Few quick comments. On mtgo there are (effectively) zero transaction costs. Not so in real life. Selling cards either involves fixed costs (cost of postage/insurance via a stores buylist), or variable costs (e-bay).

It would be very easy for “shorting” to backfire on a local trader. First, you need to factor in that the “shorter” needs to compensate the other person for giving up the cards for two weeks (or whatever the time frame is). For example, if Jace is worth $80 and Koth is pre-selling for$40, then a fair deal might be Jace now for 2xKoth + $5-$10 in rares in two weeks. Second, even if the price of Koth falls far, you still have to produce them within a week of release. You will need to aggressively trade for cards that everyone wants. Third, because the deal is so unusual, if Koth falls to $20 and you make $40, you will likely have alienated your trade partner.

What you want is to ‘short’ in pre-sale and deliver ~1 month after release. I really don’t know anyone who’d take that deal, unfortunately.

TL;DR: Magic cards can’t be short sold because the utility is in usage, not in ownership and dividends.

I was also thinking, renting cards could similar to receiving dividends, but I have yet to think of a way to make it worthwhile for the renter AND the seller (risk of price changes and time intervals seem like my most serious obstacles).

The “book” value is -15.00 on the Jace side, but you’re buying the use of 85.00 for 3 weeks (which can then be leveraged to trade-up and -get- the Koths when they debut, ideally at a lower price.

It’s basically a form of trading “on margin” (not to be confused with profit margin), where you basically play with someone else’s money for a nominal fee. The problem is that if you make a bad choice (Jace tanks or Koth spikes), you’ll have to meet a margin call! Let’s get this discussion going, though, since not enough people yet understand how to treat Magic cards like securities!