COUNTERFEIT MAGIC IS A THING?

Words are floating around about a Chinese company counterfeiting magic cards. Words are also floating around that there’s a few places in the United States are under investigation for making counterfeit cards. Whatever is going on with the counterfeiters, they need to stop. Because if people buy these counterfeit cards and try to play at an event host by wizards, they could be banned and or just have the cards taken away (not 100% on that part but from what I’ve read, it’s a possibility).

Here are just a few ways you can test out the cards for it being fake or not. One of the cool ways you can find out is using a black light. The real card would appear luminescent as part of the property of the card-stock they are printed on, where the fake one would not luminate. This probably doesn’t work every time because the counterfeiters have gotten better with making it look like the real thing even under a black light.

Another neat way of checking for fakes is the light test. It’s where you take the card and hold it near a strong bright light bulb. If the card is easily readable from the back then it’s a fake, where the real one has a blue filament in the middle of the card that would only allow so much light through the card. So this could go either way.

There are a number of other ways to tall if its fake but in order to do those test, you got to have a lot of guts to do it. Such as the bend test to see if it will crease easily, and tear the card in half to see if there’s the blue filament in the middle of the card. Me for one will not do the tear test because if it’s the real thing, then I screwed myself out of having or owing that card.

One more thing to find out if the card is a fake is he artwork on the card. Because if it looks like cartoon characters or video game characters, its definitely a fake, Especially if it has ridiculous abilities in the flavor box.

What would you do with counterfeit cards if you ever come across one?

Leave comments of your thoughts.

Thanks for reading my blog.

THE INVENTORY BUILD

I’ve decided that I was going to inventory my collection onto the computer just because I have an OCD thing about it and I want to keep track of my cards a little better. I would do excel spreadsheet with them but I haven’t done a spreadsheet since jr high school, plus they are a pain for me to figure out how to use (plus I don’t even have excel on my computer, I think). If anyone wants to help then be my guest.

My original idea for me to do this is because of the Google + community full of Magic the Gathering players. The community is very helpful in helping other people without being a troll or a goblin about it (except for a certain person that can’t be named). I’m still kind of shaky with the idea of doing this because I’m afraid the outcome wouldn’t be good. In fact I almost scrapped the idea entirely and just do an inventory for myself. There was a part of me that wants to just go through with it and see what happens.

For my idea of even doing the inventory is to let the community help me build a deck (standard of course) that I can use for FNM or open trials. All the credits will go to whoever helps build the deck. I will put some input in it as well, not going to be one of those guys that make the other people do their work for them. I had a couple of positive feedback about it when I posted the idea, so hopefully it will still work out like I hope.

I will post the list in google doc for my inventory, because that seems to be the best way for everyone to see the list without it messing up the format. I am also open for trades on a lot the cards listed as well, just ask me and we will go from there. I have a wish list on deckbox.org of what I’m looking for as well. Worst thing that could happen is me saying no.

CLICK HERE to see the list. Let me know in the comments or you can email me by going onto my Google + <--click that and look at my about tab to find the email there. If it gets to argumentive between people, I’m going to put a stop to it.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Is this a good idea or a bad idea? Let me know In the comments.

EXCITEMENT…FOR NOTHING…

Ever do a booster draft or just buy booster packs and get excited about certain cards that you got in the booster pack? Ever find out that certain card you got excited about you already had multiple of? Not that it happened to me, but it happened to me last week.

Now you feel weird for getting excited about those cards you’ve gotten, as long as no one else knows and maybe you can come up with a story behind it which is somewhat true but not really, should anyone find out.

When you have a vast collection like most magic players do (if not all of them), you tend to forget some of the cards you have already in your collection. It happens to me all the time. It probably happens to other players too that has been playing since it came out in ’93 or recent years. Best thing to do is either sell off the many multiple you have or trade them for other cards you could really use in vintage, legacy, modern, EDH, or standard.

It’s a weird moment when you open your box of magic cards and (I don’t know if anyone else does this) go to where the manna cost order you need to put the card in, and find 4 or 5 or even 11 of the same card that you somehow forgot you have, simply because you have multiple decks with the same card and have no use for the ones sitting in your box. Like I said before, not that it happened to me, but it happened to me last week.

What’s the one card you got excited about and forgot you have multiple copies of the same card?

Please leave a comment and thanks for reading my blog.

TRADING FAITH

          Trading is a topic I have talked about before, but this one is different. Since the EXTRA!.....EXTRA! Blog has been posted I’ve been trading with other players, through pucatrade.com and the wonderful people at the Magic the gathering community board on Google +.

          Normally I don’t trade with other players other than my brother in law, just because I fear I might get ripped off, but I gave it a try. It’s mostly form the website and the community right now, still hasn’t done it at my LGS.  The players at my LGS seem friendly enough but looks are deceiving. 

          I’ve gotten a Planeswalker and some sliver cards so far, and few more still coming in the mail. The sliver cards I got from the person who sent it to me had put some extra sliver cards in the envelope  with the one I was asking for (in protective hard card sleeve of course). Found out from someone else about that it is pretty much normal for someone to do that, which I think is a really cool thing to do.

          This tells me that the magic communities are full of great people. It really opened me up some more to the idea of trading with other players in person. Thanks MTG Google+ community and pucatrade.com for opening me up some more to start getting rid of the extras or card I have no use for to other people who needs the cards more than me.

          How often do you trade? Do you trade by the need of the card or the value of the card?

          Thanks for reading my blog, please comment your thoughts.

If you are interested in my trade and want list I will post a link for it.

Card trade list ß----link

EXTRA!.....EXTRA!

There comes a time in a magic player’s life where they will have tons of extra cards of the same name. What would you do with the extras? Where would you put them? Probably by this point you would have multiple decks with those same name cards in it, what more can you do with it from there? Sideboard? Nah, they are full. Leave them in the deck box? Nah it’s taking up too much space. What to do? What to do?

One of the first things a player would do is either try to sell them their LGS or trade them with other players for one of their cards. Trading cards is a fun thing to do without spending any type of money. Saving money is better than spending it all, especially if you are broke, and unemployed. A lot of players go by value rather than what they really need for their decks. There are also players who trade just to get the cards they need for their decks. The trade is only good if both players walk away happy with their cards, unless one had second thoughts and would want the card back. Most cases once the player makes a trade, they won’t trade back.

Buying from other players is probably not a good idea. It’s always better to buy from your local game, at least then you be buying them for what they are worth, not the attachment value the player has with the cards. Buying from the local game shop is a better way to go because it helps the economy and gets more players to come to the shop because of a particular card some of the players sold to them.

Selling to your local game shop is also a good way to go, only because they will pay you as close to the price worth for the cards as they can. You can either get cash for them or store credit for them. Either way is good because most likely you know he shop well and the shop knows you, you’d go there often enough to use the store credits or anything in the store.

What do you do with your extra cards?

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