Spoils from Eternal Weekend

Last Friday, my friend Sean and I made the two-hour pilgrimage to Pittsburgh for the day to trade/buy cards and bask in the glory of Eternal Weekend. Though unable to attend Sunday's offsite oldschool event due to scheduling, a perk of being at the convention center prior to the weekend was the trove of alpha and 93/94 inventory still available to pore over. The flow of cardboard during the rounds of Friday's Vintage tournament was fierce, and vendors were already boasting about the volume of rounded corners moved the day before. From all appearances, demand for iconic alpha cards unsurprisingly outpaced supply, and tuned ears could readily pick up whisperings of "Alpha 40" amid the throngs perusing glass cases.

In addition, there was the (verified?) rumor that a buyer had purchased a vendor's entire stock of graded cards at a seven-figure valuation on Saturday. That's going to be a sweet oldschool deck.

I went in carrying as little as I thought I could get away with while still having sufficient trade assets for any opportunities that arose, which still ended up being well into the thousands of dollars worth of quarter-century-old cardboard. At the entrance to the hall, workers tag your wrist and bag with matching numbers that get checked again on the way out, a welcome theft deterrent that helps ease the anxiety of feeling like a walking ATM. But it reality, what eases it more is wandering between vendor booths and Vintage match tables contemplating your own collection's relative insignificance among the enormity of the whales. In the end, don't fear to attend these kinds of events, so long as you're reasonably careful.

My lucky number for the day.

Having traded into a beta Mox Jet earlier in the year and buylisted my Modern collection to the bone in favor of oldschool cards, I wasn't prepared to make a push into a third piece of power this year. The only piece I currently own aside from the Jet is this Unlimited Ruby, and neither of these was I willing to part with.

According to reddit, any Magic card over $77 is literally worth more than its weight in gold.

As such, my focus was squarely set on upgrades for the alpha project, and on the drive over Sean and I had discussed prospective high-end transactions depending on what was for sale. Vendor inventory certainly didn't disappoint, and though I ended up trading out of my sole Juzam Djinn, the proceeds, along with some lesser assets (mostly cash), netted this haul:

More gp than I care to think about, tbh.

These exchanges, made over the course of a few hours, would have required days if not weeks of effort using online mediums. Through it all, I also managed to retain the graded Hypnotic Specter mentioned in the previous post, which I proceeded to crack open shortly after arriving back home in the evening.

I've never damaged a card over dozens of prison breaks, but admittedly got a little overzealous with the metal cutters and nearly ripped this one in half. The BGS inner-sleeve turned out to be a lifesaver.

My deck is now 45 cards strong, with an amount of fast mana that I formerly wouldn't have thought feasible. Probably a little low on lands at this point, so I may shave a few cards to improve the ratio while keeping the total count over 40 (Evil Presence, Bog Wraith, and Paralyze feel like prime candidates). Appropriate to the season, I've a lot to be thankful for as this year-long endeavor draws to a close.