|
 You may remember Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli from such news stories as "price-gouging vital AIDS medication" and "robbing you of your only chance to ever hear that one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album." Well, now he's back at it again! And what is it this time? http://kotaku.com/infamous-price-gouger-martin-shkreli-wants-to-collect-r-1783278015/amp Yup, Shkreli is trying to get into the Magic: The Gathering trade by buying the rarest and most sought-after cards in the game. Despite the possibility that he may end up in jail in the next year or two, Shkreli is looking to stock up on Black Lotuses and even hinted that he might be interested in buying the brand. What is Magic: The Gathering? For those of you who have known the touch of a woman, you may be wondering what the hell M:tG is. It is a trading card game where nerds spend thousands of dollars on cheap cardboard hardly even worth pennies if it were ever recycled for scraps en masse should this generation ever actually face a true war effort of the kind our grandparents, who mostly did not pretend to be wizards controlling a bunch of paper goblins in their spare time, experienced. What does this mean for the game? We can't say for sure why Shkreli is asking about buying these cards. We do know that they are expensive. An original Alpha edition Black Lotus recently sold for $27,302 on eBay and even beat-up, late printings can go from $4,000 to over $10,000. He may just want them for the bragging rights, but this is also the dude who doesn't actually care for Wu-Tang Clan and said he just wanted to buy the Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album because he thought it'd be funny to keep it from people. Shkreli could be trying to buy up as many copies of rare cards as possible to keep them out of the hands of nerds who actually want and would use them. Maybe he thinks it's funny, or maybe he's trying to price-gouge them so they become worth hundreds of thousands instead of tens of thousands. If he accomplishes this he will have a near monopoly on the market and could profit nicely. Ooooorrrr he could destroy them for the gently caress of it and laugh as life-long M:tG players weep. If this goes to it's farthest possible extremes, he could disrupt and destroy a carefully woven gaming economy and culture in one hostile takeover. Or maybe he just wants to get into a fun and socially active hobby and is looking to build a deck  Why should I care? Cause this is going to be loving hilarious if he is actually doing what it looks like he's doing. I don't know how this is going to end, but somebody's going to lose a fingat, and it won't be Shkreli. I can feel it.
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 14:47 |
|
|
this guy rules
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:27
|
|
|
the dude's a finance troll, he's just trying to stay in the news and spend all his money before the feds are done buttfucking him over his own retardation
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:30
|
|
|
Most find it wasteful, but I'm sure he finds spending thousands of dollars on a Beta comforting.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:31
|
|
|
It's obvious why he's doing this, the number of those rare old cards being sold is small enough he can effectively corner the market and then just sell em at whatever. It's literally the same strategy people corner mmo economies with, they just pick a sell value to stick to and then buy up anyone undercutting them so everyone else has to buy from them. It's basically foolproof as long as you can afford the initial investment.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:32
|
|
|
He doesn't have any money. How does he keep buying things?
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:33
|
|
|
Tom Gorman posted:this guy rules
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:42
|
|
|
ArbitraryC posted:It's obvious why he's doing this, the number of those rare old cards being sold is small enough he can effectively corner the market and then just sell em at whatever. It's literally the same strategy people corner mmo economies with, they just pick a sell value to stick to and then buy up anyone undercutting them so everyone else has to buy from them. It's basically foolproof as long as you can afford the initial investment. It's actually not foolproof because there's a really limited market for this poo poo and people will just say gently caress it and not buy from him.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:42
|
|
|
I don't care about this man's pithy attempts to remain in the public spotlight, op
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:43
|
|
|
lol if he buy up all those rare cards I'm 100% sure people are just going to buy reproductions lol it's ink on cardboard
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:44
|
|
|
I hope he buys all of my magic cards from me.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:45
|
|
|
Tardcore posted:lol if he buy up all those rare cards I'm 100% sure people are just going to buy reproductions lol it's ink on cardboard People literally trade/sell cards using jewelers loupes
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:47
|
|
|
it would be great if he somehow thought buying up student debt and used toyota corollas was the cool supervillain thing to do
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:49
|
|
|
What if they just print more Black Lotuses.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:51
|
|
|
He can rebuy the Mt gox domain name
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:51
|
|
|
is he horde or alliance?
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:52
|
|
|
I find the fact that pieces of printed cardboard sell for more than $0.50 more insane than the fact some rich douche is buying them up.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:53
|
|
|
tenspott posted:It's actually not foolproof because there's a really limited market for this poo poo and people will just say gently caress it and not buy from him. People already do this with each new set that comes out, it's more speculation based than anything but they guess what the money cards are gonna be and just snap em all up then relist at a markup, heck people try to do that poo poo with console releases it's p common. There is actually a pretty high demand on certain old staples and people already do this with various cards on the reserved list (it's actually been a hot button issue lately). Honestly I think black lotuses would probably be the dumbest choice of cards to corner but they will probably go up in value anyways like they've already been doing for the past 2 decades.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:54
|
|
|
CANNIBAL GIRLS posted:What if they just print more Black Lotuses. There's a list of cards wizards has sworn to never reprint because something about something about not wanting to ruin people's collections and them not really caring about competitive vintage.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:56
|
|
|
XyrlocShammypants posted:People literally trade/sell cards using jewelers loupes how do you know this? checkmate 
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 04:56
|
|
|
perhaps next he'll venture into the exciting and lucrative world of beanie babies
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:00
|
|
|
tenspott posted:It's actually not foolproof because there's a really limited market for this poo poo and people will just say gently caress it and not buy from him. Limited market might be the point. The Wu-Tang album was a mainstream slight and annoyed millions of people, but this hits a small and extremely dedicated subculture. It's going to sting a community more closely if access to valuable cards that are tournament staples are suddenly unavailable or cost $50,000. Theoretically, depending on his strategy and dedication, he could unravel two decades of Magic: The Gathering tournament culture.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:00
|
|
|
Oh no My Dual Lands!!
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:02
|
|
|
ArbitraryC posted:There's a list of cards wizards has sworn to never reprint because something about something about not wanting to ruin people's collections and them not really caring about competitive vintage. I'm sure people would understand once they realize how good of a troll it would be to let him buy up all of the rare cards only to start reprinting them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:03
|
|
|
TrixRabbi posted:Limited market might be the point. The Wu-Tang album was a mainstream slight and annoyed millions of people, but this hits a small and extremely dedicated subculture. It's going to sting a community more closely if access to valuable cards that are tournament staples are suddenly unavailable or cost $50,000. Theoretically, depending on his strategy and dedication, he could unravel two decades of Magic: The Gathering tournament culture. Those cards have been banned from tournaments for years but they're collectable.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:06
|
|
|
eric posted:Those cards have been banned from tournaments for years but they're collectable. wow look at this sex-having idiot
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:07
|
|
|
CANNIBAL GIRLS posted:I'm sure people would understand once they realize how good of a troll it would be to let him buy up all of the rare cards only to start reprinting them. That would be a stroke of art if bought all those up only for the price to drop to 50$ a card
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:07
|
|
|
TrixRabbi posted:Limited market might be the point. The Wu-Tang album was a mainstream slight and annoyed millions of people, but this hits a small and extremely dedicated subculture. It's going to sting a community more closely if access to valuable cards that are tournament staples are suddenly unavailable or cost $50,000. Theoretically, depending on his strategy and dedication, he could unravel two decades of Magic: The Gathering tournament culture. Black Lotus cards are novelties, at best. Banned in every format except Vintage, where they're restricted to a single copy in each deck. The problem is Vintage is a dead format that is never played anywhere except extremely dedicated stores and certain tournaments.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:07
|
|
|
Oh poo poo trap sprung
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:08
|
|
|
So pretty much he's an IRL Seto Kaiba who collects super expensive rares for a children's card game. What a loser. Then again, I'm not going to lie, if he ever makes a version it can be played with holograms, I would seriously consider getting back into MTG.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:08
|
|
|
"and this, mr. shkreli, esquire, is what is called a holographic land" shrkeli: *slowly rotates the island from the left to the right under well controlled but cooperative lighting conditions* i-it's like i'm there, w robinson crusoe and gilligan
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:12
|
|
|
martin shkreli look like he's the antagonist in a night of the living dummies goosebumps sequel
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:13
|
|
|
If you play MtG and give even an ounce of poo poo about the over powered first run cards you probably deserve a shkrelli dick in yo rear end. I've not played the game in like 20 years but every time it comes up all I can do is wonder why everyone isn't just buying the bootleg set from china and PLAYING THE loving GAME for a fraction of the price. Randomly generated sets are horrible for any game.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:14
|
|
|
Tardcore posted:That would be a stroke of art if bought all those up only for the price to drop to 50$ a card For poo poo like the p9 I imagine it'd be different but surprisingly when wizards reprints old cards that are pretty valuable (but like 50-150, not thousands) the prices tend to go up cause suddenly people opening packs get a couple and then decide they want to complete a playset so they hit the secondary market and everyone is buying. It increases the supply but increases the demand even more.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:15
|
|
|
Wendigee posted:If you play MtG and give even an ounce of poo poo about the over powered first run cards you probably deserve a shkrelli dick in yo rear end. because the game is actually pretty unfun and nobody would play it without the sunk cost fallacy aspect
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:15
|
|
|
Magic Rabbit Hat posted:Black Lotus cards are novelties, at best. Banned in every format except Vintage, where they're restricted to a single copy in each deck. The problem is Vintage is a dead format that is never played anywhere except extremely dedicated stores and certain tournaments. When my friends and I played we'd print out copies of the good cards and glue them to basic lands and allow four per deck. Those games were fun and the cards were hilariously broken even 15 years ago.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:15
|
|
|
AugmentedVision posted:because the game is actually pretty unfun and nobody would play it without the sunk cost fallacy aspect I use cockatrice and I think it's still fun
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:17
|
|
|
Tardcore posted:I use cockatrice and I think it's still fun Every now and then I'll play the old magic shandlar pc game and it's still fun
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:18
|
|
|
Wtf? He goes after expensive, but common "rare" cards? Try dipping your toes into "Summer Magic", and then give me a call, fuckboiii
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 14:47 |
|
|
This is definitely cooler than the time he used his big money dollars to buy AIDS and give people it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 05:20
|
|
