This is a great thing to talk about. Giving away cards earns a ton of goodwill and costs you pennies.

Lol, but that’s not why we do it… 😉

And, a good use for bulk is to improve your reputation around a local game store. My husband and I give away tons of commons to new kids or people who haven’t seen cards before Zendikar. People around my area know I buy and sell collections, know sometimes I have bulk un/c for free, and know if they need money between paychecks I am the best source in the area. Giving away free commons rather than making nickels probably benefits me more in creating a larger, healthier player base, giving me a reputation as someone helpful to new players, and spurs new trades or card interest by inticing people to build new commander decks or taking up older formats (granted in a casual way). Last time I gave away cards, I took 2 four slot boxes to FNM, a few 500 count or so boxes from collections, gave kids under 16 a box, and told them to fill it. Worked well. If I had a better avenue for selling and shipping bulk I might do it, but the shipping price is just too big a barrier and the reputation bonus probably is worth more.

(SCGs search features would let you find that information without an Anders article, but again, dollar per hour rates matter more to smart flipper than total value and that type of activity doesn’t seem worth the time when there is a resource available. I do write updates on the lists from Chas when I gain new knowledge.)

I will say though, crystalcommerce startups with decent buylists are easy to sell to if your cards are sorted by set and alphabetical. The search feature built into cc sites allows you to search filters with un/c they will buy per set – easy to do.

5 seconds to pull and pile, 10 seconds to look it up and pile. Another 5 when sorting and packing, not counting the extra space it takes up in the box when you pile a bunch together. So 20 seconds? This is really debating semantics and is dumb, but 20 seconds for 4 cents means you’re making less than minimum wage even if you don’t incur additional expense by having to use a bigger box.

Not worth for me.

If some one is wasting 30 seconds to look up a card, they should probably reconsider their hobby..

The idea is that it’s not “Free.” You spent time doing it. For me, at least, spending 30 seconds on a nickel (instead of the penny I get for it at bulk) isn’t worth it.

I have found that MTG.GG has been absolutely crucial in helping me to maximize my efficiency and profits when collections flipping. Making a list, adding the cards, then sorting by highest buylist makes organization and shipping a breeze!

One thing I would say to prospective collection buyers/flippers would be this: Say you meet someone to check out and possibly purchase a collection. The collection is OK (some valuable cards), but the seller is just not willing to negotiate or maybe being pushy. Or perhaps the asking price is still too high for the actual value of what you have seen. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO RESPECTFULLY DECLINE OR WALK AWAY! Simple as that. You are NOT obligated to buy!! I was recently pressed into making a somewhat questionable purchase on a collection. I should have walked away, I knew it was iffy. Ultimately I was able to extract every last cent of value out of that collection and come out ahead, and I definitely owe that to QS and excellent articles like this one!! Thank you!

One thing I was wondering about though is people’s experiences of buylisting in Europe as opposed to the US. Is it any different? I can’t imagine there’s any profit in shipping to the US to buylist, so is the methodology still as viable or do people adjust for the EU?