Thursday, March 31, 2011

A new giveaway option!

Another quick entry to explain the new choice in the giveaway Selection Election.

I have several of these Citadel Gaming MTG tokens, which look like little plastic tiles. This Magic Librarities entry shows what they look like.

I currently have Caribou (Version 1 and Version 2), Minor Demon, Skeleton (all 3 Versions), Snake (all 3 Versions) and Wolf. I've got 47 of them total at the moment.

I'm thinking of randomly picking 3 different tokens to make up a prize pack. And they could be yours IF:
  1. They are selected in this go-rounds blog poll; and
  2. You are randomly selected from among my email newsletter subscribers.
What? You aren't subscribed to my email newsletter? Well, you'd better pop over to www.DonsMagicAndSundry.com and sign up!

Monday, March 21, 2011

A Sticker Situation

Okay, here's the deal. For a while now I've been thinking that I need to get stickers made up that I can mail out to people who are interested. They, in turn, would stick these on their trade binders or what-have-you, and BAM - instant advertising campaign! It's worked very well for Yo! MTG Taps, MtGmom.com, and Quiet Speculation (all of whose stickers I proudly own myself).

But what would the stickers look like? I have business cards:


But while they are functional, they're rather boring. I don't think they'd quite grab the eye of someone when stuck to a binder.

So, I floated out the idea to @GriffnValentine, artist extraordinaire (see his work here), who designed the Academy West hoodie I have sported at all recent MTG events I've attended. He seems to have a soft spot for MTG-related pieces, so I thought he may be able to help. And help he has!

Here are the three mock-ups he just shared with me earlier today:

And here are his notes that accompanied the image:

"Here are my 3 ideas to start:

1. A very simple scroll design. It would be simple and crisp, not much going on.

2. A treasure room motif. The idea being that your sundries are basically a room full of treasure. Lot's of color, and lots of stuff.

3. A stylish, stoic angel. Again, clean and crisp, with a designy scroll at the bottom for info."

He also noted that he was up for suggestions should none of these three tickle my fancy.

Now, the problem is that it doesn't necessarily matter which one I like, because I am not the one who theoretically will be carrying this around on my trade binder! It's more important that it be something that people will gladly affix and carry around with them.

So, here's where you come in, faithful reader! Please make comments to this blog with your thoughts (or at least vote in the poll at the top of the page!). Do you particularly favor one of the designs over another? If you aren't particularly thrilled with any of these do you have an alternative suggestion? All opinions are appreciated!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Sell me your cards!

After much deliberation, and a successful experiment in buying (thanks, @xinpig!), I have finally decided it is time to adopt an official "buy policy". Many people have asked me if I have a Buy List, and this will be the closest I have to that for some time.

So, without further ado, here is (for the moment, at least) Don's Magic and Sundry's Official Buying Policy:
  • I will purchase any cards from you that I would list at $2 or more in my store.
  • I will pay 50% of my selling price as cash, 60% of my selling price as store credit (note that accepting store credit requires that you have an account set up at my store).
  • EXCEPTIONS: If the card is on my Non-Foil Needs List, I will pay 100% of my selling price as store credit. If it is on my Foil Needs List I will pay 75% of my selling price as store credit. These cards are easy to identify in my store inventory: they are the ones that have the silly "No Image Yet Available" Snowman Photo:
  • NON-ENGLISH CARDS: Chinese & Japanese cards will be purchased the same as English. All other languages I will buy at 85% of what I would pay for their English equivalent.
  • SPECIALTY CARDS: (e.g. miscuts, misprints, signed, crimped) These will be priced on an individual basis.
  • CONDITION: If the card's selling price would be over $20, I may be interested in buying it in played condition (Very Fine, Fine, Good or even Poor) but otherwise I am only interested in VF+ to mint cards (some very slight whitening from wear is okay).
  • WRONG SALE PRICE:Note that many cards in my inventory do not currently have a valid price listed (they are listed at $0). If you wish to see what my sell price would be for these, please let me know and I will adjust the listing accordingly.
So, what do you do if you want to sell to me?
  • Use my Contact Me form to drop me an email letting me know you're interested in selling.
  • I will email you back and ask for a list of the cards you would like to sell.
  • Once I have your list, I will create a Google Documents spreadsheet for you detailing my store sell price, my offer for store credit and for cash, etc. (see this document for an example of what that may look like). I will send you the link for that document.
  • You review the spreadsheet, and decide which (if any) of the cards you would like to remove from the sale. We then agree on a final deal.
  • You send the cards to me [you are responsible for any costs involved in shipping the cards to me].
  • Once I receive the cards, and verify their condition, etc. I will then pay you. If you choose cash, I can pay you either by PayPal transfer or check, whichever you prefer. If you choose store credit, I will credit your account with the appropriate amount.
I reserve the right to...
  • update my selling prices to reflect proper current market prices. For example, if a card has rotated out of standard and my current selling price is too high, I will lower the price in my store to reflect what the price should be now. Similarly, if I haven't had a card in stock for a long time and the price has gone up, I will adjust it up to reflect what it should be now.
  • NOT purchase bulk commons or uncommons. Sorry, but I have just too many of them I still need to process right now, I don't need to pick up any more!
  • purchase cards that may not be $2+ in the store, if I am out of stock of them right now.
  • refuse to purchase for any reason.