The Magic Librarities

Apologies if there is already a place for this, I should probably lurk more, but I have been on a few forums where you get a chance to say hi! before you start posting annoying questions etc.

Just somewhere you can tell the other members about yourself but more importantly about why you joined, what you are collecting, where you are and that kind of thing.

The member photos is a good idea, already stuck my ugly mug up there!

Cheers

Mark

Nice idea, I guess I'll get the ball rolling!

I came to Magic as a card collector, there hadn't been a Star Wars film for a few years and I was fed up of the same old Star Wars recycled cards, I was reduced to collecting "The Stars of Bollywood" as they were the only collectible cards in my town.

The owner of the local crafts/hobbies/collectables/junk shop called me over when I went in to buy some plaster of paris and wax. He showed me some Magic cards which had just come out and said the magic word, collectible!

He then ruined it by saying it was just like Dungeons and Dragons. So I passed. Some friends of Uni got me playing it a year or so later and to this day I tell myself that the cards I passed up on weren't Summer or Unlimited.

So I started collecting sets at Revised/Fallen Empires (Very annoyed at the four different versions of each cards) then got very annoyed at Fourth Edition reprints. Kept collecting until they started bringing out foil cards. Stopped playing around the same time but never got around to selling any of the sets. The extra money sure came in handy!

For some reason I never managed to quit and used to look out for foreign boosters whenever I went on holiday.

Recently I looked on eBay and saw a ton of boosters I didn't recognise so I thought I would pick some up. Then I picked up a few more. Then I started inputting them into a spreadsheet. Then I had about 95% of the English language boosters and I was back to being nearly broke again.

Then I remembered this site from the past and decided to see if I could get the last few, Alpha, Beta and Summer I needed. Instead I managed to find out about Global collections. Also managed to find quite a few foreign boosters for sale and a Summer Booster. So now I really am broke.

I decided that a Global Booster Collection would be unique (at least as unique as the other global booster collections)

Managed to pick up quite a few from eBay (me: Jislizard) and then my lurking on this site turned up MagicCardMarket so I picked up quite a few more.

Further lurking turned up cardplace.ru and now I have a nice chunk of Russian on their way.

In total I have about 225 different English language and about 440 different foreign language boosters, a few more samplers, demos and fake boosters. I wanted to have some alt. fourth so I had to get some starters, now I just need Alpha and Beta and I have a full set of those with a few handfuls of foreign starters thrown in for good measure.

So I am here hoping to fill a few gaps in the collection. I also managed to pick up a ton of extras along the way so hoping to offload some of them, I only need 1 German Homelands but ended up getting 28 of them. Same with Russian Ravnica, I was pretty desperate so ended up buying a box, have the other 31 lying around somewhere.

I would also like to find out how people go about organising, displaying and protecting their collections.

Anyway, always on the lookout for sealed random product and wouldn't mind catching up with any other booster collectors to see how they go about it. Also need to find a list of all the overseas editions, a list of all the characters on the booster wrappers (so I can ask by name rather than sending pictures of the ones I want) and a way to send out a want list. At the moment I have a big spreadsheet, loaded with pictures of all the boosters (about 56mb) so it is hard to send it out to people. Was thinking of uploading it somehow but don't have time to maintain a website.

Big thanks to all the members who took a chance and traded with me even though I was unregistered.

Mark

Welcome aboard Mark.

Drop me a PM if your really interested in a Beta (unscanned) booster.

Gary

Cool, welcome to the forum! :)

@ Gary: PM'd

@ Keevy: Thanks, it is a great group and I have been reading posts thinking "I know the answer to that one!" but haven't been able to post anything in response. Now there is no excuse.

let me guess:

Mark Livett ??

The world is small ^^

Heya Mark my down under buddy, welcome aboard! Good to finally see you here. You have to show off your collection with lots of pics soon.

=D>

mmgun wrote:let me guess:

Mark Livett ??

The world is small ^^

Hey, my secret identity has been revielled!

I don't know many people from Jena so I am guessing.... Bongoking! if so, thanks for the Japanese and Korean boosters!

Hayden wrote:Heya Mark my down under buddy, welcome aboard! Good to finally see you here. You have to show off your collection with lots of pics soon.

=D>

Hi yourself! It was good trading with you! Thanks for taking the risk of sending such a valuable item to a stranger on the other side of the world!

Without the key booster it would have been impossible to complete the set, now it is just very improbbable!

GlobalBoosterHunter wrote:

Hayden wrote:Heya Mark my down under buddy, welcome aboard! Good to finally see you here. You have to show off your collection with lots of pics soon.

=D>

Hi yourself! It was good trading with you! Thanks for taking the risk of sending such a valuable item to a stranger on the other side of the world!

Without the key booster it would have been impossible to complete the set, now it is just very improbbable!

It was a pleasure dealing with you as well. After the purchase you made from me I would easily recommend you to anyone. I know you will find many valuable leads on this site for your booster collection.

I hope so! I am quickly depleting the usual avenues, the collection has advanced rapidly, pretty much doubled in size this year. But that is all the easier to find items and it won't be long until they are finished.

I also seem to have picked up a ton of extras along the way and I could do with trading some of those away too!

I think the best thing I will be able to get from this site is information though!

Hi Everybody,

Following GBH's good idea, here I am.

My name is Sylvain aka Alifromcairo and I'm from Montpellier, south of France.

I've been introduced to Magic in 1994 with the 1st french limited set by my big brother.

I'm a staunch collector and a casual player as well, my taste goes mostly for the old stuff ! My current project is to gather my first Alpha complete set, which is becoming increasingly hard in a good shape, as you know.

In fact, my last connection on Magiclibrarities was back from 2005 under Alifromcairo2 username, when I was looking for Neutral Ground shop during my last NYC trip.

Since then and unfortunately the shop doesn't exist anymore and I never logged again here.

I regret it, and I'm willing to actively participate to this forum now, which I read for a long time, since the Ralph Herold era to be precise.

This forum definitively must live, because it has always been a reference for the true enthusiasts all over the world. So thanks to all of you who make it possible till now.

On a last note, please excuse my approximative english, I do my best to improve it !

Keep the thing rocking

Sylvain.

Welcome Back.

Gary

Hi I am Vegas10
I have been playing MTG off and on since the beginning (yes me and my dad bought a few starters of Alpha when the game debued at Gen Con)
still have a few of those alpha cards, though not in the best shape

I am a semi-competitve player, also play casual, and like everyone here have entirely too many cards, lol.

I am also a USPS Letter carrier, so if anyone ever has any mailing questions feel free to ask even if I don't know I can point you in the right direction

Right now I am moslty looking for T2 cards for decks but more in line with librarities I like Ink Blotted misprinted cards and looking for FBB duals ( 1 of each EDH).

Welcome vegas10!

Wow a USPS letter carrier, I'm sure our members have plenty of questions for you ;)

My first question being, does the Mail Recovery Center in Atlanta ever actually return anything? I've "donated" several packages of cards to them over the years.