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Chysamere

FF14 Free Company Master
<WoW Guild Officer>
3,489
3,200
So maybe you guys can help me out a bit?

I'm going back to Australia next week and taking a bunch of War of the Spark alternate planeswalkers and Japanese foil/promos with me.

What's the demand for this stuff where you play? How is the supply of Japanese Spark Booster boxes? Is it worth taking a few boxes back to trade? Are the prices higher on Japanese cards/Japanese sealed packs?
 

Sterling

El Presidente
13,092
8,067
Most retailers can get ~ 3 boxes of Japanese a week or so in the States direct, so they're not super rare, but they aren't common either and it's a real niche market. Russian and Korean are in smaller supplies and tend to be worth more than Japanese, but Japanese cards tend to price ahead of all the other languages besides those 2. Foreign foils particularly of cards that play well in eternal formats tend to have a much larger premium for foreign cards.
 

ronne

Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
8,266
7,808
Watching hogaak vs hogaak mirrors at the SCG thing has finally convinced me. I've been pretty skeptical of all the doomsaying about the hogaak deck the last few weeks, but jesus christ this deck is just on another level.

Altar of Dementia is such an unreasonable card that I can't even begin to imagine the thought process they went through with including it in Horizons.
 

Chysamere

FF14 Free Company Master
<WoW Guild Officer>
3,489
3,200
Most retailers can get ~ 3 boxes of Japanese a week or so in the States direct, so they're not super rare, but they aren't common either and it's a real niche market. Russian and Korean are in smaller supplies and tend to be worth more than Japanese, but Japanese cards tend to price ahead of all the other languages besides those 2. Foreign foils particularly of cards that play well in eternal formats tend to have a much larger premium for foreign cards.

People aren't interested in the Alternate War of the Spark planeswalkers?
 

ronne

Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
8,266
7,808
People aren't interested in the Alternate War of the Spark planeswalkers?

I don't think her caught that part of what you're talking about.

I can't speak for AUS, but here in Chicago JPN WAR product is almost non-existent. Stores ordered maybe half a dozen boxes which vanished instantly. There are no copies of any JPN walkers available locally - anything you'd would have to be ordered via eBay or similar.
 

ronne

Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
8,266
7,808
I'm sure there are people that would be. Again it's pretty niche though.

The alt-art walkers are not niche at all. They are massively popular. These aren't just normal foreign cards, which I agree are quite niche.
 
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Chysamere

FF14 Free Company Master
<WoW Guild Officer>
3,489
3,200
Well that was confusing, I don't know whether to pick up an extra box to trade now or not!

The MTG players in Australia seem to still use facebook(!) so I'm posting up there and messaging a bunch of people on reddit to see if I can get the score on what's going on.
 
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Koushirou

Log Wizard
<Gold Donor>
5,164
13,051
My LGS originally got 6 boxes in, sold them for $300 a piece. I bought one so had a bunch of alt-art walkers to sell. My store didn't anticipate being able to sell them so they weren't interested in purchasing the walkers. I wasn't able to find anyone who wanted to trade for the one I had, either, so I ended up selling all the ones I could to Card Kingdom. They do have new stock in now and sell packs for $8.99 but so far haven't seen any folks buying them.
 

Chysamere

FF14 Free Company Master
<WoW Guild Officer>
3,489
3,200
My LGS originally got 6 boxes in, sold them for $300 a piece. I bought one so had a bunch of alt-art walkers to sell. My store didn't anticipate being able to sell them so they weren't interested in purchasing the walkers. I wasn't able to find anyone who wanted to trade for the one I had, either, so I ended up selling all the ones I could to Card Kingdom. They do have new stock in now and sell packs for $8.99 but so far haven't seen any folks buying them.

hmm I only value packs at around $3 though
 

Sterling

El Presidente
13,092
8,067
The alt-art walkers are not niche at all. They are massively popular. These aren't just normal foreign cards, which I agree are quite niche.
Yeah, Grey moment, was thinking of the SDCC type thing, which these aren't.

My LGS originally got 6 boxes in, sold them for $300 a piece. I bought one so had a bunch of alt-art walkers to sell. My store didn't anticipate being able to sell them so they weren't interested in purchasing the walkers. I wasn't able to find anyone who wanted to trade for the one I had, either, so I ended up selling all the ones I could to Card Kingdom. They do have new stock in now and sell packs for $8.99 but so far haven't seen any folks buying them.
Think there's a disconnect here, he's talking about War of the Spark boxes not Modern Horizons or whatever. Retailers get the boxes for normal box prices, they're just limited in overall supply and foreign boxes are usually around 100 dollars on Ebay even.
 

Koushirou

Log Wizard
<Gold Donor>
5,164
13,051
Yeah, Grey moment, was thinking of the SDCC type thing, which these aren't.


Think there's a disconnect here, he's talking about War of the Spark boxes not Modern Horizons or whatever. Retailers get the boxes for normal box prices, they're just limited in overall supply and foreign boxes are usually around 100 dollars on Ebay even.

I know. These were the prices for the Japanese WotS boxes that my store has currently. Yes, they're very overpriced. And yes, I was extremely dumb for buying one for $300 (I got maybe $150 back from it).

We had another LGS that's a bit farther away, but we'd sometimes visit when we had time. Unfortunately, its last day in business is Sunday. Much better prices, but honestly, they were selling cards way too low (Best deal I got was a promo Imperial Seal for like $80 when it was sitting at $120 market price or something). We got ridiculous value in store credit compared to our usual LGS as well, but lately they were looking incredibly rough and sure enough they're closing. We always wondered how the hell they made money (Commander nights we'd go to were $5 entry, but they'd give you two standard current packs for free in return) and I guess maybe they just weren't.
 

Sterling

El Presidente
13,092
8,067
I know. These were the prices for the Japanese WotS boxes that my store has currently. Yes, they're very overpriced. And yes, I was extremely dumb for buying one for $300 (I got maybe $150 back from it).

We had another LGS that's a bit farther away, but we'd sometimes visit when we had time. Unfortunately, its last day in business is Sunday. Much better prices, but honestly, they were selling cards way too low (Best deal I got was a promo Imperial Seal for like $80 when it was sitting at $120 market price or something). We got ridiculous value in store credit compared to our usual LGS as well, but lately they were looking incredibly rough and sure enough they're closing. We always wondered how the hell they made money (Commander nights we'd go to were $5 entry, but they'd give you two standard current packs for free in return) and I guess maybe they just weren't.
There's a happy median between charging almost triple normal prices and having no profit margin and shutting down.
 

Kuro

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
8,936
23,490
I need these Hogaak decks to go away so that I can safely abuse Unearth like a responsible citizen without everyone running 7-8 piece of GY hate.
 

Sterling

El Presidente
13,092
8,067
I need these Hogaak decks to go away so that I can safely abuse Unearth like a responsible citizen without everyone running 7-8 piece of GY hate.
actually played paper magic today, and played hogaak locally, played bad and still smashed everyone. Shit is absurd. Hi, i'll mill your entire deck on turn 2 through a surgical.
 

Derpa

Trakanon Raider
2,009
664
Well my sheet was damaged, already sent a thing to wizards about it.

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