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To make a very long story short, an ex roommate bailed on us and left a bunch of his crap here at the house. In the pile of shit that he left, there are about 315(I may have miss counted) Magic the Gathering trading cards. And looking to make up some of the money that is owed to me, I was thinking about selling them. Is there still a market for these things? If so, what would be the best place to turn them in? Ebay? Comic book store? Most of the cards are in good condition, save a few that are warped or faded. Help a brother out. Thanks.

See if you can serve him notice first and check any local laws regarding this before you go dispose of his stuff.

phongn wrote:See if you can serve him notice first and check any local laws regarding this before you go dispose of his stuff.

Good call. I will look into this. But it's been months since he left and never returned calls. As far as I can see, he just abandoned it when he didn't want to/couldn't make rent. As far as I know, he just fell off the face of the earth. But thanks for making that call, I'd hate to trap myself in more roomy-bull shit.

But lets say that the law says that he abandoned all his belongings and has no right to any of it, is there a nerd-market for them? They are green, blue, and white cards...

Yes, there is a large market for them. If you haven't noticed (which amazingly people haven't) professional tournament magic gives away more money per year than many minor sports.

Depending on how old or rare the cards are, there might be a market for them, since now some of the old cards are being allowed back into tournaments. However, odds are the cards won't be worth much.

Dark Hellion wrote:Yes, there is a large market for them. If you haven't noticed (which amazingly people haven't) professional tournament magic gives away more money per year than many minor sports.

Now, with out going into the individual price of each card, how much would you say a find like this is worth? I know that it's hard to give a general amount when different cards are priced differently, but I do not have the time to go though the stacks...

The problem with tournaments is that they only allow the last three complete sets in competitions.

There's going to be a decidedly U-shaped spectrum for value of cards, based largely on age. The REAL old stuff is valuable for collectors, and the few original-release cards that are hella broken (Black Lotus, anyone?). The middle-aged cards won't be worth shit for the most part, and that's due to the recent-release cards, which have succumbed to D&D Source Syndrome, where every new set has to supplant the one before it in sheer wtfpowah. So some rare ones of the newer bits might fetch a decent price, since they're useful, and many of the REALLY old ones might, but the ones in the middle I wouldn't expect much from.

Cooness. I guess that I will have to hire my friend to look through them and pick out the winners.

If it's only three hundred and change, he either had a really small collection, or just left a few decks behind by accident. If the former, you're likely SOL, if the latter, it's a tossup depending on what his real collection looked like.

I dunno which it is, but he left in a hurry, leaving his paintball gun, tv, playstation and games along with a bunch of cloths, so I don't think he picked up a few decks and took off. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that was still into it. But we'll see. I just want to make up some of the money I lost paying his portion of the bills and rent, which is about 300USD.

Best bet is to find the real money makers in there, then put them all up on ebay as a set, with the valuable cards listed as the highlights of the collection.

I was thinking about doing that. I just have to get one of those nerds I know to help me out with finding those gems that might be there...

Lt. Dan wrote:I was thinking about doing that. I just have to get one of those nerds I know to help me out with finding those gems that might be there...

I stopped playing years ago but I know all the old valuable ones.

Take pictures of like ten or twelve of them together at once and keep them in hi-rez and zip them up and email me them, and i can identify them for you.

Google Magic the Gathering and you'll find plenty of webstores which you could use to price your cards.

Yeah, try www.cardkingdom.com. They'll even buy some from you, though probably at horrible prices.

Last I checked, prices ranged:

$0.25 - $1.00~ for commons (Less for standard land.)
$1.50 - $5.00~ for uncommons, depending on utility and popularity up to $15 - $30
Rares, unless utterly useless, tended to start at $30.

That's for the most recent set usually.

The sites'll give you a better idea, as well as the ability to decern what series they're from. (I believe they gave "core" sets symbols recently... May be wrong... last time I bought cards, weather light was new...)

Most likely, you're looking at $0.50/card on e-bay, unless you've got some real gems in that set. (which may be, if he's got absolutely no black, it's likely he bought them one at a time.)

Good luck though.

Fifty cents a card?

Wow, I have over three thousand Magic cards lying around my room that I haven't even really looked at for years, even some Alphas, or whatever the first set was called.

Agent Fisher wrote:The problem with tournaments is that they only allow the last three complete sets in competitions.

Actually that is almost completely wrong. Tournaments range from allowing the last 2 block+last core, to just allowing the last block, to anything that isn't banned.

Holy shit, Noble. Alpha is more or less a license to print money.

White Haven wrote:Holy shit, Noble. Alpha is more or less a license to print money.

Most of them are basic lands, but I do have a few Alpha summons and spells, too. I guess I really should look into their current value; college is expensive.

Jeez, I also have a couple hundred old(10+ years at least) Magic cards up at my dad's house, along with (I think) some old SW CCG cards. Methinks I better snag them and see what I have.

Sell me your alpha cards at reduced rates. I'll love you long time.

Noble Ire wrote:

White Haven wrote:Holy shit, Noble. Alpha is more or less a license to print money.

Most of them are basic lands, but I do have a few Alpha summons and spells, too. I guess I really should look into their current value; college is expensive.

Even Alpha lands go for a couple dollars a pop.