I hear you are interested in starting to collect TCGs- or trading card games. TCGs are an old past time of mine and they are a lot of fun. There are a few things to take into consideration should you want to begin collecting cards.
Storage
Before you go out and buy hordes of cards, or any collectible for that matter, consider a cost effective solution to storing them. I play the World of Warcraft TCG and at one point I played Yu-Gi-Oh!. Lets crunch some numbers real fast shall we? (I'll do it!) My WOW collection has a whopping 1,156 cards in it (I hear the collectors screaming and scoffing that that amount is pitiful). You can get those 9 slot card pages that you can fit into a binder, but at 20 cents each I will need 129 of them to keep my collection happy.
That is $26 USD right there on storage, then I need binders for them. If 30 pages take up a 1 inch binder, I will need approximatly 4 binders and change! I may have to spend around $12 USD there. Another disadvantage to sleeve pages is that if I need to take cards out, holes will exist that need to be filled, and categorizing them in the pages can be time consuming.
A better solution is a card box. If you head into a comic or cards store, they are the white cardboard boxes typically sold for storing baseball cards. These boxes work just as well for Trading Cards, and there are many sizes to choose from, ranging from a 200 count box all the way to a large 5000 count box. These boxes range from $0.50 USD to $2.00 USD. They are a great solution to indexing (sleeve pages) and you can use small index cards (3 by 5s?) to sort by type, rarity, set, name, you name it. For my WOW cards, I would like to sort by card type for easy access.
Putting the cards in a box takes them away from sunlight. The Sun's light won't have an effect on your cards until about 5 years down the road when they may begin to wear, depending on the condition you keep them in. These white boxes I am talking about generally last a long time and should treat you fine if you treat it fine. I kept a box for my Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and it lasted around 5-6 years, and it still is going strong (though it may be a good idea to replace the box and save the old one). Many Yu-Gi-Oh! players also keep their cards in a tin- this is great for beginners too-but be wary when your wallet depletes and your collection grows- you won't have room for those cards.
For games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic the Gathering and World of Warcraft, cards will be played on the table often. To protect your cards, you will definitely want to consider sleeving them. Card sleeves are individual sleeves that will stand up to tough wear and use. If you are considering or playing Yu-Gi-Oh!, you will need to sleeve your cards because Upper Deck produced the cards in a more flimsy manner than what Konami did in Japan (by the way, Upper Deck just lost their rights to produce Yu-Gi-Oh!, and it is heading back to Konami to print in the USA).
Sleeving your cards ensures they will last a long time. I sleeved my decks of Yu-Gi-Oh! early on in my collecting and it has provided me satisfaction (and value) in my cards knowing that they are in near mint shape. One brand I swear by is Deck Armor and Ultra Pro- I bought a $10 USD box of 100 sleeves 8 or 9 years ago for my Yu-Gi-Oh! deck and they are STILL going strong. My friend uses Deck Armor and I love them too. Before playing with card sleeves, you may notice that they are bent from the factory- if they are flatten them out or bend them in the opposite direction for a while- this is "breaking in" the sleeves, otherwise the sleeves will break your cards in (ouch).
Economics
Lets face it- at the time of this writing (very late 2008) the economy sucks, bad. When we look at the economics behind a game, sometimes looking at the game with better cost efficiency may be the way to go. World of Warcraft cards cost at retail roughly $.20 USD. Yu-Gi-Oh! cards cost at retail roughly $0.45 per card. When you do the math, Yu-Gi-Oh! can get expensive compared to MTG or WOW. Why is WOW and MTG cheaper? because they give you more for your money. In Yu-Gi-Oh! the best cards are secret rares or are hard to get cards, driving up the price of tournament decks to around $400 USD (ludicrous). In WOW, there are some awesome cards that are hard to get, but there is a way to easily remove that threat (and prevent said threat) AND they give you good stuff right off the bat.
Also, look at a game's popularity. Naruto and Bleach may not survive long- the Zelda Twilight Princess TCG didn't sell for long, and unfortunately one must realize that sometimes folks are in it for a small profit, then they exit the industry. MTG is the grandfather of all CCGs and TCGs, and it will not die (at least my friend says it won't, I agree with him). Yu-Gi-Oh! has seen a rebirth and Blizzard has enough money to run a miniatures and card games for their World of Warcraft series.
Self Control
TCGs can be ADDICTING. I buy a lot of WOW, but at the same time I set forth a budget. For younger collectors: CHRISTMAS AND BIRTHDAYS! This is how I always did it. As I have gotten older I can expand my collection and at the same time spend my money very wisely, especially in this day and age. Getting a part time job for your TCG charity fund is always nice, but also budget your money. This can be hard in Yu-Gi-Oh! due to economics, but a lot easier in WOW or MTG.
More at a later date... I am a bit tired... *sneezes*. Merry Christmas to all!
No comments:
Post a Comment