No no no, thats not it at all. In fact I just signed up. It was more of a statement as to why the magictcg sub is becoming more like /r/trees than a good info sub. I totally agree with starting one of our own. infact I will post good stuff I find also. I hate to admit it, but I have been to 4chan and seen the threads about messing with reddit AND the mtg sub in particular!

But if someone is truly a \”moron\”, how likely are they going to be to frequent a sub that is dedicated to finance? If we make a sub our own and fill it with our content and our people then it\’s on our terms. If you really think the finance sub is going to be similarly overrun, you don\’t realize what an optimist that makes you considering I\’ve been trying to get people to join for over a month and we only have 50 subscribers and I\’m the sole content contributor. I can\’t even get the mods from the general magic sub to include our sub in the \”complete list\” of magic subs despite them linking to subs like r/altered

And this is coming from the leader of the mtgo reddit clan.

Reddit is not what it once used to be. It’s full of a bunch of fickle bitches. I love reddit and have for a long time, but it’s true.

As far as speculation being secretive, it\’s about timing. If you buy as many copies of a card as you can afford to buy, then why not let other people in on it? If they make some money on your spec they will like finance more, and the more stores that get bought out, the faster the price goes up and your spec becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I really forsee this subreddit resembling the QS forums in a lot of ways, only since it\’s not exclusive people keeping specs to their chest. What will instead drive the content is articles about trading, etiquette, metagame analysis and that sort of thing. Not all finance is speculation.

I agree demeanor and attitude when trading goes a long way in any trade because as you states no one wants to try and trade with the meanest guy in the place.

I want a community where finance can be discussed in a constructive matter but the advice is only as good as the source. Again as you stated its a full time job keeping up on the numbers for current cards, cards you are specing on, buylist prices etc. everything that can get you value at some point. I have a full time job and i keep up on popular standard cards, spoilers, and then i know my modern and legacy staples and have a couple of specs in modern currently and that is streching me. Most people arent willing to put in that much time in to allow themselves to have an educated opinion that can contribute to a constructive discussion about finance.

Great reply and as always great article jason sorry i didnt mention that before. I think this article starts a very important discussion about mtg finance what it is and who it is etc.

@Deathnstuff on twitter

You make some good points – I feel the same way, I’ve been trying to get into this to help cover my costs and, frankly, to feel like the smartest guy in the room when my spec hits. In hindsight, helping cover costs, for me, is a reasonable goal but the whole impress-my-friends-and-rivals fantasy is ridiculous because it muddies the waters and makes it harder to trade with people if I’m secretly nuturing some play. In my experience, people catch on if you’re being cagey and go elsewhere. Most people are looking to get new cards with the ones they already have, they’re not generally looking to “buy low sell high” on everything with a profit motive. They’re there to play competitively, or round out their EDH deck, or… everything but try to make money. I’ve had decent success with “Sorry, I can’t trade that one for that price unless I get X, because I think it’s about to go up because of this other interaction” – sometimes people get defensive but other times it’s the start of a longer conversation where they start to value the forward-looking viewpoint we tend to take. In short, when I acted like I was trying to trick people, they acted like I was trying to trick them. When I acted like I was having a conversation with people, they acted accordingly. Even if you sat down with someone for hours and explained every possible spec you were working on, it wouldn’t matter. The amount of work we’re all doing to stay on top of it is a high barrier to entry, and every PTQ or invitational or GP or whatever risks pressing the reset button on all of it.

And I agree to an extent about durdly combos etc – except if people are getting excited about stormtide leviathan plus boil, that means if you want to stick to your profit motive you better pick up some boils and stormtides if you’re heading down to your LGS. It’s not my place to tell someone I’m trying to trade with “that combo sucks, you’re an idiot”. That is how the French say “screwing yourself over”. SCG prices and PTQ decklists are the bible for us (I check that stuff daily) – but a good portion of the MTG community (30%? 50%?) doesn’t give two squirts what a given card is going for, or exactly what won the PTQ, if they don’t plan on using it – they want to know if the card they opened the other day can get them what they need for their wolf tribal deck or whatever. If they want stormtide+boil, give them stormtide+boil – you might get their shocklands on the cheap if you have it in your binder ready to go. First and foremost, you’re dealing with people – if you know how to do that, you’re already going to do better than an asshole with perfect market knowledge – because no one talks to that guy, let alone trades with him.

Jason, your articles are awesome – (“How come thargtusk cost so many money?” Hilarious!) keep it up dude.

In the spirit of reddit let the down votes begin.

Tl;Dr Allowing people that upvote derpy combos might not be best community to have mtg finance discussions with.

@Deathnstuff on twitter