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The last 18 months have seen a number of Kickstarter & IndieGoGo* crowd-funding campaigns in Magic: the Gathering. It's a sign that our community really is as tight-knit as everyone thinks, and it bodes well for the future of independent Magic projects. Until recently, aspiring creatives and ambitious engineers were at the whims of WotC and the large dealers, but now the community is showing that it's willing to come out in force to support what it believes in.
Don't take this the wrong way - Magic wouldn't be where it is today without the sponsorship of brands like Cool Stuff Inc, Star City Games and TCGPlayer. In fact, it's doubtful that QS would be where it is today without them. Both of QS's founding members owe a tremendous debt to these companies - Doug wrote a Legacy column on SCG, Kelly wrote forTCGPlayer & ManaNation (which was then acquired by Cool Stuff Inc and merged with GatheringMagic, which then allowed MN founder Trick Jarrett to move on to a career with WotC). Without these guys, we'd still be praying for 'ramen profitability' from Google AdSense.
But this is 2015, Year of the Kickstarter. And what we're trying to tell you is, pay attention. Unless you're living under, or chained to the rocks, you know what PucaTrade is. They raised a successful crowd-funding campaign on IndieGoGo a little while ago, and now they're going back to the well to really step up their game.
Here's why this is the most important crowd-fund of the year: it's about Magic Online. We all hate trading on MTGO. It's clearly not designed with finance in mind, nor does that figure to change any time soon. Well, Eric and the gang from PucaTrade want to fix that. They have 66 hours left and are almost 90% of the way to their goal. If they don't close that 10% gap, they get nothing.
Come on #mtgfinanciers. Let's make this happen.
*Fun Fact: QS and IndieGoGo were both runners up in a business contest in 2011. We got to travel all over the world and meet Magic players from London to Paris to New Zealand. IndieGoGo got 2nd place. We got...not 2nd, but we did get to meet IGG's founders!
Liquidity between MTGO and paper Magic is a very worthwhile goal. I wish these people the best and hope they manage to pull it off. I wonder, though: if they succeed, how would being able to withdraw digital cards in paper form affect the redemption process / economics?
Very good question. I’m honestly not sure! This is kind of unprecedented!
I don’t like change. I would like to find a counter movement…
Fund***
so if I pay for this, I get a virtual badge… really?
I realize it’s too late, now, (and irrelevant, since they hit their goal, anyways) but it’s too bad that they couldn’t partner with WotC, where WotC would
turn on their money-printing machineopen their vault of judge promos, and give them out as rewards for contributing. It’s hardly unreasonable, given that what these guys are doing would add significant value to WotC’s product offerings.