MTGO and eBay

eBay is a rich source of MTGO items, with an active market of buyers and sellers participating in hundreds of MTGO-related listings at any given time. For the first time user, this can be daunting. I hope to offer some advice to both the buyers and sellers to assist them in navigating this marketplace.

Summary

For those not willing to browse through the lengthy text, a quick guide:

- look for fixed price bargains in eBay stores, not just in auctions
- consider purchasing sets on eBay as they can be a prudent financial decision in the long run
- drafters: get your tickets on eBay but exercise caution just as with any online purchases
- competitive players: use prices on eBay and compare them with other dealer sites to get the best prices
- casual players: purchasing sets in bulk can offer you more savings, both time-wise and money-wise

For Buyers

I believe that there are a few archetypes of MTGO players, much like there are different deck archetypes in competitive play. Therefore, knowing which profile fits you best will allow you to find the best way to give you the most bang for your buck.

But first off: the basics. MTGO has its own eBay category under Magic: the Gathering where you are able to locate most of the listings that are available. Most people, however, leave out the eBay stores that are set up specially for MTGO items at a fixed price. When looking for something, do remember to browse through the store listings as well. There are many bargains which are usually missed out.

Building a Collection

Many players focus on the price tag and search for the lowest price as the deciding factor in making a purchase. Afterall, cards are largely homogenous goods; there isn't even any conditions concerns in choosing the right cards.

However, if your budget is not too tight, you can consider purchasing sets rather than singles. Sets often go for a good price; sometimes you could purchase a set, sell off the ones you don't want and end up paying less than normally would. But the main draw would be this; if you ever decide to sell out, purchasing in sets will make the process much easier (and this goes not just for complete full sets, but also uncommon sets and common sets as well). Many owners of a sizable collection often encounter a dilemna when deciding to sell out. Piecing out to sell could mean that they earn more, but not much more compared to the effort they spend; while selling it wholesale means that they could lose out of some of the value that their collection holds.

If your collection is largely made up of sizable sets, you could sell them out neatly and regain a very high percentage of your initial investment. Sets devalue less than pricey singles; you get access to alot of cards without having to constantly be on the hunt for them and your collection holds its value well over time. At the time of writing redemption is not functional as yet; but should it be up, you will have another option easily available to you: to convert your online collection to a virtual one without having to fork out anything more than the shipping that WoTC charges you.

The final choice is up to you. Purchasing sets is a good thing for the collectors and the value conscious in terms of card-hunting and options when deciding to quit; but for the budget constrained players they may opt to instead go for the singles that they need.

Drafters

Pure drafters require two items: packs and tickets. Packs to draft and tickets to buy the packs and draft too. Many players reside in countries where they are subjected to sales tax whenever they purchase directly from WoTC. Therefore, for these players, it makes sense for them to purchase directly from eBay

On eBay, listings of packs are not as frequent enough as pack prices are very tight. Probably the best way would be to purchase tickets on eBay; there are plenty of ticket listings; then buy the packs off the Classified board in MTGO.

Being the currency in MTGO, event tickets have a floating exchange rate to the US dollar. 100 ticket lots usually go for between $80 to $88, though there are variations on either end of the range.

When buying tickets, the same basic rule apply. Try to go for sellers with an established record of dealing in event tickets, and be wary of brand new sellers or those with negative feedback in recent periods. There have been a couple of scams related to event tickets; one seller was scamming WoTC directly and offloading the tickets on eBay; while there have been a few cases of bot owners selling "credits" on their bots claiming that they can take tickets off these bots. Stick to reliable sellers who sell just the tickets, no frills attached.

Drafters will also need to offload the cards that they have drafted in order to fund pack purchases. I believe that if they would be better served selling them ingame for tickets, leaving only the less sought after cards (foil rares, uncommon/common sets) for eBay.

Constructed Players (Competitive)

Competitive players require the best new singles on the market for their decks. While there are many listings for singles, it may be very difficult to construct a competitive deck based on eBay listings alone; they may have to purchase them from dealers or from within the game itself in order to complete their decks on time for that Premier event. Of course, it does not hurt to have a browse and compare the prices to those of dealers.

Competitive players can offload the spoils of their events (which are packs) within the game itself, for tickets. If there is a need to cash out, selling tickets on eBay would prove to be the wiser choice as there is a higher demand along with ultimately a better price. Buyers will not usually pay more than the full retail for booster packs. In addition, unless you have plenty of packs which you will be combining in a single listing, the fees levied by eBay for selling small quantities can be more costly than, say, selling batches of 100 event tickets at once.

Constructed Players (Casual)

Casual players often go for cards that are cheaper and of a larger variety. Purchasing sets (full sets, uncommons sets or commons sets depending on the format the player plays in) can be the correct way to go. With the announcement of PDC being the newest supported format (Peasant Deck, an all-commons format), common playsets will prove to be very useful. Players who participate in the Singleton formats require one copy of each card, and they can obtain this most efficiently via complete sets. Other casual players who want access to a large range of cards cheaply and quickly can pick up complete playsets to achieve this.

It all depends on what kind of decks you like to build. If you find yourself constantly searching for cards rather than building and playing, you may consider purchasing in bulk to maximize your playing time.

Conclusion

eBay is a useful tool which you can use to manage your collection effectively, saving money and time. Considering your deckbuilding and playing needs and casting your search-net wider are both ways in which you can achieve this.