Yesterday was both a good day and a bad day. Let me tell you about the bad first...
If you've been following this Blog for a while at all you know that I once, a couple of years ago, received a negative feedback from some crazy woman who never sent me a check, then was amazed that her item didn't ship. She left a nasty negative feedback, and apparently did this for several other sellers and her eBay account was closed down as a result. But, still, I had this one mark against me and a mere 99.9% positive for my eBay account. This made me seethe. But just a few weeks ago my score crept up high enough (I guess over 99.95%) that the score finally rounded up to 100.0% again. Yahoo!!!
That is, until yesterday. Some bloke who bought some cards, and later asked why they hadn't arrived, although the USPS tracking site says it was delivered. I don't know, I tell him - ask at his post office, maybe they can advise (maybe they marked it delivered, but couldn't fit it in the mailbox? Maybe it was left on his front porch and stolen? How am I supposed to know).
Well, it seems that this is not good enough for him. So yesterday I get a negative feedback rating with this message: "cards never arrived, i'd rather have a refund instead of having to track it down"!?!?! How, I ask you, can it be MY fault if the USPS messes up on his end? Or if the package is stolen? I sent the cards he ordered and paid for - I arranged for a tracking number to follow. I offered to insure the package (not taken). What more am I supposed to do?
What's even more galling is that this user has a feedback rating of 18 (1 of which is mine - I left a positive when he paid...I'm starting to understand why some sellers wait for positive feedback for themselves before leaving it for the buyer), and he's only been an eBayer since May 2007, so he's a newbie, doesn't know how things work, doesn't understand that he should try to work things out with a seller before leaving negative feedback...basically he REALLY pissed me off.
But I'm not bitter. Really. Ask anyone.
Okay, enough of my rant, sorry. So why was yesterday a good day? Because my Lorwyn cards arrived! Woo-hoo! After opening up my three boxes (I love the fact that these showed up on the release date!) I have all of the 121 commons (no surprise there - probably at least 4 of each, actually) and all of the 80 Uncommons (only 1 of a couple of them, but all), 69 out of the 80 Rares (not too shabby, really) and around 35 foils (mostly basic Lands and Commons, but some Uncommons and 1 Rare). This includes three copies of the second most popular card (judging by current eBay prices - in the $10-13 range), Gaddock Teeg. [The most popular, Thoughtseize ($23-26 range), I only got one of]. And I got several copies of the Lorwyn Dual Lands, which will be the topic of my next post.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
More on Lorwyn
Okay, Lorwyn is a pretty unusual set, for several reasons, and I want to discuss these over the next couple of quick posts.
Lorwyn is the first set in its block (logically called the "Lorwyn Block"). What makes it unusual here is that this block will only consist of two sets: Lorwyn, and Morningtide (the latter to be released in February 2008). Since the concept of the "block" was introduced, blocks have consisted of three sets, not two. Actually, one could make an arguement for the Ice Age Block as being an exception, as that originally consisted of only Ice Age and Alliances (Homelands, released between the two, was separate from the storyline described in them). However, when Wizards of the Coast (WotC) released Coldsnap back in July 2006, they "completed" the Ice Age block with a third set. But I digress...
For some reason WotC has decided to release two "mini blocks" this time around instead of a normal 3-set block. The Lorwyn mini-block will be followed by the Shadowmoor mini-block (which will consist of Shadowmoor and another set not yet officially named, but code-named "Doughnut" [Shadowmoor was code-named "Jelly" during development...and if you really care, Lorwyn and Morningtide were code-named "Peanut" and "Butter", respectively]). For a while WotC has been releasing 4 sets per year, those four being a 3-set block and some additional unconnected set (a "Core Set" like 10th Edition every other year, Unhinged, and Coldsnap). This year instead they will have two 2-set mini-blocks. Kind of a neat idea.
Okay...things to look forward to in posts to be released soon:
Lorwyn is the first set in its block (logically called the "Lorwyn Block"). What makes it unusual here is that this block will only consist of two sets: Lorwyn, and Morningtide (the latter to be released in February 2008). Since the concept of the "block" was introduced, blocks have consisted of three sets, not two. Actually, one could make an arguement for the Ice Age Block as being an exception, as that originally consisted of only Ice Age and Alliances (Homelands, released between the two, was separate from the storyline described in them). However, when Wizards of the Coast (WotC) released Coldsnap back in July 2006, they "completed" the Ice Age block with a third set. But I digress...
For some reason WotC has decided to release two "mini blocks" this time around instead of a normal 3-set block. The Lorwyn mini-block will be followed by the Shadowmoor mini-block (which will consist of Shadowmoor and another set not yet officially named, but code-named "Doughnut" [Shadowmoor was code-named "Jelly" during development...and if you really care, Lorwyn and Morningtide were code-named "Peanut" and "Butter", respectively]). For a while WotC has been releasing 4 sets per year, those four being a 3-set block and some additional unconnected set (a "Core Set" like 10th Edition every other year, Unhinged, and Coldsnap). This year instead they will have two 2-set mini-blocks. Kind of a neat idea.
Okay...things to look forward to in posts to be released soon:
- New card type: bring on the Planeswalkers!
- New Dual Lands (and these look to be as cool as the Ravnica block ones were)
- Going tribal!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Lorwyn is coming!
This Friday (October 12, 2007) marks the official release of the newest Magic: the Gathering expansion set, called Lorwyn.
This is the first set of a new "block", and as such is a rather large set, and includes its own basic Lands. The set will be available in 15-card booster packs as well as large "Tournament Decks". The latter typically is the only way to get the basic Land cards. I have pre-ordered two boxes of booster packs and a box of tournament decks, so I should be well stocked in short order to start selling Lorwyn singles. I'll have a couple of more posts on the subject of this expansion over the next few days as we lead up to the release, and as I open up my packs and see what cool cards await!
Store Update: I just today finished getting the last of Lot 26 listed in the Store. I have three more lots to go - two lots of all Foil cards, and one largish lot of all Foils & Rares. I also have new stock of unopened packs coming (I just recently won boxes of 10th Edition, Unhinged and Planar Chaos) so I have more of "Lot 7" to go. I'm particularly proud of the Unhinged box, as I paid less than $1 per pack for the 36 packs in the box - and each pack contains a basic Land card that I can sell for $1 each. Not too shabby.
The 10th Edition cards have been selling quite nicely. I have had several orders consisting purely of dozens of 10th Edition cards.
I've been having several auctions each week up, mostly consisting of complete common sets, unopened booster packs, and promo Foil card singles. These auctions have often gone well, and have brought customers in to buy more from the Store, which is of course one of the main reasons for having them.
This week I'm trying a new experiment - I have several "playsets" of four copies of a given 10th Edition uncommon card. Since I've bought so many boxes of 10th Edition at this point, I have WAY too many uncommon cards, and it seemed that selling playsets would be a way to cull the herd somewhat, as well as advertise that I have lots of 10th Edition available for sale.
More on Lorwyn tomorrow!
This is the first set of a new "block", and as such is a rather large set, and includes its own basic Lands. The set will be available in 15-card booster packs as well as large "Tournament Decks". The latter typically is the only way to get the basic Land cards. I have pre-ordered two boxes of booster packs and a box of tournament decks, so I should be well stocked in short order to start selling Lorwyn singles. I'll have a couple of more posts on the subject of this expansion over the next few days as we lead up to the release, and as I open up my packs and see what cool cards await!
Store Update: I just today finished getting the last of Lot 26 listed in the Store. I have three more lots to go - two lots of all Foil cards, and one largish lot of all Foils & Rares. I also have new stock of unopened packs coming (I just recently won boxes of 10th Edition, Unhinged and Planar Chaos) so I have more of "Lot 7" to go. I'm particularly proud of the Unhinged box, as I paid less than $1 per pack for the 36 packs in the box - and each pack contains a basic Land card that I can sell for $1 each. Not too shabby.
The 10th Edition cards have been selling quite nicely. I have had several orders consisting purely of dozens of 10th Edition cards.
I've been having several auctions each week up, mostly consisting of complete common sets, unopened booster packs, and promo Foil card singles. These auctions have often gone well, and have brought customers in to buy more from the Store, which is of course one of the main reasons for having them.
This week I'm trying a new experiment - I have several "playsets" of four copies of a given 10th Edition uncommon card. Since I've bought so many boxes of 10th Edition at this point, I have WAY too many uncommon cards, and it seemed that selling playsets would be a way to cull the herd somewhat, as well as advertise that I have lots of 10th Edition available for sale.
More on Lorwyn tomorrow!
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