Here we are with the second week (see the introductory week HERE) of my attempt to turn a single cracked Rise of the Eldrazi pack into virtual gold – a foil Force of Will, currently worth around $275.

I got a lot of comments and ideas from our readers regarding the competition and will address some of them right away. One player, nukethewhalesagain, felt it was a somewhat questionable practice to advertise as beginner on classified to get free cards.  I am going to leave the word “beginner” or “newbie” out of my ads and will now simply ask for freebies without implying that I am a newbie.  The ad did not lead to any free cards anyway…sigh.

Ranth suggested playing in PRE’s (Player Run Events) that usually sponsor small prices for the Top 3 and do not cost any entry fee.  I like the idea for anyone that is interested to slowly improve upon their collection while playing at the same time, but for now I will refrain from doing so simply because of time constraints.  Owning a website comes with many benefits, but unfortunately also with tons of work.  I do suggest that anyone interested to learn more about those events asks Ranth for more details.  It is a lot of fun for sure.

I also feel that the 1 hour limit per week is a bit to restrictive and will probably switch to a bit more flexible schedule.  If I feel there is a good time to act in the market I don’t want to be hindered by artificial time limits – “Oh yeah, that would be an amazing deal, but I already used the 1 hour this week….”

Okay, enough small talk.  Let’s dive into session #2.  This time my main focus was the to get rid of my Rise of Eldrazi cards as quick as possible.  Common knowledge dictates that after a new set releases the cards lose value faster than outdated lottery tickets.  I started by scanning the classified again for “Freebots.”  Last time I was missing one of them and managed to get 64 more commons.  Yuppie!

Scanning the classifieds for a bit made me aware of “Caliban” and his offer to sell regular and foil promos.  What stood out for me was the foil Comet Storm he was offering for 1.5 tickets.  I knew that Comet Storms are used in block and thought I should try to make a deal that involved only one of my tickets and use the commons I have to sweeten the pot.

We haggled a bit and after I offered him all of my brand new RoE commons/uncommons that did not include any chase cards and one ticket he agreed and I got the foil Comet Storm.

Now the danger you are in when trading for “high value” mythics is always that you get stuck with them for a while and don’t have much trade material.  My top priority was to flip the Storm as fast as possible for either tickets or a few popular rares I can use to facilitate more trades.  To increase my chances to find a buyer I immediately went to the auction room.  You can access the room buy typing:”/join auction” in any chat window.  Usually you will find a bunch of regulars there that buy and sell cards, but more often then not it’s just a chat room with folks hanging out.  I offered the foil Storm for trade and it took only a few minutes to find an interested player.  Unfortunately he did not have much for trade.  Fortunately he was willing to buy the card for 3 Event Tickets.

That was the last trade I was able to make before time ran out.  As mentioned earlier, I will be a bit more flexible with the time from now on and take opportunities as they arise.  As the value increases I will have more opportunities I can take advantage of.  The start is always a bit slow, but hopefully we will be able to progress faster as we move forward.

We are concluding with the current content of the collection and the value as indicated by bot buying(!) prices.

Current value of collection according to bot buy prices: 7.3 event tickets.

Take care everyone and see you next time hopefully with some exciting deals!

Marin: Plejades