Last month, I had the rare pleasure of attending MagicCon: Las Vegas. This was just my second MagicCon event since their inception, if you count the 30th anniversary celebration in Las Vegas back in 2022. I had attended Grand Prix and other similar large events in the past, but none of the size and magnitude and focused solely on my favorite game ever, Magic: The Gathering.

Throughout the event, thoughts would frequently pop into my mind regarding how I could have maximized this experience a little more effectively. It felt like so much time was spent waiting around, that I missed several opportunities to participate in activities I would have liked to have experienced.

Therefore, I wanted to take the time this week to share my hits, misses, and lessons learned at this glorious, action-packed event.

Before Arrival

The more preparation you can complete before heading into the event hall, the more productive and rewarding the convention will be. As soon as ticketed play goes on sale, browse through the scheduled side events and sign up for the events that interest you most right away. Some of the cooler, unique MagicCon exclusive (such as the Unknown events) sell out early, and you don't want to settle for a less interesting event.

Next, before you travel for the event, make sure to review the list of vendors and artists you most want to see while on site. The queues to meet artists and to sell cards to vendors can fill up almost immediately after the gates open for general admission, and you do not want to sink hours of your event waiting. Once you formulate a plan in your head, you can quickly walk to your top priority booth as soon as you enter the convention hall (more on this later).

Lastly, if you want to meet an artist or vendor with minimal lines, do yourself a favor and arrive early at the convention center. The gate drop in Las Vegas was scheduled for 10:00, but they let us in about ten minutes early. I was lined up to enter by 8:00 each day, and this ensured there were less than 50 people in front of me waiting to enter. By 9:45, there were easily over 1,000 people waiting in line behind me.

The Vendors: Buying and Selling

As a long-time collector and retired investor in Magic, I like to prioritize the vendor booths when I first walk in the door of the convention hall. October's event was no exception; I had a modest pile of cards I was interested in shopping around to try and raise a little more cash for the kids' college fund.

Therefore, as soon as the gates opened, I hoofed it over to the vendor area. This can be extremely intimidating, because there are no less than 20 vendors from which to choose from, all boasting the best prices and showcasing a screen or board of "hot buys" - cards the vendors were offering most competitive numbers to purchase your cards.

On the plus side, I managed my time very well by prioritizing the vendor area - it took less than two hours to liquidate 90% of the cards I had came to sell. Vendors will frequently share helpful tips to streamline this process: pull cards out of binders in advance, remove from sleeves, have numbers in mind for larger-ticket items. The more research you do in advance, the smoother the selling process will be for you and the buyer.

I didn't execute my vendor selling perfectly, however. I learned a couple important lessons.

First and foremost, every vendor is going to have a basket of "hot buys" like the one pictured above, but on average the numbers won't vary greatly when taken in aggregate. Of course, some vendors will pay better than others, but a little research and conversation beforehand will go a long way in ensuring you visit booths of vendors who pay comparably well. Spending hours to maximize a couple bucks here and there on every buylist is a fool's errand and a major time sink.

Next, I learned to expand my view when it comes to vendors I'm willing to sell to. In my previous few events, I found myself drifting back to the same two or three vendors every time. It's helpful to develop a rapport with a buyer and makes the selling experience a little more enjoyable. When a friend of mine suggested talking to a couple different vendors this time - some I've never heard of, and some based overseas - I didn't know what to expect. At the end of the day, I was pleasantly surprised by the professionalism and competitive nature from each of these booths.

I was left feeling I could have sold all my cards to at least a half-dozen different booths and would have been perfectly happy with the financial result. This is especially helpful when trying to save time. Sometimes, the more popular vendors' selling line get lengthy. It's good to know that a handful of lesser-known (in the U.S.) vendors, with much shorter lines, are also great to work with. I'll keep a more open mind next time I go.

Lastly, I picked up on two other useful tidbits I'll take advantage of more next time. First, I learned that some cards don't sell well to vendors because these vendors have a tough time moving such cards (e.g., Collectors' Edition Power or cards like Raging River). These vendors were much more amenable to trading, however, and that's ultimately how I unloaded these less-liquid cards.

Second, I noticed that vendor booths cleared up a little bit towards the very end of a given day. If you miss the early rush to vendor booths and run into a long line, you can try coming back 30-60 minutes before the event closes for the evening - you just may have better luck!

So Many Artists

Imagine my delight when I found out my favorite classic Magic artist, Kaja Foglio, would be at the event! I have been a huge fan of her art for many years, and fondly collect cards with her signature. It was a dream to finally meet Kaja Foglio in person and obtain a few more signed cards for my collection - it is far more meaningful to do this myself in person rather than purchasing signed cards from the internet!

After hitting up vendor booths that Friday morning, I hoofed it over to Kaja's artist booth, where I was met by a solid 30+ minute wait. The line moved quickly, however, and by the end of my wait I purchased three signatures and a fun doodle on the back of a Kaja Foglio artist proof!

Content with my experience, I moved on with my day. It paid off to research the artists attending the event ahead of time, so I could ensure I had the cards I wanted sign and the time scheduled in my day.

Then on Saturday morning, while waiting to enter the convention hall, I overheard conversation about a couple of the other artists. Apparently, there were some other big names attending the event, with lines that get so long that they fill up completely. The result is either a three hour wait or even worse, the artist's queue is capped and there's no longer an option to meet them that day.

Since I completed most of my selling the day before, I decided to check out another popular artist. Because lines filled up so quickly, however, I needed to select just one artist to prioritize as soon as the doors open, understanding I may not get the chance to meet any others. My favorite choices included Richard Kane Ferguson and John Avon. Instead, I decided to visit with Alayna Danner because she handed out a limited number of cards with a time slot to wait on line. Twenty minutes after the hall opened, all the cards were already gone for that day! Beginning around 10:20am, everyone was turned away as they walked up to the line to meet Alayna.

Fortunately, I was on line early enough to get an early slot, and I only had to wait about 30 minutes for my turn. I purchased my signatures and moved onto the next activity.

The key lesson learned here: it's important to research all the artists at an event ahead of time in order to know which lines to prioritize and which ones won't fill up immediately. If I had planned earlier, I probably could have met a couple more high-profile Magic artists and I could have brought more cards with me that were illustrated by said artists. That way, I could have ended up with a beautifully signed Jeweled Lotus by Alayna Danner, rather than the Plains and Island I actually had signed by her!

Wrapping It Up and a Brief Note on Side Events

Before concluding this week, I want to share one last experience I learned from during last month's MagicCon. Being a fan of Limited, I decided to sign up for two fun-sounding Limited events throughout the weekend: a Mystery Booster 2 draft on Friday and a Duskmourn all play event on Saturday. While both were fun and entertaining, allow me to explain why they were also poor investments of my time.

The convention hall is open to general admission for only nine hours on Friday and Saturday and eight hours on Sunday. In my case, I attended only on Friday and Saturday, meaning I had a maximum of eighteen hours to experience as much as I could.

The Mystery Booster 2 draft was filled with laughs and casual entertainment, but it was also run inefficiently. The event started an hour late, and each round took the full hour because at least one match inevitably went to time. We didn't follow pod play, meaning we had to wait for every match to be done and a new round of pairings every time. I started at 2:00 and dropped after just two round at 6:00. That means I spent four hours, over 20% of my convention time, on a draft and two rounds of this format.

The Duskmourn all play event was simple enough: crack open six booster packs, shuffle them together, and play a whacky and fun variant of Magic. This one was well-run, but each round still went to time (25 minutes, best of one). I spent another two hours on this event. In total I spent one-third of my convention time on goofy Limited side events more designed for a goofy Friday night with friends than convention-style Magic.

Did I have fun playing in these events? Absolutely! Do I regret signing up for them? Kind of. That's six hours I could have spent meeting content creators, playing Commander, meeting new friends in person for the first time, meeting more artists, watching activity on the stage, or enjoying coverage of the World Championship. I'm sure I could have spent that time more productively, and I'll keep this in mind for the next event.

I think at the end of the day, this was the biggest takeaway from the event: you don't get many hours in that venue, and it's important to prioritize accordingly. I wanted to play some Limited Magic, but I also wanted to do too many other things at the same time. With the limited convention hall hours, I definitely invested too much of my time on side events, and not enough on other activities.

These conventions always feel like this: too much to do, not enough time to do it. That's why deliberate planning, early arrival, and appropriate prioritization is critical to maximizing these once-in-a-long-while events! I hope to put these lessons into practice in order to truly maximize my enjoyment at the next MagicCon event I can attend, whenever that will be.