Let us start this week with a story, one of preparation and planning over the course of many weeks. The tale begins a few weeks ago when I began the packing process to move across town. Over the previous few weeks, I had managed to keep everything on schedule and seemed to not only move everything without any loss but also have a smooth transition of work since I have little time before we leave for Origins and then Vegas immediately afterward. Monday afternoon, I scheduled to have the Internet set up in my new place, and I was guaranteed it would be up within forty-eight hours—perfect timing since I was moving the last of my things Wednesday. Long story short, I spent two hours on hold with people across a number of departments to find out that not only did they fail to turn it on, they didn’t even start an account for me, instead shipping me off with an unregistered modem and a bail full of chords.

So, what was Jason’s fantastic idea? He proposed writing an article in which I talk about what types of cards to target based on what your outlets are. Although I have covered particular outlets and how best to maximize your profits within them, I have never discussed a generalized map of what cards to best out where. Since I have limited Internet, I won’t be describing individual cards to target, but instead, I’ll be concentrating on the steadfast rules giving you an advantage in trade since you know where your cards will show the highest value and you’ll know what outs provide the best prices when looking to offload.

The primary outlet I currently use when spending elongated periods of time at home is eBay. Listing on auction sites is beginning to cost more and more, but if you can move enough product, it still is among the best outs for certain types of cards. I use eBay primarily to move foreign and damaged cards, and though listing strictly on eBay is fine, you will notice prices on Standard cards and certain obscure foils can actually be lower than some buy lists. For this reason, I usually use BidWicket.com and spreadsheets for anything major I am looking to move, and I have noticed that along with foreign and damaged cards, it seems many Commander or casual staples can move for a great deal more than buy list—sometimes even topping retail prices on major in stock websites. Damaged cards sell surprisingly well since listing your copies for fifty cents cheaper than everyone else does make you show up first, and you would be surprised how many people just pick the cheapest no matter condition. Foreign cards are much more hit-or-miss, but if you stick to Legacy staples, you will be amazed by how much people are willing to pay for nonfoil foreign cards. Standard foreign cards move at a slower rate but are still worth picking up if you can keep them cheap enough and stick to the “correct” languages.

Buy-listing is even more appealing for a player, as you will find many stores give a boost in store credit, and if you can time your selling correctly and move cards at their peak demand, you may find yourself closing ninety percent or more when trading in for store credit. For those who seek to merely profit, it is still wise to use this boost in credit to pick up cards you know you may be able to move back home for full retail or that people are willing to give premiums on, such as duals and Power. Keeping your binder stocked with these sorts of staples ensures you will almost always have something people are interested in, and you can, in turn, crush those large cards back in to good buy-list or eBay cards. The same can be said in select cases where the retail value of something is actually lower than what you can fetch on eBay. In these cases, trading your cards in that may not auction as well for nearly retail while picking up cards that will move quickly is a great way to keep your stock from becoming stagnant. I also use this option even when I know of nothing I need at that moment—most stores offer account credit, allowing you to spend the money in the future when someone is seeking something you may not have but can sell for a very good price or to fill an order you may not be able to complete otherwise. Having a stock of credit at a number of major retail sites allows you to dive deeper on cards when you believe they are spiking as well since you can spend almost nothing out of pocket.

If you are someone who does not make many major events or rarely has time to travel, I suggest using the lower-end Standard cards to trade up into fetches and duals or Commander staples, as they are far more likely to hold their values over time. If you have access to a great number of players or you regularly attend large events, I would instead focus on the tech in Standard, picking up cards that are seeing continual play while at the same time moving your volatile stock.

I am sorry again about the lack of detail this week, but alas, nature is a mother, and between her and about five hundred thousand cards, my week has conspired against my successful transition to this new house. I should be on the road to Vegas while I am writing next week’s article, traveling with fellow Brainstorm Brewery members Corbin Hosler and Jason Alt. I will probably try to pick their brains and see how they feel on a number of topics, so tune in next week for what I expect to be an information overload!

Ryan Bushard

@CryppleCommand