Locations
This has been a big week for Magic finance, and if you weren’t as connected as you could be it’s likely you missed out on a ton of good info. In the space of twenty-four hours this weekend, we had the Prerelease, an announcement about the banning of two cards in Modern, and an announcement about the land distribution in Dragon’s Maze booster packs. All of this is an excellent time to make sure you are following some of the people in the finance community who have a habit of giving out free information that could be worth quite a bit of money.
For most subject matter, authors will save most of their “good stuff” for their articles because any good idea is worth being paid to write about. This is doubly true of finance writers. However, since a good portion of finance articles are hidden behind pay walls (though that’s not the case here at Gathering Magic, where you can read Ryan Bushard’s finance articles for free), anything a financier volunteers on social media is a literal steal. If you’re following the right people in the right places, you just might pick up on some very useful information that could be very valuable—literally.
Let’s start by playing a game called How Well Do You Know Your Own Finance Writer?
Ryan Bushard
Where You Know Him From: Gathering Magic, Brainstorm Brewery
Current Title: Finance writer for GatheringMagic.com
Social Media:
Ryan’s Gathering Magic articles are free to read, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that means they don’t contain information other websites would love to charge money for. If you are at all interested in the finance game or just don’t want to pay too much money for cards by buying at inopportune times, you’ll want to catch every article Ryan puts out. Following Ryan on social media is also valuable because Ryan has never backed down from an opportunity to defend his opinion in public. When a disagreement breaks out between financiers, the debate becomes spirited, and very valuable information is shared.
This is a small bit of one of the most enlightening debates I’ve seen on Twitter. (This happened back in June 2012, but it’s no less relevant today.)
@chasandres that is of course in reference to investments.playing the stock market much more lucrative just because ease of purchase.
— Ryan Bushard (@CryppleCommand) June 1, 2012
If you want to read more, go back and find it because it’s all worth a read.
Outside of worthwhile debates, Ryan’s worth following on social media because he’s a genuinely entertaining person, and sometimes, it’s illuminating to see what various writers are like outside of Magic. It’s great that most of you read his articles, but if you think that’s all he has to offer, you’ll be glad to find there’s a lot more to him than just his output at Gathering Magic.
Chas Andres
Where You Know Him From: ChannelFireball, StarCityGames
Current Title: Finance writer for Starcitygames.com
Social Media:
I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the man on the other end of that Twitter debate from earlier. Chas is a writer living in LA, hard at work on some of our favorite network TV shows and writing at night. Often cited as one of the most technically proficient writers in the Magic finance game, his résumé is quite impressive. Chas is especially worth following on social media because since his articles are behind the pay wall at StarCityGames, you’ll either have to pay for the premium subscription or wait for his articles to become free to read if you want his opinion. That is, of course, unless you follow him on various social media, in which case a lot of coveted information for which SCG Premium subscribers pay good money is routinely volunteered or comes up in the course of discussion. Not shy about defending his (sometimes extremely controversial) views he’s, as we say in the finance world, “good value.”
Paul Feudo
Where You Know Him From: QuietSpeculation, LegitMTG
Current Title: Writer for QuietSpeculation and Legit MTG
Social Media:
Since I have your undivided attention, I thought I’d hit you with one last person to follow you might not have heard of. Paul is an up-and-comer at QS and LegitMTG, and I think he has a bright future. Very quietly, Paul was a hundred percent right about Sphinx's Revelation, and Paul and I made approximately all the dollars buying those guys at $4. He’s a competent writer with good instincts, and if he’s on the floor at a major event, his tweets are usually full of pretty useful information if you want to make moves financially. If you’re not following Paul and reading his articles, I think you should be.
And there you have it. My vision for this series going forward will be to pepper the “obvious” cases of established contributors with some people I think are very valuable members of the community with good insights but who may not be people you’re already following or were even aware of at all. And remember, even if you already read someone’s articles or follow the person on Twitter, you could be missing out on a whole lot of good content on other media.
Your feedback is helping to shape this column, so keep those tweet and e-mails coming. I’ve already found a few people I wasn’t following as a result of your feedback. If you want to know which Gatecrash cards to pick up, which to dump, and what we should do about the land distribution in Dragon’s Maze, follow these and other financiers, check that #mtgfinance hash tag, and read as many articles as you can. It’s never been a better time to be a Magic player, and if the game can pay for itself, well, that’s just gravy.
See you next week!
