Yeah I am pretty much a n00b I think as the only language I have ‘touched’ is Java but i’m not entirely devoted on it so my knowledge is zero to none

Thanks for sharing your insights

I also agree Spanish sellers are kinda laid back with their grading system :/

I’ve also had a Spanisch seller send me cards in a different language.

Not to say others can’t make mistakes, but if something did go wrong it was resolved quickly and fairly, while for Spanish sellers it pretty much always needs MCM involvement.

My favorite french buylist is web only but the data can be extracted with a bit of twisted coding and formatting.

I am also avoiding if i can spanish sellers. As pi mentioned their nm is frequently ex.

I’m off getting cards from Spain, there is always something wrong and it’s hard to get them to do something about it. Their NM in my experience is not even EX, so I’d be very hesitant going by their EX…

Do you know other scripting languages? If you know something about Java, PHP, ASP I imagine, you can probably figure out VBA. It’s not a particularly difficult language.

Wow ‘VaultAge’ that seems pretty advanced stuff regarding the ‘Automatic buylist price updates’. Maybe it is me being an Excel novice. Do French websites mostly use Excel list for buylist?

I think MCM would be a sort of index of the ‘nutlow’ prices. I see more and more traders refer to Spanish Excellent priced cards when trading live/online. One also quickly forgets the different shipping cost based on country/reputation in extreme cases

Thanks for your input, do you know a source where I can learn this VBA thing ?
– Gervaise

I’ve given David the heads up. He seemed to appreciate it, though he was very busy, so we couldn’t have a long chat.

For quick wins (ie “arbitrage”) : a mix of Excel VBA to :

– Automatically get buylist prices updates / moves from the major game store in france. Il put a filter to get only cards above a minimum amount (5 euros).

Having this and storing it into an excel tab with update date avoids skimming through buylists for potential arbitrage opportunities.

– This gives me the sell price and what card are hot on the buylist (spotted a recent increase in green intensive creatures : primal crux…). I then

If / when I achieve full automation for this (ie sourcing prices from mcm ideally), this will save me precious time : Take 5 mn per day to get quick wins targets, order on whatever source and selling them back.

For long term positions (shocks, thassa, scavenging ooze…) : skimming through QS forums / spoiler reviews and performing my own value analysis. I take a few notes for the cards I think are good, then check prices history and source for the best supply i can find and sometime buy them. I usually use a sniper on ebay. This could / should be more rationalized though and it is not (at all) optimal in term of time/cost efficiency (I spend too much time to my taste doing this). I also go to my LGS to get new sealed products (bought theros event decks for instance).

As you mentioned, MCM is to my knowledge the only Mtg marketplace for europe. Having prices history / extracts would be key to enhance time & cost efficiency for mtg finance.

And I believe there is plenty more to do in that field !

I forgot to reference MTGstocks.com if you mean that with ‘David’

Nice to see that your expertise evolves around picking up these gems 🙂

Add to our European disadvantages the lack of buylists. Unless you have good contacts you’re only going to find a few that don’t pay very well.

I think the major thing I’ve managed to do better is trading for and moving bulk. I also bring my own experiences as a casual player to the table, which sometimes allows me to focus on different cards than others do and catch their (often gradual) upward movement. I have for example doubled up on Celestial Mantles while the card was probably off the radar for most in the finance community.