Puca Pals: Week 19 and 20 – Tis the Season (Throw-Ins)

Puca Pals is a weekly/bi-weekly article I write to chronicle my adventures on Puca Trade, the online trading system where Magic Players around the world trade with each other. In the articles, I will be discussing what cards I’ve traded away, the total amount of shipping I’ve paid, the total profit I’ve made after shipping costs, and what cards I’ve received in return. If you have any questions regarding the website feel free to ask. If you want to make your own account there, click on this unique invite link of mine and get started!

Week 19 and 20: June 23rd – July 7th

Just when I think there is nothing else to add to the Puca Trade experience, inspiration strikes and I get drawn back in. Just in time as well. This will probably be my last Puca Trade article this year and will also serve as a year in review. Well, at least 20 weeks in review, or about 140 days of Puca Trading. At the end of the article I’ll be tallying up a few numbers I’ve been collecting such as how much I’ve spent on on cards during this 20 week period, how much I’ve spent on shipping, and how much profit I’ve received during those first 20 weeks. Eventually I’ll make it back to 1 whole year using Puca Trade, and at that time I’ll be sure to do the same thing, but until then hopefully you’ll bear with me as I continue to talk about what I’ve done, what I’ve received, and what I’ve learned.

Cards Sent:

• Sliver Queen x2
• Timber Protector x2
• Mogis, God of Slaughter (foil)
• Darksteel Forge
• Platinum Angel
• Sliver Hivelord x2
• Oath of Druids x2
• Phyrexia Tower
• Palinchron (foil)
• Urabrask, the Hidden
• Puresteel Paladin x4
• Galvanoth
• Wild Defiance x2
• It that Betrays (foil) x2
• Rune-Scarred Demon
• Heartless Summoning
• Coffin Queen
• Burgeoning
• Omnath, Locus of Mana
• Raging Ravine
• Viridian Claw
• Chancellor of the Spires
• Auntie’s Hovel x4

There were a lot of money cards that went out during these two weeks, and there’s a reason for that. I went over to Shizuoka prefecture and scoured the stores there which were relatively untouched, giving me the “pick of the litter” so to speak. I managed to pick up a lot of cards for very good prices, and managed to double what I spent on them, if not more. This was after GP Chiba mind you, and just before MTG Origins was released. Lots of speculating was going on, and lots of people were getting into Modern. I sent out 35 cards total, 25 going out in week 19, and 10 going out in week 20. I’d also like to make a correction. I had mistakenly added a Sliver Queen to my previous article, when in reality it went out during these two weeks along with another one I had picked up in Shizuoka.

Initial Costs and Total Shipping

I made BANK during this period of Puca trading. As I stated in the last article, the Sliver Queens I bought cost me 2180 yen ($18), and that was only the tip of the iceberg. I got a foil Mogis, God of Slaughter for 1000 yen, Sliver Hivelords for 280 yen, Oath of Druids for 180, and Timber Protectors for 180 yen, but by far the best pick up from this time was a foil Palinchron.

Bought for only 3780 yen (about $33 at the time), I ended up trading it away for almost double it’s value. I think at this point I wasn’t going to play around with small shipments anymore and I was ready for a higher form of investment to gain maximum profits. Other notables were It that Betrays foils for 980 yen (before they were reprinted), and a playset of Auntie’s Hovels for 300 yen each just as they were spiking due to speculation.

I only made 20 shipments during this period, with 16 costing me 110 apiece, one costing me 90 yen (to Southeast Asia), and the other 4 “big” shipments costing 520 each for registered mail. 3930 yen for 35 cards, or 112 yen per shipment is a little more than I’m used to paying to send cards out, but what I made in return more than made up for it I think.

Profit and How Long it Took to send cards

After shipping, I made a $17 profit on each Sliver Queen, $23 on the foil Palinchron, $13 in profit on 3 Puresteel Paladins, $10 profit on the Mogis foil, $25 total profit on the pair of It that Betrays foils, and about $20 in profit on a playset of Auntie’s Hovels that I sent out during the spike. If we break it down into Puca Points, I made 15,285 points in total profit during week 19 on 20 cards, and a miniscule 3870 points in week 20 on 10 cards. Overall I scored a 19,155 point (or almost $200) profit. Of course this is all profit purely made on Puca Trade, but if you consider I basically earned a “Tarmogoyf” in profit in two weeks, that’s pretty good.

Week 19’s per card profit was 611 points per card, and week 20’s profit was 387 points per card. Let that sink in. I made only 198 points per card profit in week 17, but I tripled it in week 19. I profited more from Puca Trade in that one week than I did in almost a month leading up the Grand Prix in Chiba. I did less work for more profit, which is how it should be. I’m glad to get rid of all of my extra garbage, but first and foremost I’m looking to make a profit from Puca Trade, and it hasn’t let me down yet.

I decreased my losses to about 20%, which is an improvement from the previous periods 23, but it could have been much better if I had sent out more cards of substantial value, but without having to pay for the tracking. I basically paid $20 in shipping on 4 cards (which all netted me a nice profit), and the only way I can see how to improve this number is if I send out more expensive cards in the same shipment or if I keep the value of cards I ship to one person above 2000 (but less than 3000 points). This will allow me to maximize my points without eating into my profit potential as much.

I had absolutely no problems with shipping during these two weeks. As usual, most cards took between 7-10 days, with my longest one taking 12 days to be sent to the USA. Quite a few cards only took 5-6 days to arrive at their destination, which is pretty darn good for Japan. Europe is still my favorite place to send cards.

What I Received

It was a rather slow 2 weeks on the “want list” front, and I’m partly to blame for that. I didn’t really have a lot of cards on my list during this period, and if I did people simply weren’t sending them (such as any of the staples from Modern Masters 2015 – e.g. Fulminator Mage, Noble Hiearch, etc). However, there was one really sweet card that I got from a fellow MTG player in Japan (whom I had met at GP Chiba):

Picking up my third Tropical Island was a really good feeling, and it finally put me on the path to building a Legacy Infect deck so I could move away from UR Delver. I also picked up an Anafenza for 437 points before she spiked, but most of the other cards I got during this time were cheap cards I wanted for my fun decks. Going only for Legacy and Modern cards made receiving cards rather difficult. It’s always better to ask for a little bit of everything so that you’re always guaranteed to get something.

Tis the Season: Gift Giving (or the Benefit of throw-ins)

Christmas is just around the corner, and hopefully some of you get some great gifts. However, it’s always better to give than to receive (or so they say ^_^). Some of you might do this already, but for those of you that don’t, consider giving people some free cards when you send them their card on Puca Trade. It can be a random foil card you have, extra lands, tokens, promos, or just stuff you want to get rid of like excess commons from opening up too many packs. It really doesn’t matter what you end up deciding to send along with your trade, and I’d also like to say that you shouldn’t feel pressured to have to add cards to your package. However, if you do add in some extra cards to your shipment for free, there is a good chance your luck can change.

Giving someone a surprise foil land, FNM promo, or a somewhat rare token can have a number of surprising benefits. While you might not see it right away, the goodwill created from that small act of kindness could turn into something really good down the road.

As I said before about how being a fast, efficient sender on Puca Trade builds trust between you and other people, the same can be said about throw-ins. The people you give presents to will remember who you are more often than not and when it comes to sending cards on your want list you can be sure that they’ll consider sending it to you before the countless other people that want it. Aside from improving your reputation, other possible benefits could be leeway in trading (getting something cheaper or sending something at less than NM), your trading partners recommending you to their friends (advertising), and the exposure you get from people Tweeting about the awesome addition to their package can all improve your overall experience with Puca Trade.

If you have any other questions or comments about today’s article please feel free to leave them down below! If you enjoyed this article and are convinced to start a Puca trade account, feel free to thank me by using this link to give me a referral bonus! If you are already a member (and have a silver or gold account) and want to show your appreciation, I’m always willing to accept gifts of points ^_^. Just check out my profile and click the “SEND POINTS” button. Thanks again for reading and see you back here in a few weeks for my next update!