Card Value

[Catman25]

I was at locals today when a scene unfolded that I thought was interesting. A couple weeks ago this kid (maybe 10yr, not the most competitive) bought 1 pack of CORE and pulled a Farmgirl. A lot of kids disregard value, but this guy knew this card was actually worth quite a bit. All the regulars knew he had pulled it, and they finally decided to try and get it (this kid had been pretty hesitant to move it, unless the price was right). So these guys traded him a full BA deck for the Farmgirl. The kid accepted the deal, went to talk with his crew, and discovered not only BA was hit, but that he got ripped off (according to outside parties analyzing his trade). Upon hearing this he got pretty upset, and tried to get his Farmgirl back. Now, I didn't see the contents of the deck, but it had all the good stuff, Dantes, Super Graffs and Scarms, etc. So the vets sat down and listed the values out (I guess doesn't help that their price on Farmgirl differed by 20USD). They explained that BA was still playable, good even, definitely a step above what he was playing. They were good sports and threw in Majesty Fiends, Alucard, and Downerd, and the kid reluctantly, but ultimately accepted he wasn't getting the Farmgirl back.

 

Semi-related, today was also Sneak Peek, so everyone one hounding each person who opened packs for Majespecter stuff. One kid pulled the Dark Destroyer, and it was traded away in seconds. It's been awhile since I saw +100USD card right out of the gate.

 

Ultimately, they're shiny pieces of paper. But they hold so much value, and Konami holds considerable influence on the market, making price fluctuations a real thing to deal with. If you play irl, do you care about the value? Do you need to break exactly even or gain in a trade? Would you trade an entire deck for a single card, does something like BA, even if it's less monetary value, have more value in that it's a deck, and Farmgirl's just a single card? Would you take advantage of a kid's lack of cognizance about card prices? Do prices deter you from playing irl? If that's the reason, what would be a reasonable price to get you to play? And finally, do you need to shell out the cash to be good at this game?

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

1. If you play irl, do you care about the value?

2. Do you need to break exactly even or gain in a trade? Would you trade an entire deck for a single card, does something like BA, even if it's less monetary value, have more value in that it's a deck, and Farmgirl's just a single card?

3. Would you take advantage of a kid's lack of cognizance about card prices?

4. Do prices deter you from playing irl? If that's the reason, what would be a reasonable price to get you to play?

5. And finally, do you need to shell out the cash to be good at this game?

1. Yes, I care a bit about the price of my cards, depending if I get tired of playing Yugioh and want to sell my Decks [which don't amount to a lot of competitive stuff people want] or want to get some extra money for other stuff.

 

I generally base my card's value on my dealer's prices at the moment.

 

2. I would prefer to get at least even in the trade, in least in terms of current value.

If I gain from it, great; if not, well that's also fine. Just get it close enough in terms of trade value, and I'll be fine.

 

3. Depends on what card they're giving me (and the Deck they want), but likely no.

Overall, I take into account the value of the whole Deck, not just the components.

 

4. No, though I feel they should have a bit of understanding about value; either from older player friends he/she may have or reading dealer websites.

In this kid's case, he was at least aware of the price tag.

 

5. This one is a definite yes; because I'm a college student, budget is always going to be a concern (plus parents say that I shouldn't be spending so much money on cardboard).

 

Really depends, but I'd probably say that maybe $15-20/deck is ideal, factoring in staples, Extra Deck and a lot of other stuff.

 

(Yeah, it's kind of low and a lot of staple cards certainly run for more than that, or least a good chunk of my budget range.)

 

Reprints are extremely helpful though.

 

* If OCG cards are cheaper and available, then I'll gladly take those. As I don't play competitively (lack of tournament venues in my state), TCG/OCG is irrelevant.

(i.e. I would love to get stuff like Eccentric Archfiend and Denko as Commons in Japanese, as opposed to them being SCR/UR in the US. Dealership had common JP Denko at 25 cents last time I checked; might've went up though.)

 

6. Unfortunately, you probably do have to shell out a good amount of money to be good in the game IRL. But you also have to know what the hell you're doing.

 

(Unlike Kaiba, having a lot of money doesn't mean you can win games if you can't play)

 

If I remember correctly, Nekroz were around $1000+ at their prime (heck, Trish/Brio were $100+ each at the time).

 

Hell, I want to play Majespecters IRL, but because Konami made some of their support cards expensive as sheet (see rarity bumps), I certainly am not playing it anytime soon.

Refer to the point in [ * ], if dealership carried the OCG versions, I'd go for that for the most part.

 

(Sure, Dracoslayers will be expensive either way, but I can probably find a way to design the Deck so it can work, and not kill my wallet)

 

Of course, Dueling Network makes the price tag moot, and so it boils down to skill.

[Trebuchet MS]

I want to break even or get as close to that as possible. That's why I downloaded an app that lets me check card prices before I go trading about in MtG. If I were still actively trading in Yugioh IRL, I'd go hunting for a similar app.

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

Ultimately, they're shiny pieces of paper. But they hold so much value, and Konami holds considerable influence on the market, making price fluctuations a real thing to deal with. If you play irl, do you care about the value? Do you need to break exactly even or gain in a trade? Would you trade an entire deck for a single card, does something like BA, even if it's less monetary value, have more value in that it's a deck, and Farmgirl's just a single card? Would you take advantage of a kid's lack of cognizance about card prices? Do prices deter you from playing irl? If that's the reason, what would be a reasonable price to get you to play? And finally, do you need to shell out the cash to be good at this game?

I play IRL and honestly, card value is something I put a lot of time and effort into. To the point where I'm basically the go-to girl for card prices at my locals. I, like, take prices from several sources, for both OCG and TCG cards, average them, adjust for conversion and then some. I don't even need an app cuz I more or less memorized the prices of the important cards.

 

When trading, I like to gain profit, usually by selling cards in form of a bundle. Of course, breaking even is more common, but ideally I'd like to profit off of every sale. I wouldn't trade a deck, or a card for another deck or card, I'd honestly rather take the money. Most people I know do this too, though deck-swapping isnt something I've never done. Only did it once with a deck I honestly dont even use anymore and profitted like, $10 from the trade, so can't say I'm disappointed. I will say this though. Decks generally hold their value far better than single cards, unless said card is of a certain rarity.

 

Taking advantage... Sad to say I've done this. Not something extreme like buying a $50 card for $5, but more or less just inflating the price by a dollar or two, just subtle enough that people who know what they're doing can't tell but still in the buying range of a kid.

 

I made several sacrifices to start playing IRL. Mostly, I no longer buy video games, any collectibles or toys, and most of my allowance money and stuff like that goes to cards. (And clothes and accesories, I'm not a neanderthal. Just gotta find more cheap outlets to buy stuff, like going to Uniqlo instead of Forever 21). A reasonable price for a fully competitive meta deck is, like >$100+, factoring in everything. Sleeves, Extra Deck, side, etc. There will be cheaper undermeta/rogue alternatives, and decks like those going for below $50 is very much reasonable.

 

By the way, we're talking about CFV, right?

[ihop]

1. If you play irl, do you care about the value?

2. Do you need to break exactly even or gain in a trade? 

3. Would you trade an entire deck for a single card, does something like BA, even if it's less monetary value, have more value in that it's a deck, and Farmgirl's just a single card?

4. Would you take advantage of a kid's lack of cognizance about card prices?

5. Do prices deter you from playing irl? 

6. And finally, do you need to shell out the cash to be good at this game?

 

1. Hell yes, I do. Trading for profit is one of the ways to make this game pay for itself, or at least not be a complete drain of money. I roughly know most card values and I know how to get good deals off people, as well as being able to recognise when people want to sell for cheap and when people want to buy for market value. There are a couple of people at my locals who basically trade and sell for a living (well, both are students but they make way more than they would from a part-time minimum-wage job), I'm not anywhere near as dedicated as them but I do like to trade and if there's a good deal going I'll have it.

2. I always look to make profit but if I'm trading for cards I specifically need I'm generally ok with breaking even or, if I'm really desperate for the cards, making a bit of a loss. If I'm just trading for trade bait I'll alway look to either make a profit or get rid of low-demand stuff for higher-demand stuff.

3. If you don't trade on the internet it's very difficult to find full deck cores so as a rule yes, I'd be happy to do it either way if I needed the deck/wanted to get rid of the deck.

4. I'd never rip a kid off, but anyone who is my age or a bit younger should really be responsible for knowing what their own cards are worth so I have no qualms in taking advantage of them if they don't.

5. nope

6. No, but it certainly helps. I shelled out when I was just getting into the game and honestly there are so many benefits to having a good deck that it really does help. Even if you're not good yet you gain a lot more respect from good players who will then help you get better, not to mention having better results in tournaments means in later stages you'll play better players who you can learn from. Getting a meta deck now is about as cheap as it's even going to be, so I guess you don't really need to "splash the cash" now but a certain amount of investment is always required. It's obviously possible to get good at the game just on DN/playing a cheap deck but it's a hell of a lot harder.

[vla1ne]

1) If you play irl, do you care about the value? 

2)Do you need to break exactly even or gain in a trade?

3)Would you trade an entire deck for a single card, does something like BA, even if it's less monetary value, have more value in that it's a deck, and Farmgirl's just a single card?

4)Would you take advantage of a kid's lack of cognizance about card prices?

5)Do prices deter you from playing irl? If that's the reason, what would be a reasonable price to get you to play?

6)And finally, do you need to shell out the cash to be good at this game?

1) I care about how useful the card is, and seeing as that's often linked to the value of said card, yes.

 

2) I rarely break even in trades, me and my friends trade on a "favor system" where if a card(s) you want from somebody else are too high in value, you get trade favors equivalent to the difference, so in general we usually end up owing multiple people and being owed by multiple people at any given time.

 

3) I don't like trading decks for cards/decks, and the few times i've done it i've generally allowed tradebacks i the other party was dissatisfied.decks have multiple uses, and the card in them have utility outside of said deck, so the best way to explain this would be that a deck is often worth more than the sum of it's parts.

 

4) No, i've been ripped off before (actually recently I traded the $40 psyframelord for only about $15 in trades to a guy because he lied and said the card was worth $15, i know it's an idiot move, but I actually trust people when they tell me things needless to say, funk that deceitful bastard and i'm never trading him again. On the bright side, pulled eccentrick and galaxy cyclone the very next day, So I've definitely got good karma.)

 

5) prices don't completely deter me, but i rarely play a deck if two or more of it's cards are worth more than the box it comes in (for example, a playset of brionac and trish ran for about 400-500, so that wasn't happening.).

 

6) To win tournaments? yes, to be good at it? no. all the money in the world will not fix stupid unskilled players. practice and experience will.

[ihop]

On a slightly unrelated topic, why does everyone think Nekroz trish was so expensive? They were like £20 at their peak and you only played 1 anyway. Valk was the other expensive one.

[vla1ne]

On a slightly unrelated topic, why does everyone think Nekroz trish was so expensive? They were like £20 at their peak and you only played 1 anyway. Valk was the other expensive one.

I keep forgetting valk exists, but it furthers my point, when a deck reaches a price that could swallow multiple paychecks (unless you already have the pieces), it's time for me to look for a new deck to build.

[Catman25]

Iirc Trish was pretty expensive, especially at release. I bought a box and remembered thinking "let's pull Brio or Trish", didn't even realize Valk was in the set when I pulled it. But still Trish was at least $60-70 at one point, that much I remember

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

I play MTG, so yeah, I keep track of card value. I would go hungry otherwise.

[~~~~]

I somewhat keep track of card value, because many people at my local club are very bothered about it, but I don't feel bad if I make what would be a monetary loss, as I don't buy or sell cards online. If I pulled a Dark Destroyer, I would happily trade it for a Trishula (synchro) + maybe a Chanbara/a few Spirit monsters/Lord Omega. I would be tempted to wait 'til BOSH and try and trade it for CDI, but I would be scared that the value of Dark Destroyer would go down drastically, and I would have missed out entirely.

 

Edit, just to answer more questions: I deliberately try to avoid ripping people off. The week before last, someone new to the game turned up. They had bought a Zombie World Structure Deck and a Joey's World box online. The week after that, I brought all my Zombie cards along. When I went to trade with them, they had a few cards that I really wanted, including a Dark Dust Spirit. Because they had just bought their cards, they were in good quality, but mine were rather tatty. I gave them almost an entire Zombie Deck for 5 cards, because I had the power in the trade (I could lie about what cards were good and they wouldn't know better) and as such I felt that they needed to do better in the trade to make up for that fact. I do this because when I was new to Yugioh, lots of people scammed me, giving me a Black Pendant for a D.D Dynamite and the like.

 

About the shelling out cash: It really depends on how you define "good" and at what level it becomes shelling out. I bought a box of HSRD for £60 and I now play Speedroids and my brother plays Psy-Frames, so I feel that that one box was worth it because it quickly brought us most of the cards we wanted for the decks we liked.

 

Edit 2: I came 3rd and my brother came 2nd at a Pegasus Challenge Tournament with those decks, so they are in some sense, good.

[Airride]

I haven't traded with much of anybody for literal years; the reason being, whenever I attempt to trade, I will A.) Not have anything they want when they have all the stupid stuff I want for Deck of the Month (ie: really bad cards, usually) (I've also stuck with just2 decks for the past few years, so that helps too, I guess) B.) They overpriced their things to hell (ex: Alien cards for like, $3 each. Why...) C.) I would always get ripped off (Don't get me started about my Debunk, Safe Zone and Synchro Trish...) D.) They would be super stubborn about pricing and junk if I ever tried to actually negotiate. Thinking back, this is probably why I haven't gone to a proper card shop for at least a couple years. Along with me optimizing my collection and only having what I need, with absolutely no trade material anymore, unless I want to get rid of things I want to keep for other decks. I can pretty much only play with people, with Evols (Which are...yeah) and Lightsworn (Which nobody likes).

Anything I need nowadays, I just buy online. Usually only amounts to ~$20 for YGO per time I order stuff, which is only every year or so. I would like to make another deck that isnt bad or annoying to people, but I haven't seen any that I REALLY want to make that aren't stupidly expensive for what they are.

[vla1ne]

I haven't traded with much of anybody for literal years; the reason being, whenever I attempt to trade, I will A.) Not have anything they want when they have all the stupid stuff I want for Deck of the Month (ie: really bad cards, usually) (I've also stuck with just2 decks for the past few years, so that helps too, I guess) B.) They overpriced their things to hell (ex: Alien cards for like, $3 each. Why...) C.) I would always get ripped off (Don't get me started about my Debunk, Safe Zone and Synchro Trish...) D.) They would be super stubborn about pricing and junk if I ever tried to actually negotiate. Thinking back, this is probably why I haven't gone to a proper card shop for at least a couple years. Along with me optimizing my collection and only having what I need, with absolutely no trade material anymore, unless I want to get rid of things I want to keep for other decks. I can pretty much only play with people, with Evols (Which are...yeah) and Lightsworn (Which nobody likes).

Anything I need nowadays, I just buy online. Usually only amounts to ~$20 for YGO per time I order stuff, which is only every year or so. I would like to make another deck that isnt bad or annoying to people, but I haven't seen any that I REALLY want to make that aren't stupidly expensive for what they are.

Build skull servants, the pieces are so cheap you could  get everything for under $10, it's pretty fun to use, and you can make a lightsworn engine if you have spare cards. minimal trading, decent value, and you probably save money by already owning one of the engine variants.

[Airride]

'Cept I don't particularly care for them. That's also a bit of a problem, where I have to like the deck, Visually and Mechanically. SKull Servants do not do that at all for me.