What's up guys, today I won't be talking about how to improve your deck, or how to become a better player. Even though I know a whole lot of you want that from articles, I feel that an article like this can also bring you up a long way in terms of becoming a better player, but I warn you, it takes a lot of time and effort. So let's get started on investing in the right cards!
Back in the year 2007, I started getting a bit competitive in the yugioh scene. Sure I wasn't very good, but I was traveling to a Shonen Jump Championship or a regional every now and then. The years pass and the same things are happening, except I am progressively able to make it to more and more events. Not much changed in between the years except for the fact that I started trading and making investments a whole lot more. Believe it or not, the trading can add up. Make yourself an ebay account, sell to vendors, sell to the players in your area, and you will be seeing a lot more money in your pockets. There is just one rule, KNOW YOUR PRICES! They change every week, so keep up with them. If it weren't for trading, I honestly don't know if I'd even be playing yugioh. I find it to be a lot of fun, while also extremely profitable. Don't expect to be a millionaire day one, but as time goes by, you will see yourself with a lot more money! If you get started now, maybe you can make it to YCS Austin, or you could buy your loved ones something nice… I guess… but let's be real, AUSTIN TEXAS! I plan on writing more about this topic in the future, but for now, let's get to the main topic of this particular article.
About a year ago, I had an idea to invest in 3 copies (including the commons) of every Tournament Pack (TP), Champion Pack (CP), and Turbo Pack (TU) card as part of a collection. TP, CP, and TU cards are pretty rare since they are really only given out to players that enter tournaments. I noticed that a lot of the older tournament pack cards were pretty cheap for how rare they are. A lot of the cards in TP, CP, and TU are actually really good and there are always highly sought after cards in these packs. I'd say that the most sought after card currently in these sets is Ultimate rare Tragoedia. They retail for about $60+ right now and when I picked them up, they were only about $15-20 a piece. Recently the astral pack (AP) was released, so I had to accumulate all of the cards from the first AP as well. I managed to accumulate everything for my collection so far, except for 3x Night Assailant, 2x CP07 Lonefire Blossom and 1x Cp07 Homonculus the Alchemic Being.
Since I started my collection these cards have severely increased in price (I'm only going to list the foils for now):
TP1 Mechanicalchaser - was $35 now $45
TP1 Axe Raider - was $10 now $15
TP1 White Hole - was $15 now $25
CP01 Metamorphosis - was $8-10 now $12-15
CP01 Night Assailant - was $10-15 now $40-45
CP03 Spirit Reaper - was $45-50 now $55-60
CP04 Ultimate Offering - was $15-20 now $25-30
CP04 Apprentice Magician - was $5-10 now $20-25
CP04 Bottomless - was $65-70 now $85-90
CP05 Wave-Motion Cannon - was $5-10 now $15-20
CP07 Lonefire - was $10-15 now $30-35
CP08 Prohibition - was $5-10 now - $15
CP08 Dimensional Fissure - was $15-20 now $20-25
TU03 Rekindling - was $15-20 now $30-35
TU03 Treacherous Trap Hole - was $-5 now $12-15
TU04 Tragoedia - was $15-20 now $60-65
TU04 Debris Dragon - was $8-10 now $12-15
Tu04 Deep Sea Diva - was $12-15 now $30-35
TU04 Compulsory Evacuation Device - was $10-15 now $35-40
TU07 Ally of Justice Catastor - was $15-20 now $30-35
TU07 Horn of the Phantom Beast - was - $5-10 now - $25-30
An honorable mention goes out to TU06 Stardust Dragon. Last year, I could easily pick them up for $1 and now I can easily sell them for $10.
Of course, quite a few cards did drop in price a bit, but that doesn't really matter too much for me. This is, after all, just a collection. I have no intentions of getting rid of it, but I do however intend on selling the cards that have increased if I feel they will eventually lower in price again. This is one of the most important factors in an investment. You formulate a theory (in my case, it was that I thought a lot of these tournament exclusive pack cards would gain value) and you sit on this investment until the time is right. At this point in time, this is actually why I am missing Lonefire Blossom and Night Assailant. While I did actually have them, I sold them when they skyrocketed in price. I felt that they were cards that would eventually lower in price. Lonefire has been slowly, but steadily decreasing in price, but I think I may have made a mistake on selling my Night Assailants for $35 at the beginning of the September 2012 ban list. They seem to be increasing when I thought they would be down to $20 in no time. Only time will tell if that will prove to be true, though.
I am not telling you all to make the same investment as me, but it would be smart to make an investment you see to be beneficial for yourself. Do not go investing in Mokey Mokey Smackdown, thinking Mokey is the next great deck. Have at least something to give you incentive. For example, the new Harpie support is being release, and they are all winged beasts. Maybe it would be a good idea to invest in Icarus Attack and Swallow's Nest. I have made plenty of terrible investments. I once let a friend convince me that Koa'ki Meiru was the next tier one deck, so I invested around $150 in some of the support cards. Needless to say, I lost $150… but these things happen. Don't let one bad investment turn into a barricade for your future endeavors of making investments.
HOW TO MAKE A PROPER INVESTMENT FOR THE FUTURE
The March 2013 forbidden list is right around the corner. A forbidden card or two usually becomes restricted to one every ban list or so, so another great investment to have is a Forbidden Card collection. Believe it or not, I also have another collection. Every time I come across a forbidden card, I throw it inside this box and just let it sit there and collect dust. Once the new forbidden list comes around, I make a couple of bucks. It really isn't like I'm losing money either. You see, forbidden cards are banned from play so they can't really increase in popularity all too much. This means that their prices will remain pretty stagnant for the most part. That means you could hold onto your $2 rare Dark Magician of Chaos for a year, and it will probably still remain at $2 next year. Why not just keep it and see if it becomes limited to one (PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS KONAMI). Unless you are desperate for that $2, I would recommend holding onto you forbidden cards, especially since we are only around a month and a half away from seeing a leaked forbidden/limited list.
JAPAN IS YOUR FRIEND
Japan is always ahead of us in terms of a card pool. I believe they are a set or two ahead of us and while almost everyone acknowledges this, not a lot of people take the time to take a look at the future of the TCG. There are plenty of sites that reveal top tournament decks and popular cards in japan. People who take advantage of these sites can really gain an edge when it comes to investing in the right cards. Horn of the Phantom beast was an easy pickup prior to Cosmo Blazer. It was a $8-10 card and it would be fairly reasonable to pick a few (or even more) up in hopes of the card skyrocketing in price. For the few duelists who managed to do this, congrats! You netted yourself a whopping $15-20 each copy and it seems that the card will continue to rise if the all the hype is true. We will need to wait for YCS Miami to see if it is, though. Another easy investment was Deep Sea Diva before Abyss Rising. The card went from $10-15 to $40-50, and now it is going for around $30.
THE FUTURE: POSSIBLE PLUSSES?
Noble Knights
Konami seems to be putting their all into this deck. With a bunch of new support every set, I'd say this deck will be top tier pretty soon. Of course, this may not prove to be true, but I really don't see how you could really lose money by investing in these. Most of the cards are extremely cheap and you wouldn't lose much by holding a few copies of each
Summoner Monk
Summoner Monk has a whole lot of synergy with Harpies. First of all, it can search Chaneller, which is pretty much just another monk, but on top of that, it can easily ditch a copy of Hysteric Sign from your hand, and what that means for you is +3 Harpie cards during the end phase. If Harpie truly does become a tier one deck, I have no doubt that a lot of builds will be running 2 copies of the summoner of monks.
STICK WITH YOUR GUT
There are just some cards that too good not to be run, but for some reason or another just don't have a home in any real deck. Maybe soon in the future, people will find a way to break these cards and they will become good. I think these are the kinds of cards are worth investing in, but I wouldn't go too out of the way to get them.
Wattgiraffe - The perfect example of a card like this, in my eyes, is the card Wattgiraffe. If you don't know what it does, it pretty much gets to attack directly with 1200 attack and then your opponent can't use anything for the rest of the turn. So you can pretty much just get a hit in with Wattiraffe in the battle phase and then do some cool tricks in the Main Phase 2 and really shift the tempo in your favor.
Into the Void - Into the Void is also a pretty solid card that hasn't really ever done much in yugioh. Say some sort of FTK deck happens to become a thing in yugioh… well guess what? Into the Void will almost definitely be played in it, and that card has not ever been reprinted. This cards price would be super high if it ever got play.
Seven Tools of the Bandit - Seven Tools of the Bandit was most definitely my favorite trap card during the format where Heavy Storm was forbidden not too long ago. If it happens again, I believe the card will spike in price again, and quite a bit at that.
Well that's it for this weeks article. Please let me know if you would like me to continue this series in the comments. I would also like to know some other card that you guys think are invest-worthy.
- Paul
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