Are you a collector or a trader?

Originally posted at www.theforgeherald.com

Do you actively seek several copies of one card, or are you always looking to flip cards when they hit their peak?

In Magic, it seems there are two different types of people. Those who collect and those who trade cards like they were on Wall Street.

I am a bit of both.

When Return to Ravnica was released, I was excited to get a playset of each of the shocklands. After I achieved the goal, I decided I should get at least one copy of the original art of each of the shocklands. After all, original art is always better, right?

Meanwhile, some friends of mine used the shocklands like money. They would trade for as many as they could to simply hold them for when they hit their peak, then dump them. Typically trading them away for Legacy staples.

Speaking of RtR, I know someone who decided to go all in on Desecration Demon when it was released. When mono black became a think, he rolled his 50+ demons into some good stuff.

When Theros came around I was a little wiser to how the whole trading thing worked. Using my winnings, I was able to trade off a lot of Standard stuff to acquire my first Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant. This lit a fire in me. I liked trading up and wanted to do more. 

Using Facebook, I was able to trade across the state and even a little into Utah. My trading was always limited to those I knew and trusted – I have seen too many people get burned via online trading that I don’t do it unless it’s through a reputable source.

When Khans of Tarkir was released I saw the value in trading for as many fetchlands as possible. I also decided to acquire one of each of the original art of the fetches, too. Like I said, I am a collector and trader both.

Foil planeswalkers (Gideon, Narset, Sarkhan) have all been traded away to complete playsets of the Zendikar fetches as well as starting a playset of Wasteland. Then, around Fate Reforged, everything changed – I was introduced to Pucatrade.

Pucatrade opened up the world to me. Now my trading efforts change from the things I sort of wanted to things I knew I could “puca” away. As of this writing, I have sent 201 cards with a total value of 240,525 PucaPoints. This represents 10 months of trading. I suspect in the first 18 months I will hit 500,000. Some of the big ticket items I have received include dual lands, Lion’s Eye Diamonds, Wasteland, and Damnation. As well as Judge foil Noble Hierarch.

So what about you? Are you a trader or a collector? Do you use pucatrade.com? If not, sign up for it here!