Magic the Gathering as a 401k alternative?

Yes, someone gave me that advice last night - though honestly I'm hesitant to jump to the conclusion he was that batE36 M3 crazy.

I know nothing of the game, and not much more about the stock market, but I do know my 401k contributions barely cover my losses. According to the advice I was given, tracked over the last ~20-years Magic box sets are worth 300%-400% in 3-4 years. I've not yet had a chance to disprove or validate these claims, but I'm certainly going to look into it. Not that I'll dump thousands into their card sets, but if the story can be substantiated it may be worth picking up a few boxes.

Anyone here familiar enough with the game to know?

Sounds like it was good advice about 20 years ago. Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns and all that.

Be careful. A lot of people lost their ass when the cards/comic book market took a dump in the mid 90s. Remember what happened to Beanie Babies?

Amy wrote: Remember what happened to Beanie Babies?

I was JUST going to say that. I know somebody who lost probably $30,000 in the great Beanie Baby crash. Yes, that's thirty. THOUSAND. US dollars.

In reply to Duke:

Yes I've seen the remnants of that myself - I found a bag full of them in a box of sale "leftovers" priced at $10-each...I eventually got $1 for the whole bag (which I more than I gave for the entire box).

Though one big difference between Beanie Babies & Magic the Gathering is that Magic cards are actually used for a purpose, as opposed to just being "collectible".

You may want to look at your 401k mix and program fees. Mine has had it's ups and downs, but it has always been a net gain. I certainly trust it more than playing cards or stuffed bears.

I remember running into a guy at You Wrench It in St. Louis about 13 years ago. He had bought almost all of the Foxbody trim, interior and body parts in the place, it overflowed in his pickup bed.

I asked him about it, of course, and he said he owned 25 or so Fox Mustangs and was restoring them as part of his retirement plan.

He doesn't seem quite so crazy now.

woah. time to dig those cards out from the rubbermaid mostly full of baseball cards back in my parents basement.

Cayman GT4, mustang 350gt-r, tesla p85d or other options to consider

In reply to captdownshift:

If I had the cash for one of those I'd agree with you 100%...or at least buy it anyway and enjoy it for a few years & hope to (mostly) break even.

If Magic is just too weird for you, you can always try Legos:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/11817380/Lego-a-better-investment-than-shares-and-gold.html

My father was laid off once for 8 months and kept the same income level by selling old model cars. You can do the same thing with most anything collectible really, but their values change just like stocks, so you can get burned the same way.

Two words should tell you all you need regarding investing in collectibles... Beanie Babies.

petegossett wrote: I know nothing of the game, and not much more about the stock market, but I do know my 401k contributions barely cover my losses.

You must be in some astoundingly bad accounts, or else you must be trying to time the market and completely missing it each time.

Unless that was a great exaggeration.

Also, election campaign bumper stickers and pins

Hindsight is 20/20. You could invest in collectables, but there's going to be WAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaay more risk than reward. There's no way to know what's just a fad and what will grow more popular. That's not investing, it's gambling.

This is like putting most of your investment money in a couple small startups just hoping that they become the Next Big Thing.

Diversify your investments. Accept that dips in the market are a part of the cycle.

The annoying thing about Magic is that they've released the "rare" cards a couple of times now, and every time they do they old one loses a bit more value.

As someone who was hardcore into Magic, especially during undergrad, trading, buying, and selling individual cards is easily like day-trading. The value of some cards starts extremely high and slowly dwindles down (Baneslayer Angel), some cards stay high (anything to do with Jace), and some cards start low and creep up (Reveillark; Tarmogoyf). However, the price of sealed booster packs and boxes are more like hedge funds; they tend to hover in the 2-4 dollar range per pack and not fluctuate unless the set was broken.

I can't see how you'd make money off of booster boxes unless you deliberately wait a month before opening anything, determine if you're likely to earn a profit selling cards individually on eBay, and if not, selling the box for what you paid for it.

I made money as an undergrad only because I regularly made top 8 at a very well-attended (50-80 people) Friday Night Magic. $5 entry usually became 8-10 packs and I constantly day-traded until I sold out.

I came here to say Pogs and nascar memoribilia but everybody made the same point with Beanie Babies.

Target has some "special edition" star wars fat tire bicycles that are about $200 over priced ($349) and have a production number sticker that says "xxx of 2,500" implying that they will be highly valuable some time in the future. I thought about that for a moment, weighing the possibility of them actually appreciating...then I thought about my Mark VII. It's one of only 5,439 Mark VII's produced for M.Y. 1992.

The original purchase price was a tick over $32,000 (not sure if that's adjusted for inflation) and as of now the fair condition blue book value is $1,895.

It's come up considerably from the last time I checked when it was <$1,000 about a year or so ago, which surprised me a bit.

Now to ride the wave of that appreciation into retirement!

The_Jed wrote: Target has some "special edition" star wars fat tire bicycles that are about $200 over priced ($349) and have a production number sticker that says "xxx of 2,500" implying that they will be highly valuable some time in the future. I thought about that for a moment, weighing the possibility of them actually appreciating...then I thought about my Mark VII. It's one of only 5,439 Mark VII's produced for M.Y. 1992. The original purchase price was a tick over $32,000 (not sure if that's adjusted for inflation) and as of now the fair condition blue book value is $1,895. It's come up considerably from the last time I checked when it was <$1,000 about a year or so ago, which surprised me a bit. Now to ride the wave of that appreciation into retirement!

But the lincoln is not a Star Wars edition. Don't forget that important fact.

A friend of mine was a hardcore player. He just cashed out at a little over 50% face value on everything rare and above.

mtn wrote:

The_Jed wrote: Target has some "special edition" star wars fat tire bicycles that are about $200 over priced ($349) and have a production number sticker that says "xxx of 2,500" implying that they will be highly valuable some time in the future. I thought about that for a moment, weighing the possibility of them actually appreciating...then I thought about my Mark VII. It's one of only 5,439 Mark VII's produced for M.Y. 1992. The original purchase price was a tick over $32,000 (not sure if that's adjusted for inflation) and as of now the fair condition blue book value is $1,895. It's come up considerably from the last time I checked when it was <$1,000 about a year or so ago, which surprised me a bit. Now to ride the wave of that appreciation into retirement!

But the lincoln is not a Star Wars edition. Don't forget that important fact.

E36 M3!

There goes that plan...

In reply to mtn:

Sadly, no. Although to be 100% honest I've not even looked at my balance in 6-months or more. I know how dumb/ignorant this sounds, but I just have no interest in trying to babysit it, nor in learning how to be a better player.

I'd much rather cash out(as if there was much there to begin with) and buy/sell tangible items as I come across good deals. It wouldn't be consistent, but I'd have better control.

Now, also to clarify - I have an IRA from a former 401k with Schwab that I'm not really loosing on long-term, but I'm definitely not invested aggressively either. I was without any retirement plans at my last jobs spanning 6-years, and have only been investing in the 401k here(minimally) for the last 3-years. IIRC I only had a ~$1500-$2k balance in it last time I checked, but there were definitely months my contribution was less than my losses. We're also an ESOP, so I'm not as concerned about this 401k...plus SWMBO has other retirement funds too, and combined we should be able to get by in 20+ years when the time comes.

Who had even heard of Magic - The Gathering a few years ago? Now, a lot of people have. As the game grows in popularity, the rarity of cards issued will diminish, along with their collector value.

As with most speculative investments, you need to get in early. Once the news is out, the big bucks have already been made.

Best choice for retirement is probably to study poker and become a high-stakes player. All the cool kids are doing it!

Anything that is promoted as being collectible is not collectible.