This week was full of drama in the Magic finance community. The Vendorgate phenomenon, which Zac covered in fantastic fashion last week, was a roller-coaster of news, excitement, disappointment, and mostly just complete insanity. I thought a lot about what to write on the topic. I could talk about the implications of vendorgate. I could talk about the community problems with drama. I could talk about the first test of Wizards new transparency. But these all seemed like terrible topics and things perhaps better for another day. For now we need to take a step back and relax. So without further adieu, I give you pictures of my cats.
Meow
This is Fury (on the left) and Max (on the right). It might look like they’re just hanging out on a stack of comic book boxes in my bedroom, but they’re actually deep in thought, contemplating the financial implications of Vendorgate and the Eternal Masters announcement.
Fury likes to spend time on her scratching throne where she divines which reserved list cards will spike next based on the patterns in the cardboard.
This picture was actually taken as soon as Max learned that Damnation wasn’t being reprinted in Modern Masters last year. He wasn’t happy because he had sold all of his copies on the premise that there was no way Wizards wouldn’t reprint it.
Max was actually so depressed about Damnation not being reprinted that he hid in his cat tree house for days.
But then Fury cheered him up by going to her local gaming store and buying Max new sleeves and a deck box for his Commander deck (Max plays a tribal Brimaz deck obviously).
After the Eternal Masters announcement, Fury spent 36 hours straight wheeling and dealing on TCGPlayer and various other internet outlets. It was exhausting work and she needed a long catnap afterwards.
Max has a lot of connections in the underground Quebecois black market for Magic cards. He often represents his French Canadian roots with this vintage hipster Quebec Nordiques hat. Fury, being a Russian Blue, obviously does most of her foreign trading in St. Petersburg, heart of the eastern European Magic cartels.
MTG Finance can be dirty work so it’s important to keep yourself and your friends clean after a long day of buying out reserved list cards.
What We Learned is a weekly feature here at Hipsters of the Coast written by former amateur Magic Player Rich Stein, who came really close to making day two of a Grand Prix on several occasions. Each week we will take a look at the past seven days of major events, big news items, and community happenings so that you can keep up-to-date on all the latest and greatest Magic: the Gathering community news.