My God! Look at the Price!

[Xenophon]

I just looked at the price of Mana Drain on Anycraze (yes, it's outrageously overpriced but their prices do rise and fall with the real values), and it's risen by 50% in the last couple of weeks.  What the heck happened?  Why is it suddenly so much more expensive???

Note to mods: I'm sorry if I'm violating rules, I just know I can come to TMD to get answers I trust.  Lock this once it's been answered if you what?

[Jebus]

As far as I recall, all the major commercial sites have been selling them that high for some time.

You can still get them cheaper through other outlets, such as Ebay.

[SimpleHiker]

There price is still cheaper then some other online dealers at 150ea. I just broke down last week and eBay a set of drains. 3 of the 4 auctions I won were against anycraze. So basically they buy the drains on eBay for 90-110. (Yes, some auctions with 2x+ drains at once are going over 200 bucks.) Then marking them up for people to dumb to use eBay.

Funny thing was I checked there site last week when I was bidding against them. They had drains for 95 with free shipping. Well that price wasn't too bad against eBay. I quickly received a note saying they were out of stock, I would have to wait and they could possibly charge me more if it cost them more to acquire the cards.

If people are dumb enough to keep buying from dealers that just buy off eBay, drain prices are going to keep rising.

SH

[Jacob Orlove]

Moved to basic community.

[Xenophon]

Yep, you guys are right.  Devious little bastards, anycraze.  I hate 'em.  Thanks for answering the question though.

[savekeeper]

A quick question since I'm about to buy my first pieces of power ( if all goes right) and some other high priced cards :

Are the prices on MOTL accurate as a general guideline?

If not, what is?

[dicemanx]

MOTL prices are just a compilation of ebay final prices.

This means you have to factor in things like:

1) Condition
2) Shipping costs + other hidden fees
3) Standard deviation (look an the n value for sample size particularly)

For the P9, the price has been in flux for the past year or so, making it difficult to guage what is a good deal. It's my personal opinion that prices will keep going up, especially for alpha/beta power, so any purchase based on MOTL prices right now is perfectly fine.

[MarkPharaoh]

There is also a thing called GenCon in two weeks which are making prices increase

For Power and hid end OOPS, don't use MOTl, it's not precise enough.  You have to do your own research by looking at eBays completed items, look at the prices AND condition (MOTL doesn't check this)

[Addolorisi]

Don't forget about seller feedback. That's also a huge factor.

[MarkPharaoh]

I don't mind too much about low feedback, just make them ship a certain way (Registered, Tracking Number, that sort of thing).

[Addolorisi]

I'm not talking about any sort of personal preference. The fact is that low seller feedback results in drastically lower ending bids on high end cards.

[orgcandman]

Another factor to take into account is the global economy. As Europeans start to play more and more, the price of power will only increase due to the fact that the dollar is weaker than the euro.
 Also, one way of getting cheaper cards, such as power and drains, etc.. is to get lower quality condition. If you find someone with a played to hell drain selling it for $50-$70 and it's english, there's almost no reason not to take that deal, as to get a drain even off ebay now (as has been mentioned before) is 90-110 for english. The card does has the same effect whether or not it's creased or has a white border
 As seemingly odd as this may sound, there will always be people looking to get out of the game. The reason I say this is because they usually want to just get rid of their cards and "move on" with life. I bought a huge collection including 3 beta sinkholes, tons of dark/arabian cards AND an unl. mox sapphire for about $300 USD. This was about 3 months ago. The kid just wanted to get out, and valued his mox at ~$250 USD. I told him, "I'll give you $65 more for the rest of your cards" and he agreed. Certainly I made out on that deal, but he did too in that he got rid of his cards (his goal) and made money quickly and easily. I'm not saying that's the norm, just that people who are selling off big name cards are generally trying to just get out of the game. They'll let go of a lot of good cards for cheap.
 Finally, most people have a set amount of money they spend each week on magic. The best way to acquire T1 cards is to decide you're going to play T1 a lot more and have your weekly budget become a monthly budget. Packs cost ~$3.75 USD. If you normally buy 2-3 packs a week, and stop, you're saving ~$50 a month. With $50 you can probably find a beat to hell drain to pick up. After 3 months, you'll be able to pick up a library or workshop. Perhaps you're not building a workshop deck, but someone else will be. They'll gladly trade away the excess forces/yawgwills/necro/duals, etc.. to get that workshop. It's all a matter of being aware of a situation where you can both get what you want.
Aaron

[Frappie]

The best way to pick up power is to go to a dealer at a show/ search ebay, for the most beat condition piece they have. if you ask a dealer you always say "whats the most beat to shit piece you got?" thats how i got most of mine. but you also got to shop all the dealers to see who is giving the best deals. I have also found that winning tournaments is a good way of getting power, but im a loser so who knows?

[MarkPharaoh]

The card does has the same effect whether or not it's creased or has a white border

Getting called on for marked sleeves sucks..

[Tank]

yeah, but marked sleeves and a piece of beat-up cardboard aren't the same things- as long as the card is inside new sleeves in a newly-sleeved deck, its condition dosen't matter (unless it's bent in such a way that it stands out compared to the other cards in the deck, which is extremely rare, even for busted-up cards...)

[Stupid_Newb]

People gave been selling Drains at insane prices lately. This past weekend at a PTQ one of the dealers had two Italian Drains in probably NM-- condition for $85 a piece! Thats easily double what you could've found them for a few months back.

[MarkPharaoh]

lol, Tank, if you play a lot, you would have to be changing your sleeves a lot to keep the creases from showing, I know from personal experience.