Hey guys,
My familiy and my gaming group recently suffered a tragedy. My younger brothers best friend, a core member of our longtime gaming group, took his own life. His mother asked me to dispose of a collection of magic cards that were causing her pain by reminding her of her son. When I went through the cards it turned out that many of them had belonged to my brother... and among them in a box of basic lands were 25 revised dual lands (also one beta) which I had collected during the only three years of my life in which I played MTG. 1993-1995. The rest of the valuable stuff I had, power nine and everything, is gone, but these duals made their way back to me after sitting forgotten for a long time.
Coincidentally, I have been playing magic again since christmas, when my other brother and his wife suggested I give the game as a gift to my nieces and nephews so we all could play together. I'm really enjoying it and when I saw those dual lands I had a huge urge to convert them to cash and buy a boatload of sealed product and go nuts cracking packs.
Luckily I I did some reading before I acted on that impulse.
I understand now that converting these cards into almost any other cards will be financially inadvisable but I still feel inclined to indulge myself to some extent. I like the idea of having a good sized collection and a nice trade binder and diving into this hobby. I really think I want to sell a few of these reserved list cards and buy some more enjoyable cards even if they are less stable in value. I just want to do it in a smarter way than cracking a case of one of the printed into oblivion recent or forthcoming sets. I have thought about buying a small collection or two on craigslist, with the aim of getting into some playsets of modern staples and having some nice trading fodder. Would that be a crazy idea?
What are the best resources for evaluating and inventorying cards? Would it be better to try to trade cards for cards rather than cashing out and trying to buy singles?
Any thoughts?