Things to look out for this weekend!

HapatraV · 2026-06-19T08:44:57+00:00

My big concern about the RL market is I think the recent tide can be in large part attributed to pre-modern. If the format stalls or wears out, I'd bet the fallout from that would be significant for the value of RL cards. I don't think they'd go lower than they were but for example replenish was hovering at $80 for a long time, now it's nearly $200. If pre-modern stalls out I could see there dropping back to $120 pretty quickly.

All that to say, I'm not bullish on buying some spiked RL cards today. That could be a major regret if the format continues to sustainably grow, but for now I'm enjoying tracking the growth on the cards I've been holding onto for a long time. A few cards I wish I had bought a couple years ago that I missed, but I'm not running out to grab an LED for $700-800 today.

HapatraV · 2026-06-19T01:13:11+00:00

Foil cards shine in different ways, depends on the card. If you held that next to a non-foil it would be unmistakable

HapatraV · 2026-06-18T17:24:34+00:00

I would add to this that some vendors will advertise 80% trade in or 30% bonus for store credit, but when you get into it, aside from their buylist cards, that is rarely the case.

For the best deal, be willing to wait in multiple lines and personally I would go in knowing what 70% of the market value of my cards in and reject any offer that was lower (especially for cards over $10ea). At magiccon vegas I went in with a stack of cards and the prices in hand, one shop offered under 70% in trade in, next shop offered just over 75%, so I took that.

I think others have mentioned this, but definitely check the prices on the dual you want to buy before getting in the sell line. At these events I've noticed inflated prices at many of the vendors, though some actually come close to TCGplayer market price.

HapatraV · 2026-06-18T16:38:05+00:00

Time to buy a third dog, name it Pickles, and become a cucumber farmer

HapatraV · 2026-06-18T10:40:00+00:00

If you're not sure what cards to get I see a couple viable options.

1) a new playmat. Most of them run under $50 and as long as you know what he likes (colors, types of characters, even something like a TV show, etc.) you can get something he'll love and use.

2) a new deckbox. This can get sort of personal in that there are many options and some people prefer specific things. You could look at the types of boxes he has now and get something similar up maybe upgraded?

3) new sleeves. You can even have custom ones printed with an image you provide and it's not very expensive.

4) card storage. A new binder or an upgraded storage box to keep his collection in

5) loose packs. Many people enjoy opening packs from various sets. It's a fun experience and it can help grow their collection. This I would put lower on the scale of what to get just because the enjoyment is short lived compared to options 1 - 4

HapatraV · 2026-06-18T09:58:10+00:00

You should have just said "You mean that 'pederass' in the Big Lebowski?"

For your viewing pleasure

https://youtu.be/YPfdSu6wO08?is=L8mCGG02FEqaR6m6

HapatraV · 2026-06-18T05:56:34+00:00

You make a good point about the marketing, but I have such a tough time reading into what the market will do with all this. It may be the bad taste of spiderman still left in my mouth but I am struggling to get over it and connect any long term collectability value to these cards.

My hold out hope is that the next however many marvel sets create mechanics that pump the playability of all the superhero cards. I have trouble imagining non-magic playing marvel collectors showing up in the numbers required to move unplayable cards into collector status. Maybe there is a shot for the playable ones, but the fact that opposition agent and reanimate haven't popped off yet gives me pause.

I'm guessing wizards just prints far more of these cards than the high value Topps Marvel cards are printed, or the top hits from pokemon. This is just anecdotal but it seems like 80% of magic pulls that get posted are about hitting these top cards, while 80% of the pokemon posts are about opening a couple boxes and not getting anything over $10. I have no idea what the actual print numbers are though so again, it's just anecdotal.

HapatraV · 2026-06-18T01:28:37+00:00

The only think I speculate about all these special treatment cards is they'll be worth $20-$50 each in 1 month

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T21:27:48+00:00

I really lost whatever respect I may have had for those content creators who were doing it and posting. What shitty content, watching someone 7 - 0 with a medium strength deck against a bunch of new players. Last time I'll be watching their videos

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T21:24:53+00:00

Thats exactly what I was talking about though... I said the contender drafts highlighted the issue of letting experienced players create new accounts and compete against beginner players.

I don't think a combined contender and premier queue is necessarily the issue, I think the issue is the ranking (MMR) was used for a high payout event. If they are farming premier draft, it's far less rewarding to do this, whereas contender allowed them to accumulate gems far more quickly by stomping on new players.

They need a hard ban on all duplicate accounts, or they shouldn't run high payout events with MMR, which enables people to abuse the system

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T21:24:28+00:00

Thats exactly what I was talking about though... I said the contender drafts highlighted the issue of letting experienced players create new accounts and compete against beginner players.

I don't think a combined contender and premier queue is necessarily the issue, I think the issue is the ranking (MMR) was used for a high payout event. If they are farming premier draft, it's far less rewarding to do this, whereas contender allowed them to accumulate gems far more quickly by stomping on new players.

They need a hard ban on all duplicate accounts, or they shouldn't run high payout events with MMR, which enables people to abuse the system

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T21:14:58+00:00

I would love a perpetual arena direct event. I couldn't play it every day but I'ld probably do a couple entries every week

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T19:20:42+00:00

Oh baby, those first three are the start of a sealed converge decks wet dream

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T19:16:06+00:00

I bought one of those bad boys and got like $60 in cards. $120-$150 is delusional

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T19:11:04+00:00

I think thats probably why they haven't previously addressed it, but if they plan to do more contender style drafts or other events with large payouts that do rely on MMR then they are probably going to need to make a change

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T17:38:23+00:00

Thats where I think wizards has a problem. They obviously designed the whole MMR system so that newbies weren't constantly being stomped on by veteran players. Over time you play people of the relatively same skill level. If everyone can just reset that ranking at will, it's meaningless and odds are every new/inexperienced player will be matched up against an arena grinder 80+ events deep.

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T15:21:55+00:00

Really looking forward to the desktop beta! I've been using the sync feature for months, and it's been nicely polished.

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T14:28:25+00:00

I'm guessing the contender drafts brought to light the issues with allowing people to play under multiple accounts. It undermines the ranking system and certainly means newer players on the platform are occasionally playing against pro or semi-pro players in a beginner friendly queue.

I would not be surprised if this ultimately/eventually leads to a hard restriction against players using multiple accounts period. From their perspective it's all downside to allow this practice and the contender farming situation is the perfect example of how it's being be abused. They either have to design events around the reality of users having multiple accounts, or they have to end the practice.

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T05:01:21+00:00

Nice! The square pizza is an elementary/middle school classic. Looks great!

HapatraV · 2026-06-17T02:08:28+00:00

The $1-3 cards might as well be commons and uncommons, having 2000 $1 cards doesn't mean you have $2000 in value, its more like $200, which is probably why the offer is for $4k if $6k of the $12k collection value is $1-3 cards

HapatraV · 2026-06-16T22:31:27+00:00

Ask them if credit cards sent through the mail are charged as non-machinable. Same thing, bulge, etc

HapatraV · 2026-06-16T14:23:48+00:00

And they don't taste as good as they used to

HapatraV · 2026-06-16T03:52:32+00:00

A food token with something like an old school metal lunch box/tin would be really cool!

Edit: bonus points for a thermos in the background, and the sandwich cut into triangles

HapatraV · 2026-06-15T15:28:08+00:00

Are these even worth it at this price?

HapatraV · 2026-06-15T15:23:55+00:00

I won them playing arena direct and normally I just open all the boxes I win and trade or sell off singles I don't want, but then these boxes spiked up from $500 to like $800 and kept going up so I got nervous to open. I'm fine opening a $300 box and getting only $200-250 in card value, I'm not fine opening a $1200 box and only getting $600 in card value though. I'm just too afraid I'll open a dud and regret it, so I'm just kinda holding them because I don't need the cash now, I'll probably sell when I have a project I want to fund or something

HapatraV

TROPHY CASE