploiting an inefficiency in a market for profit. In this case, we are taking a disparity in the "floor price" of a card and turning it into cash, which is much more versatile and should be the end goal of a trip. You don't need to be rolling in "hundo's" to have a good trip, but it really, really helps. By knowing that Gaea's Revenge will get me $4 in cash, I can make much more informed trades. For example, book value on Stoneforge Mystic (a card I literally trade for every time I see it) is around $4. I bought mine when they were $2 online, and paid about $1 each. Thus, I know that even if my trade partner is valuing Gaea's Revenge at "full retail", $8, my cost basis on the trade is still $2! Thus, when I can make an easy flip like that, it's the same as flipping the Mystics, which may have a lower buy price at dealers at the moment.

You can do that with any number of dealers, at any size event, but it requires a powerful working memory. I haven't got that, so I use my smart phone to make notes. If you have a netbook, iPad, or just a regular old Hipster PDA (a notebook and pen), you should make copious notes. I've been even toying with the idea of arriving at the site super-early and diagramming the dealer floor on a netbook, and keeping my notes that way. This sounds pedantic and borderline OCD, but the reason that arbitrage is possible is because the inefficiency lies within the lack of "perfect information" on the floor. The guy you're trading with probably didn't know that the Gaea's Revenge can sell for $4 cash, so you have an advantage. By having well-organized, realtime info, you can easily spot inefficiencies that you'd never have been able to spot otherwise.

In addition to all the other trading practices I teach, this will really help you squeeze more value out of your Grand Prix or other big tournament. Dealers have buy prices set for a reason; they know that they are happy to buy Card X at $Y all day long, since they can flip them for more. Thus, you should feel confident when you make this trade. The dealer isn't doing you a favor intentionally, but he may very well be helping you out without knowing it. No buy price is untouchable, so feel free to try and negotiate. It's highly encouraged, in fact, because the dealers know what the "most" they can pay is. If its a hot card, remember who has the power in the interaction; you. As long as you're not scrapping for cash to catch a ride home or settle up a hotel bill, you don't "need" money right here and now, and they are probably eager to make a quick flip on the card. Always negotiate for that extra few percent; it's worth it.

There are a ton of events coming up in the last third of the year. US Nationals is fast approaching, and GenCon will be going on as you read this! In addition, there are multiple Grand Prix events in North America. I plan to attend Toronto and Nashville if possible, so be sure to flag me down if you see me there. I always enjoy "talking shop" with my readers, so say hi. Leave a comment with some of your best "big event" experiences, and let me know if you have any other questions about how I conduct business at these events (while not breaking any rules!) Catch ya next week!