My "magic backpack"

[LotusHead]

I just figured out how to get my MTG Familiar app to get prices on foils and particular editions of magic cards (but not promos so far).

While doodling away, my playable pile of goodness came out to $13,500 that I regularily carry around in my backpack.

That is 4-6 Vintage decks with lots of proxies in most (but 2-3 are 10-15 proxy range) plus fun decks, modern and T2.

I was shocked, but many eternal staples (Blue Duals, Wasteland, Blue Fetchland, TIMETWISTER) have skyrocketed lately.

But I never really did inventory like this before.

So, what's in your wallet/backpack?

(not meant to be a bragging thread (but Bring it if you want), but I didn't really realized that a semi-powered player like myself really carried around this kind of stuff.)

I didn't include anything less that say, $3 cards.  Just the moneyish playables.

Wow.

I know that a few years ago (when Vacaville started having Vintage for Cash, some of us estimated that a particular guy had a deck probably worth 40K.  That was 2-3 years ago. 

My mind is blown.

(full disclosure: my cards are mostly beat to shit, so -20% at least to that total value I posted)

[xouman]

I don't have a magic backpack. I have several shoeboxes filled with cards (some playables, some not, most of them interesting cards that cannot make it), but I just bring the 75 deck plus 10-50 cards to tournaments, and never trade cards. And the value of those ~100 cards could be between 300$ (elves, budget monored) to probably more than 5000$ between P9 and duals/fetchlands. But here in Barcelona everybody owns P9, so I'm always one of the players with cheapest deck. Some players have a backpack that easily goes over 10k. There are Beta near mint signed P9s lots of foil and black border... People love Magic, for sure

[Choke]

I don't have a magic packback for tournaments. For tournaments I usually bring my deck, at maximum another deck or a few cards I'm lending out and accessoires like playmat, dice, as well as a book for the train ride. I can't be bothered to even bring my tradebinder anymore, since I'd rather buy and sell via Magiccardmarket. At tournaments I'd rather spend my time hanging out with other players and watch games than deal with sharks and #mtgfinance people.

If I meet with my local casual group, well, then it's a backpack stuffed with 5-6 60 card fun decks, sometimes highlander decks as well as legacy decks for playtesting as well as my trade/salesbinder, but at those occasions there are only people around I trust.

[JPoJohnson]

When I go to tournaments I bring a satchel bag that carries at most 2 decks + sideboard (2 legacy or 2 modern typically) for whichever event I'm going for. At most, in this case, I would be carrying 4-5k (TES+Miralces or what have you). I've never priced out my collection or main decks, so that would be fun and interesting to do. I might have to check up on that and see how it is. I mostly play legacy (just getting into Vintage) and with all those staples skyrocketing lately it would definitely be interesting to see where it sits at.

[TheWhiteDragon]

I priced out my collection at about $14K in 2011 and sold for $13K...today easily worth 20K.  At the time I used to carry my binder to trade and my deck, so probably had about $10K on me at any given tourney.  Now I bought back in to limited extent and just carry 3 decks...a modern worth $100, a modern worth $1000, and a vintage/legacy deck worth about $4000 (and not even blue or shops).  Crazy to be porting around $5K in just 3 decks (2 decks really), but its inevitable if you play in cardboard tourneys.

[H]

Adding everything up is EXHAUSTING, but I was really curious, because I lose track of prices and values once I have owned things a while.

I usually go to my local shop with 1 Vintage deck (no proxies), 1 Legacy deck, 1 Modern deck, 1 EDH deck, plus all my Plancechase planes.

Just the Vintage deck (mostly foil) and foiled out Rhys EDH is over 17,000 dollars.  I usually run a different Legacy deck each week and I just refuse to add up a Modern deck, but I think it is pretty safe to say that if I am at my local shop, my bag is worth at least 20 grand and maybe over 25 depending on the week.

I can only imagine how much I carried around when I lived in NY, since I would usually have 6-7 EDH deck on me with everything else.  When I go to large events, I only carry one deck in a small bag and some supplies though, since I am paranoid.

As an aside, I once left my 1 proxy (Mox Jet) Dragon deck on the table after a round at Brother's Grimm in NY.  I walked out to my car, got half way and decided to check if I had everything.  I ran back in and there was my deck box just sitting on a table with nothing around it, literally no one withing 15 feet of it.  Whew.

I can only imagine how much this whole collection I have is worth now...

[worstbandnameever]

I recently insured my collection and it's certainly worth more than my take home pay for the year after taxes, dues, fees, etc.

I think my bag varies a lot.  If I go to play standard with friends, I borrow decks and just bring dice.  To local legacy events, I bring one legacy deck that varies from $1,500-$3,500.  For Vintage, I bring no -proxy mud stax and a some proxy oath deck.

I do get nervous driving to the local p lay group with 2 vintages decks and 2-4 legacy decks though.

[AmbivalentDuck]

These days, the Vintage decks are nowhere near as bad as the EDH decks. I proxy everything my playgroup will let me. In Vintage, that's ten cards. Doomsday with ten proxies isn't too bad...maybe...$1k? What kills me is EDH. I bought in back before prices skyrocketed and I bought things I knew would go up: ie. Crypts, Drains, Ravages of War, Temporal Manipulation, Beta versions of staples. So I'll pull out Maelstrom Wanderer...there goes $5k ignoring the foils (ie. Judge Foil Regrowth was only $20 when I bought it).

Every time I walk down the street with 4 EDH decks in my backpack, I wonder why I have an easily-stolen car strapped to my back.

[zimagic]

These days, the Vintage decks are nowhere near as bad as the EDH decks. I proxy everything my playgroup will let me. In Vintage, that's ten cards. Doomsday with ten proxies isn't too bad...maybe...$1k? What kills me is EDH. I bought in back before prices skyrocketed and I bought things I knew would go up: ie. Crypts, Drains, Ravages of War, Temporal Manipulation, Beta versions of staples. So I'll pull out Maelstrom Wanderer...there goes $5k ignoring the foils (ie. Judge Foil Regrowth was only $20 when I bought it).

Every time I walk down the street with 4 EDH decks in my backpack, I wonder why I have an easily-stolen card strapped to my back.

What do you use to track the value of your decks/cards? Just trawl for whatever prices you're looking for at a given time or do you have an automated way of tracking your collection? If I'm not watching specifically, I don't notice things like Regrowth jumping to $40 or Foil Coalition Relic jumping to $60.

Tappedout does a low/avg/high price guide based of TCGplayer prices but doesn't take into account editions, foils or condition. It can't account for your deck containing Regrowth @ $40, not $2 or Brainstorm @ $250*, not $3.


*Insane price for a foil common, even in pre-large-print-run times.

[bactgudz]

These days, the Vintage decks are nowhere near as bad as the EDH decks. I proxy everything my playgroup will let me. In Vintage, that's ten cards. Doomsday with ten proxies isn't too bad...maybe...$1k? What kills me is EDH. I bought in back before prices skyrocketed and I bought things I knew would go up: ie. Crypts, Drains, Ravages of War, Temporal Manipulation, Beta versions of staples. So I'll pull out Maelstrom Wanderer...there goes $5k ignoring the foils (ie. Judge Foil Regrowth was only $20 when I bought it).

Every time I walk down the street with 4 EDH decks in my backpack, I wonder why I have an easily-stolen card strapped to my back.

What do you use to track the value of your decks/cards? Just trawl for whatever prices you're looking for at a given time or do you have an automated way of tracking your collection? If I'm not watching specifically, I don't notice things like Regrowth jumping to $40 or Foil Coalition Relic jumping to $60.

Tappedout does a low/avg/high price guide based of TCGplayer prices but doesn't take into account editions, foils or condition. It can't account for your deck containing Regrowth @ $40, not $2 or Brainstorm @ $250*, not $3.


*Insane price for a foil common, even in pre-large-print-run times.

deckbox.org is pretty good

[H]

Yeah, I used DeckBox, but it doesn't let you specify edition when you add a card to a deck either.

I wish they had a way to enter cards that was essentially a form for each set where I could just put the numbers in for each card and then submit.

Also, their prices are sometimes off.  It told me my foil Darien was worth the same as my non-foil.

[Wagner]

I did the math 2-3 years back before everything skyrocketed and I had about 12k, I'm guessing I'm more around 15k now.

I have 40 unlimited dual lands, 20 revised ones, 30 fetch lands, 8 drains and 15 pieces of power, plus most staples for Vintage decks, but none of the Legacy big cards (Show and Tell, Tabernacle and others).

I'm always temped to sell all of it, but since I don't really need the money, and that it probably will just keep going up for a bit, I'm just letting it gather dust as I'm not very active in the scene anymore. I do sell a couple of cards whenever there is a GP around since the stores usually offer pretty good prices.

What the.... Timetwister is worth how much? I got three of those and no one would buy them at $250 a few years back.

I usually carry most of it in my bag, but I'm very careful with it and check the content very frequently.


Actually, anyone can give me a price estimation for the 40 unl duals, assuming a all in good Good condition (noticeable whitening, no tears).

[NiRVeS]

I work for an insurance company. I'm on the IT-side of things (notably, I'm a business analyst working on BI), so I'm far from an expert on the subject, but it does mean I got to learn a few things about insurances which most people don't care about, and it sort of taints my view on certain aspects of life.

E.g., when going to a tournament by car, I actually started worrying about what to bring along. Because you see, when you crash your car on the way there, the car itself and the physical welbeing of you and your passengers (which obviously eclipses the value of any worldly possession) are fully covered. Your stuff, however, is "only" covered up to € 2500 (at least, that is the standard here, and for a host a reasons which surpass the scope of this post, there is little to no differentiation when it comes to car insurances on the Belgian market). So when you go on your average holiday, a suitcase full of clothing, a regular camera, basic laptop and some general niceties will easily be covered in case bad stuff happens. But given the current prices of Eternal staples, I would hardly be able to cover the loss of just my Legacy deck with that amount of indemnity payment. Not to mention what happens when we make the 8h trek to BoM, with 3-4 people each carrying a Legacy deck, a (powered) Vintage deck, sometimes a Modern deck (which has also became retardedly expensive) and a binder full of staples because we're all idiots who think switching decks or reconstructing our entire sideboard the night before the tournament is a recipe for succes. Oh of course a cube and half a dozen EDH-decks, because why not.

I also sometimes look at my cabinet full of Magic cards, and wonder if it's really a good idea to keep well over 15k euros worth of cards anywhere else than in a secured safe. I don't own much when it comes to furniture, but just the single shelf with my "tournament stuff" probably eclipses all other belongings in my appartment. And even though I made sure to explicitely mention them in my property insurance contract, I'm pretty sure I'd have a really difficult time fully recouping the lost "vaue" of those in the off chance it all goes up in flames some day.

So yeah, you're certainly not the only one who worries about carrying around these insane amounts of cardboard value. To mitigate this a bit, I've stopped carrying around my binders of playables when I go to events, instead taking the time to construct a single 4-card-per-page binder with cards I intend to lend out, trade, or might need for last minute decisions with regards to my deck/sideboard. As is, for most Legacy events, I'll be carrying around 1 deck (worth 1-3k euros, depending on what I'm playing) and a binder with somewhere between 200 and 600 euros worth of cards to trade/lend out/maybe use. For vintage, I'm often carrying around 2 decks these days (we have difficulties getting enough players for our events, so I'm basically always lending out a deck with the power/expensive staples I'm not using myself to someone, just to try and get people interested), so we're probably talking between 4k and 6k right there

However, sometimes things do get out of hand. Taking this year's BoM9 as an extreme example:

-1 Legacy Miracles deck. 5 revised blue duals, 10 fetches, 4 Jace, 4 (german) FoW,...nothing too pimped out. 2500 euros?
-1 Modern BWr brew. 8 fetches, 4 Bitterblossom, 4 Thoughtseize, 4 Liliana, bunch of planeswalkers and other €5-€10 cards. Pretty sure this reaches €1500 too these days.
-1 Vintage Doomsday deck. As far as vintage goes, this is not that bad, I guess: 3 moxen (although the 3 most expensive ones), BLotus, Recall, Walk, 4 (revised) Underground Sea, 2 Tropical, 4 FoW, 4 Delta, 4 Misty, some moderate pimp (beta Demonic, beta rituals, german Vamp, judge foil flusterstorms, that sorta thing)...you know, that still seems pretty bad, actually. €4000?
-1 binder with approx. 500 euros of cards to lend out / have available as deckbuilding options.
-3 EDH-decks of which I have no clue about the current value. They don't contain fetches/duals though, and contain no pimp whatsoever, so it can't be that bad, right? Ok, given the rate these types of cards go for these days, it might actually be pretty bad. I really don't know.
-1 beta Mox Sapphire I was selling for a friend. €1000 euros.
-1 sealed display of Tempest which I was selling for a friend. €500.

So...10k (euros) worth of cards, not counting EDH decks or any other of my belongings, traveling at 300 km/h through France (we went by train, in case you think we're racecar drivers or soemthing). I'm pretty sure this qualfies me as a complete nutcase. Time to get myself checked in, I guess.

Tom

[boxian]

Deckbox.org, as someone else mentioned, is probably the fastest way to get a ball park of what the deck is worth. It's no longer linked to TCG Player pricing or anything else though and has it's own economy, so it can be a bit off, but is still a good overview.

The other site to knock out an overview of your cards on is mtgprice.com which has a collection tracker deal, but I haven't always had the easiest time uploading my collection into it. TCGPlayer also has a collection management thing and if you have bought cards from them in the past few months, they will show you your collection so that you can know - that's a nice tool sometimes too.

Honestly, I've stopped looking at the price of the stuff once I have it because I don't intend to sell it and I want to keep good care of it no matter what. I am keeping an inventory in a spreadsheet that has language, edition, etc so that when I get to having it insured, I can have and demand a better rate since most of the value tracking websites do a poor job tracking either foils or foreign cards or both.

[Varal]

It should be noted that insurance varies a lot between countries and sometimes inside countries. In Canada and United States the goods inside your cars are covered by your home insurance and not your car insurance. There's often a limit to the coverage of damage outside your house or not in your care. Usually collectibles like cards have low limits, $2000-$4000, for theft and mysterious disappearance but will be fully covered for other perils like fire. Different standards of proof of ownership can applies and valuation methods of cards can vary. If the total value of your goods is above your insurance limit, you might only get a fraction of the lost amount. Eg. you have $200 000 goods insurance limit for $200 000 in goods but also a $100 000 card collection. You're considered underinsured and might only get around 75% of the value of lost goods.

[tito del monte]

This is an interesting subject and one that was definitely on my mind recently when travelling to GP Paris. The event was staged in a pretty sketchy area of Paris and I was packing stuff for both Legacy and Vintage. As I was stuffing decks and other cards in my suitcase, I began to feel stressed out about the value of the stuff I was lugging with me, just to play a game; ostensibly just to have fun.

That stress has actually started to detract from the fun for me now. I'm sure I'll still be rocking up to the occasional big European vintage event, but I'm going to have to slim down what I take - no more taking my whole folder of playables so I can switch to whatever deck I want over the course of a few days.

It really does make me resent Wizard's slavish commitment to the Reserved List. I am so, so sick of it - mainly for its effect on access to the formats I most want to play - but increasingly too, for the way it impacts my enjoyment at big events. I don't want to carry so much expensive stuff round with me. I don't want to be clutching my bag to me at every second and looking at everyone around me as a potential thief. I don't want to be walking to the venue, thinking t how much I'd lose if I got my bag grabbed off me (a very real possibility as attendance increases push GP venues out of town centres). It's a total ball-ache and really not what the game is about. Perhaps one of the reasons I love how battered some of my power is - because it reminds me of time that cards were just slapped on tables with no thought for how much they were worth. They were pieces of a game and it was the fun of playing it with your friends that took precedence over the value of the cards involved.

Just my two cents. I know the Reserved List remains a polarising issue. But it is the number one reason we are now carrying a stupid amount of money around with us in our bags...

[AmbivalentDuck]

Theft is just getting out of control. Why steal cars when a backpack containing a pimped cube is comparable in price to a Corvette?  Cars have VIN, beta duals and power have nothing comparable.

[zimagic]

Theft is just getting out of control. Why steal cars when a backpack containing a pimped cube is comparable in price to a Corvette?  Cars have VIN, beta duals and power have nothing comparable.

My collection with no power, just pimp EDH & random good modern cards is worth just a little more than the resale value of my wife's car, a 2 year old Berlingo (just my Rafiq deck is worth more than my own p.o.s. banger so there's no real value comparison there). I haven't told her this but I think she's starting to suspect after our water heater broke last September.

This was just after we'd paid school fees, annual social/music club fees & booked our flights home for Christmas so we were pretty much dry. It's always a really expensive period and generally maxes out our post summer reserves. The water heater going just then was perfectly bad timing. I opened my folders and sold my only Wasteland (player rewards) and enough fetches until I had enough to cover the cost of plumber. Sure, it's only cardboard/a hobby and I certainly made a profit, but it wasn't on my terms and it pained me to do it.

It felt really good to be able to do that though: take a part of a non-essential hobby and finance a necessary and unforseen expense at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, prices have almost doubled in the past 6 months for everything I sold, so a part of me really wishes I could have dropped them now instead to buy my own Roy Benson Horn and not have to rent a 5th hand Yamaha from the school.

[DubDub]

It's unfortunate, at least I feel this way, that the massive value of cards makes me so wary to travel for tournaments.  Part of me very much wants to play in the NYSE Open in June.  But another part of me very much doesn't want to travel with five digits worth of cards.

Perhaps this is heresy, but I'm considering just playing in a local Modern GPT that weekend instead.  My power and duals etc. get to stay safe at home, and I only have to bring four digits worth of cards with me to play Modern.  ("Yay!" for the format that's supposed to be affordable and accessible.)

[TheWhiteDragon]

I don't mind taking tens of thousands in cards around when I go out to play.  I figure, I drive a car and I can get carjacked at any stoplight, so what's the difference?  I just carry a glock when I go to any tourney so if someone looks shiftily at my deck, I can cap their ass.  The world is full of theives.  It's just a reality of life.  My home is worth more than my collection, but how do I know I won't come home to squatters who have bolted my door shut and will kill me beffore I can call the cops?  It's a risk I take for being alive and not choosing to live in a box since houses are so expensive.

And if all else fails and my glock can't protect my deck, I have a fully-functional Predator-style nuclear wristguard...if I get taken down for my cards, then we're all going out in a thermonuclear fireball.

If you're worried about someone stealing your $10K deck, then don't play a 10K deck.  If you're scared of theft, live in a refrigerator box and wear a potato sack and have zero possessions.  If you think there just shouldn't be theft...I hear there are vacant lots on Mars for sale.  If the answer is that cards should not be so pricey, I'm sure everyone here would be happy to fix the problem by making their $10K deck cost $1 tomorrow.  Who needs that $9,999 extra they spent?  At least now your $1 deck is safe from theft, right?

[JPoJohnson]

I don't mind taking tens of thousands in cards around when I go out to play.  I figure, I drive a car and I can get carjacked at any stoplight, so what's the difference?  I just carry a glock when I go to any tourney so if someone looks shiftily at my deck, I can cap their ass.  The world is full of theives.  It's just a reality of life.  My home is worth more than my collection, but how do I know I won't come home to squatters who have bolted my door shut and will kill me beffore I can call the cops?  It's a risk I take for being alive and not choosing to live in a box since houses are so expensive.

And if all else fails and my glock can't protect my deck, I have a fully-functional Predator-style nuclear wristguard...if I get taken down for my cards, then we're all going out in a thermonuclear fireball.

If you're worried about someone stealing your $10K deck, then don't play a 10K deck.  If you're scared of theft, live in a refrigerator box and wear a potato sack and have zero possessions.  If you think there just shouldn't be theft...I hear there are vacant lots on Mars for sale.  If the answer is that cards should not be so pricey, I'm sure everyone here would be happy to fix the problem by making their $10K deck cost $1 tomorrow.  Who needs that $9,999 extra they spent?  At least now your $1 deck is safe from theft, right?

Although a bit drastic, I do agree with the sentiment.

[TheWhiteDragon]

Thanks for seeing the point amidst the sarcasm 

[PDM]

From now on we should have notices at the bottom of tournament announcements stating whether or not they are open carry establishments!!

[Soly]

I'm pretty lucky in that I am very well known for my temper/violence/history of agression;  Most people know that I will have no problems whatsoever beating a man within an inch of their life for stealing from me.

That said, Is till watch my stuff like a hawk.  Bring a backpack, and always have it in your lap and with at least one strap around a leg. Alternatively, put the chair legs through the straps and keep a foot on it.  Problem solved.

I admit, now that my collection for the most part is MUCH less unique since I've sold a bulk of my japanese cards, I am a little more worried about this since my collection would be much more liquid to a thief.

[AmbivalentDuck]

I admit, now that my collection for the most part is MUCH less unique since I've sold a bulk of my japanese cards, I am a little more worried about this since my collection would be much more liquid to a thief.

That's the issue: these things are liquid.

[LotusHead]

One of our local vintage players got everything stolen recently.  All Nisson Altimas in his apartment complex got broken into.

It appears that the thieves just knew how to easily break into that car model and took whatever was easy. (someone else lost some high end photography stuff, etc).

[H]

One of our local vintage players got everything stolen recently.  All Nisson Altimas in his apartment complex got broken into.

It appears that the thieves just knew how to easily break into that car model and took whatever was easy. (someone else lost some high end photography stuff, etc).

Considering that my cards are actually an order of magnitude more expensive than my car, I don't think I'll be leaving them in there for anything more than a few minutes.