Great Condition Alpha set on eBay

mmgun · Post by **mmgun** » Tue May 29, 2012 1:59 am

Anyone has some recommendation for shipping a us ebay auction item to europe and avoid customs ?
Is "USPS First Class Mail International" enough and includes some insurance or is "USPS Priority Mail International" necessary for 100$ + items?

kidicarus2000 · Post by **kidicarus2000** » Tue May 29, 2012 2:13 am

Hey mmgun! This is Preston, the owner of Icarus Magic. I'm not sure what your username is on eBay, could you tell me the $ value of items you won? I can help you decide the best way to ship your order based on that. Usually, I recommend Priority Mail for anything over $300 or so, and Express Mail for $500+ orders. Express Mail is the only service that is tracked door-to-door like UPS and Fedex, so it's very nice on expensive orders (it also comes with insurance).

Please send me a PM here (or on eBay) and I'll be happy to discuss it with you. Talk to you soon!

magicmisprints · Post by **magicmisprints** » Tue May 29, 2012 3:09 am

And the new price of a NM ungraded broken Alpha set is ... just shy of 34K. Grats, Preston! I and other Alpha set owners around the world salute you.. and drool.. and wonder..

kidicarus2000 · Post by **kidicarus2000** » Tue May 29, 2012 3:27 am

magicmisprints wrote:And the new price of a NM ungraded broken Alpha set is ... just shy of 34K. Grats, Preston! I and other Alpha set owners around the world salute you.. and drool.. and wonder..

In the interest of full disclosure, here are a couple things to factor into that price:

The auction total for everything was $34,296.93. There was no Timetwister included and a couple other small cards, so the set value is probably right around $35k.

Also, the Lotus ended up having inked edges. I didn't catch it until just after the auction ended and I was moving the card to get it ready to be packed up. I saw that the top edge looked weird, so I took it out and examined it further. I'm not sure how in the world I could have missed it originally, but all 4 edges (not the front or back face, but the edges) had been inked. The ink is not visible from the front or back of the card, which is why I missed it, but all 4 edges are completely black.

***Just to put anyone at ease who bought other items from the set: I immediately went and triple-checked all the other cards to ensure there was no edge inking. The other cards are all fine***

The Lotus being inked probably doesn't affect the price of a NM ungraded Alpha set, since everyone bid thinking it wasn't inked, but it certainly affects the value of this particular set since the Lotus wasn't really NM. Because of this, I will be relisting the Lotus next week with the ink damage in the title and description. It's still a great condition Lotus, but unfortunately is not NM or gradeable because of the inking. I'm still amazed that I didn't see the ink before, I've never missed anything like that. I didn't even think to check the edges, since there was no ink visible from either the front or back (which means whoever inked it did a really good job to keep it completely on the edges. Even though inking cards is completely moronic, at least this moron was good at what he did).

Hayden · Post by **Hayden** » Tue May 29, 2012 3:42 am

magicmisprints wrote:And the new price of a NM ungraded broken Alpha set is ... just shy of 34K. Grats, Preston! I and other Alpha set owners around the world salute you.. and drool.. and wonder..

Holy crikies

Congratz Preston

tap4black · Post by **tap4black** » Tue May 29, 2012 5:29 am

My 1300+ Alpha Rares salute the new standard for pricing!

Bummer on the Lotus, I told a friend to watch the card hit $5500-6000 and I was way too low it seems. Missed on alot of other cards too but at least I'll have something coming my way from that collection to add to the stash.

Keevy Bogsbury · Post by **Keevy Bogsbury** » Tue May 29, 2012 10:00 am

mystical_tutor wrote:Well the good news is that when you get your sealed Alpha starter deck box you will already have your Beta starter deck box.

You can't tell the difference unless you open it. Then, of course, it is no longer sealed.

Interesting dilemma. I have a couple folks wondering what to offer for the one I have. I have no advice for them....

Gary.

I also did not know that beta and alpha boxes were indistinguishable. What an interesting predicament...

But if I may ask, how did you originally acquire the box without knowing whether it was alpha or beta?

berkumps · Post by **berkumps** » Tue May 29, 2012 10:49 am

Congratz on the sales!

Are your current round of Alpha auctions duplicates, or relists?

tryst · Post by **tryst** » Tue May 29, 2012 12:10 pm

The only rares missing were:
Gaea's Liege
Purelace
Timetwister
Verduran Enchantress

Congratulations on the auction.

tryst

Kalle · Post by **Kalle** » Tue May 29, 2012 12:55 pm

I'm happy for you Preston!
I was bidding for the 128 U/C lot, but somebody outbid me at the end. :(
With these prices I guess my alpha set project will be harder than the summer uncommons set...

Default User · Post by **Default User** » Tue May 29, 2012 3:14 pm

Great results for Preston, but woe on me.

These auctions just destroyed several haggling sessions, when I have been trying to get a seller to lower their asking price of alpha Regrowth from 30 €. No hope of that anymore.

I also dropped out on every single alpha auction before the end, as the prices went way over what I had budgeted on every single card I was interested in. Who knew that NM alpha Kudzu is worth over 50 $? It seems that almost any alpha rare at nm condition is a snap buy at 20 € now.

Anyway congratulations on all the new proud owners of the cards.

GlobalBoosterHunter · Post by **GlobalBoosterHunter** » Tue May 29, 2012 3:26 pm

Yup, pretty much puts the breaks on me ever buying up some Power 9.

They were really nice condition compared to the other offerings on eBay at the moment, and better prices than all the buy it now offerings.

You never considered getting them graded before selling them?

kidicarus2000 · Post by **kidicarus2000** » Tue May 29, 2012 7:01 pm

Hey guys! To answer a couple of the questions:

berkumps - These are all duplicates, no relists. The only relist I have scheduled is the Lotus for next week, since I have to make a new listing with the updating ink information. It really is a shame that it has ink on the edges, it was a beautiful Alpha Lotus without the ink.

GlobalBoosterHunter - I would certainly have gotten some of these graded if they were mine, but I am consigning these for a customer (the same customer that I sold the Summer collection for last year and the NM Beta stuff for a couple months ago). He is retiring and didn't want to spend the time grading them, so we are selling them ungraded. Quite a few of them should get pretty high grades though, and I'm sure that's what some of the buyers have planned to do.

dry cereal · Post by **dry cereal** » Tue May 29, 2012 9:31 pm

I wonder if this is one reason for the high prices. Maybe the collectors are gambling on very high scores and paying a premium becuase they think it's a bargain?

*shrug*

tryst · Post by **tryst** » Wed May 30, 2012 4:38 pm

Grading is a scam.
None of my (admittedly modest) wins will ever be graded.
tryst

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Great Condition Alpha set on eBay

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