These are some simple steps Tht I use to increase my magic find and I will kill some rumors!

On diablo 2 lod the easiest and fastest way to magic find is to do Trav (council) and frigid Highlands. You can do these in a minute and get some good items. I have recieved high runes and almost every item from doing this over and over.

All the others (bosses) are good to do to but takes to much time. When doing frigid run up at waypoint and kill the monsters right in that area the run down and kill shrenk.

Trav draw them out of the council area. I seem to get better items this way.

Magic find % dont have a whole lot to do with unique drops. I get the same quality Uniques when I run about 400 mf as i do when i run 0. When i have 400 mf on i usually get lots of blue items. But Uniques drop when they want. 

Before you build your character you should know exactly what kind you are gonna make. Look at the elite gear that you want and only put enough str. and dex. to use all the items you want when finished. this way you can add lots of life.  Dont waste any that you dont need to.

A great mf set up for a pally that still leaves him strong. Hammer type. Is Heart of th oak, Call to Arms, Hoz, Spirit (like in a zak sheild) shako, Pnagel, soj, arachs, maras, enigma archon  This is a good set up to mf with of course you want a few 7 mf sc and 20 life sc. Gheeds and all that. Torch and anni.

Also if someone tells you what ip address or server the ubber diablo is gonna be on go to you start menu go to run. Type in command. When dos screen comes up type in   netstat -n this will give you a list of all current ip addresses being used by you. look for the one with that ends in 4000 the 3 numbers before that are the server you are on. You must do this why in a game!...   Just hang out a little then leave the game keep doing this till your number is what they told you it was.

SOH = Everyone will tell you what they do. LOL They do nothing yet. It has something to do with when the ladder ends and thats all. we will find out then what they do. But i would say have a few on you to see what happens. May be good.

Buying items = look guys diablo web sites are way over priced dont buy from them or waste your time. and stay away from people that charge way to much for items. Like 19.99 for a freaking tal set. these items come and go and if you are good you wont use tals long anyway. The best way to buy and cheapest is to look for a mule thats for sell with several items you need. Ive seen mules with lots of godlies go for 5.00 somedays and other days it goes for 30.00 so if you catch it right and read it good you could load up with alot of items for cheap. Look for accounts that have alot to offer if its just a bunch of items worth less than pul like < guardian angel, jalals, occy, stuff like that. dont pay for these you can trade way to easy for these items and your gonna find out that your paying all that for 1 or 2 items that you will use and then have abunch of crap that you cant even trade.

Look for runewords or high uniques. Look at the quality how close to perfect are the stats, look for maras, soj, p bks, upped items like upped hoz or  gores. these items have good value and will keep alot of the value when you go to non ladder at the end of the season. that way if you only play ladder you can get some one to buy it all. or keep it.

Good luck all and look foreward to seeing you all on the game. i know alot of this is common knowledge but Lets keep it simple. To many cons out there are making things to hard and no fun.