Standard players: What's your strategy for unloading rotating money cards?

[Meddling Mike]

So, a little background information:

When I first started playing Magic in 2001, I did what most people getting into the game do. I played in booster drafts and slowly acquired the cards necessary to build a standard deck. I didn't really know what I was doing other than what Rich Shay told me what deck to build and never really developed a plan to deal with rotations and was constantly getting burned by the value of my cards falling off a cliff after they rotated out of standard. In 2004 Vintage was exploding, I got on the bandwagon and played that almost exclusively along with weekly booster drafts up until recently. Because the Vintage scene had died down I decided to expand into other formats. I figured out that I could build a competitive Infect deck for ~$40. Given the cheapness of the deck I wrote off any value loss from the card rotation as negligible. I developed a taste for the format and decided I wanted to stick with it post rotation. So, I just dumped ~$200 on ebay for the cards for a R/B zombie deck that appealed to me. The problem is that about $150 of those cards are from Dark Ascension and will rotate out once the next block rotates in and Innistrad rotates out. I can't say for certain, but I'd expect Falkenrath Aristocrats, Geralf's Messengers and Gravecrawlers will not hold their value well once they've rotated out of standard. I know none of them currently see significant play in Eternal, which bodes ill for their long term value.

So, what's the right time to unload cards to recoup a significant portion of my investment with a rotation looming? How does the standard PTQ season factor into your decision making? Do you switch to an archetype with fewer rotating money rares as the rotation approaches?

[KrauserKrauser]

Messengers and Gravecrawlers will have some bouyancy from Modern.  Aristocrat not as much.

Right after or near the release of the last set is a good time to unload, especially if there is a Standard PTQ season coming up.

[Bill Copes]

My bad solution:

Play the first half of the season with Deck A.  When sets come out and you get a sense of what will be played when the rotation happens (Deck B), sell out Deck A and start acquiring cards for B.  Play vintage in the meantime.

My good solution:

Just play vintage with us on Tuesdays.  Forget these petty formats of which you speak.

[Samoht]

Basically, your best bet is to sell while the card is hot. It basically means you're always playing tier 2 decks unless the rotation will unaffect the top deck, which is very rare. I would definitely look to sell out the previous years block at the pre-release/release of the third set, and definitely before the Core set comes out. Many players are also willing to trade for things as they are rotating. I moved a bunch of Mirridon Swords and Elesh Norn's towards some Vintage cards that are normally proxied a few months before they rotated. It just takes timing, patience, and connections.