How do you pay for MTG? Budget Tips

[skeri]

Hey everyone!

I'm a college student in my mid twenties in my last year of my Bachelor's degree in Art History. I work full time as the supervisor for an anatomy laboratory and pay for life, school, and my hobbies. I'm fairly new to this particular hobby, and I really want to get into it, but I'm also a serious financial planner. I play standard at my Friday night Magic group and I can tell that people sink lots of money into their decks. Also there are things like sleeves, mats, and accessories as well as tournament fees and new cards that will constantly need to be bought as they rotate in and out.

Does anyone have any budget tips or ways that they get MTG to "pay for itself" or ways to save/budget for Magic? How do you guys work Magic into your financial lives?

Thanks!

[WWolfe]

As weird as it sounds, I treat Magic as a bill each month. I have so much budgeted for it. A few things I did (and still do for the most part) before I was financially better however....

1- Despite the thrill of opening packs, it is usual cheaper to just buy the cards you specifically want than it is to buy packs hoping to get the card you want.

2- Trading, most likely there's going to be people that want the cards you have extra of that have cards you want...unless you're all building the exact same deck, which would be a little awkward. The bulk of your deck should be commons & uncommons. Those rares you do have from packs you opened that aren't in your plans for building decks with are your key towards trading for the stuff you're looking for.

3- NEVER preorder individual cards, mainly meaning rares and mythic rares. Some may argue with this but they can't argue that the majority of the time the price of individual cards drop once the set is released. To give you an example, the planeswalkers from SOI. Before the release Jace was preordering for around 35-40, Nahiri was around 30, Sorin was around 35, and Arlinn I saw as high as 45. Now, none are more expensive than 30.

4- If you are going to purchase cards online, be mindful of where you shop. Some sites charge more than others just like with anything else you buy.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

[skeri]

Thank you!

I have only ever purchased a few packs, but I realized pretty quickly that I was just going to end up with a bunch of cards I didn't want or need. Treating Magic as a bill is a good idea too, that's what I did this month and it worked out pretty well. I went with $60 a month which is about $15 a week for cards, tournament entries, and whatever else. Since I bought a $14 card yesterday I didn't pay to play in the actual tournament but rather just played for free with other people at the shop which was just as fun. I can always save up for a period of time for bigger purchases.

[Drunk Cynic]

Theory crafting and net deck; build a decklist, and buy only those cards. Play that deck, paying tournament costs, aiming for the win.

[G. Moto]

This is what I usually do:

1) Usually what I do is I research the entire block or card set. This way I know what I actually want.
2) I take every color combo there is, look at all the cards from the block and see what I would want to build from the available cards.
3) Build my decks strictly from Commons/Uncommons and use my rares/mythics sparingly.

     The ONLY time I get booster packs is if I'm going to a draft event or I'm buying a booster box. I started playing Yugioh when I was younger and learned the hard way that investing in booster packs is not good for deck building. IF I want a rare I'll do trading. Also try and start of any deck you build under $20 first, this way the deck will always be easy to recreate in case anything of an unfortunate nature takes place.

  As far as monthly budgeting goes spend only 10% of your monthly income for recreational luxuries and hobbies. IF you find yourself getting close to that number then stop buying, reassess what you've already collected and decide if you really NEED anymore cards or just want them. It saves money and will help you in the long run.

[Jace27]

My strategy isn't very helpful to you, but I let my friend open the packs I buy. He is the luckiest pack opener ever. Last weekend, he opened $120 in packs and opened 2 Jaces, an Avacyn, a Gitrog Monster, and a Linvala among other things. I bought 1 BFZ pack just for fun and I let him open it and I got an Oblivion Sower. My other strategy is trading. I wanted a Karn Liberated, but I couldn't afford one so I traded a Wurmcoil Engine, an Ajani Goldmane (also from trading), and a Liliana Vess (also from trading) for him.

[skeri]

Thanks for the sound advice! During summer I take fewer classes and I usually pick up a part time job so I'll be able to put a little more toward deck building soon. I think I'll use that time to build a couple decent decks that I like so that when school and work kick back into overdrive I can back off of the spending and still be able to play.

[Frimmel]

It strictly depends on what you want out of playing Magic. If you just want a deck and are okay with a "good enough" deck for FNM at your FLGS then you can play fairly cheaply. If you want a lot of options and want to WIN then it is more interesting. The easiest way is as mentioned - pick a budget. Figure out what you care to spend on a monthly basis. After that you can decide what the best use of that money is based on what you want out of playing.

[Konjiikhan]

trade for: how do yall get the trade bait in first place IF you dont buy some random or predetermined cards? its still in investment of some sort.
i actually make a set budget like most have in responses. STICK to it. omg sometimes its hard.
this is where i venture into another avenue of cash flow for cards....i simply turn in my bottles every other month and im surprised at how much i have  lol. i then try to buy cards on a deck list for me or just go buy booster packs for the randomness trade bait.
another note: if you smoke...try to quit. WOW the cash i have to invest in fun now ! i just use some of what i used to spend on smokes.

[ladof]

trade for: how do yall get the trade bait in first place IF you dont buy some random or predetermined cards? its still in investment of some sort.
i actually make a set budget like most have in responses. STICK to it. omg sometimes its hard.
this is where i venture into another avenue of cash flow for cards....i simply turn in my bottles every other month and im surprised at how much i have  lol. i then try to buy cards on a deck list for me or just go buy booster packs for the randomness trade bait.
another note: if you smoke...try to quit. WOW the cash i have to invest in fun now ! i just use some of what i used to spend on smokes.

Trade bait tends to come from staying in a specific format (namely, Standard) and trading the cards that fall off to other format players that are looking for them. For example (somewhat), I traded two Ajani, Mentor of Heroes when the Theros block fell off standard for some other cards I wanted for a different Modern deck (like I said, not a perfect example, but you get the idea.)

Other ways you can get trade bait are a little more painful, but if you're on a tight budget, they work. Mostly, focus on one or two decks that you want to play and trade anything else to get them. If you want to make a different deck, pick one of the two and trade it away to finance the new deck. I don' t really recommend this, particularly for Standard, since prices fluctuate so wildly in type 2, but you can make it work if you need to.

Personally, I do little things that can bring in some cash in my spare time (I'm married with a two year old, so there isn't a lot of it.) I collect pop cans for the deposit (my wife likes to throw them out, so I get to keep the proceeds); it's slow, but you can get a decent return once or twice a month depending on how much pop you drink. I also do odds and ends IT work for my neighbors who aren't computer literate. They usually give me some cash for the time I spend, so that helps.

[WWolfe]

My trade bait comes from the box (or two) I buy with each set release, however others may not be able to do that for them I would suggest perhaps a fatpack. That should give them at least a few cards as trade bait.

Also if you buy individual cards, likely you're going to change up that deck which would give you the cards you remove as trade bait.

[skeri]

So trading is something I haven't really done either. How do I know the value of my trade? I know I can look up the actual value of cards but how do you guys assess when you're getting a good trade?

[G. Moto]

   If I can actually use the card that I'm trading for and both people are satisfied then its a good trade. If the cards that I'm getting can be used for MULTIPLE decks or complete my collection (for example; All the guild masters from Ravnica) then it'll be worth trading cards that I don't need or even use. I'm a Golgari kinda guy so one man's bulk rare is another man's treasure.

[Frimmel]

So trading is something I haven't really done either. How do I know the value of my trade? I know I can look up the actual value of cards but how do you guys assess when you're getting a good trade?

Well, your decklists here will show you the values of cards in various currencies. Most places go off of tcgplayer dot com "mid" prices (which I think is what this site uses) which is a reasonable place to start. Broadly stuff everyone is playing is worth more than stuff no one is playing.

If I get what I want and won't miss what I let go then it was a good trade.

[WWolfe]

MTGStocks.com is another good site for value of cards.