Magic Card Haven: News and Information

Price Check 3

2009-04-23T16:18:00.002-04:00

Let's see if I can do a few checks today:
(All of these are from 7th edition)

Counterspell 1.80 to 1.00
Spellbook 1.80 to 0.75
Blaze 1.58 to 0.75
Thieving Magpie 1.35 to 0.55

Full Descriptions

2009-04-21T10:30:00.007-04:00

Sections of the store that have full descriptions:
(this is really more for my reference)

6th
8th
Alliances
Antiquities
Exodus
Homelands
Ice Age
Nemesis
Prophecy
Starter
Tempest
The Dark
Stronghold
Unglued
Visions

Next up:

Mirage (15 cards)
Apocalypse (17 cards)
Dissension (24 cards)
Weatherlight (24 cards)
Legends (26 cards)
7th edition (87 cards)

Price Check

2009-04-21T10:20:00.003-04:00

Price checks are when I check the price of a card against other websites, and then adjust.

Northern Paladin (7th) 2.70 to 1.00
Pillage (7th) 2.03 to 1.00
Merfolk Looter 1.80 to 0.50

Work work work

2009-04-21T10:03:00.002-04:00

It's truly amazing how much work goes into listing cards for sale. It also doesn't help that ecrater.com is sometimes slow.

Anyway, I tried to have as many new listings as possible under 1 hour yesterday.

1 Unglued
2 Starter
3 Prophecy
4 Stronghold
4 Exodus
7 Nemesis (out of 8)

21 cards in an hour. It takes soooooooo long.

Price Checking

2009-04-15T15:35:00.004-04:00

Every once in a while, I will check that I chose an appropriate price for our cards.

Why? Well anycraze.com, the source I use to generate prices, is not always very accurate. So by rechecking using trollandtoad.com and ebay.com, I can choose a more accurate price.

Battlefield Force (Apocalypse) - 5.67 to 3.75
Howling Mine (7th) - 5.40 to 2.75
Persecute (7th) - 3.60 to 1.00
Persecute (8th) - 3.60 to 1.00
Goblin King (7th) - 3.15 to 1.00
Evacuation (7th) - 2.70 to 1.00

Individual Cards: Visions

2009-04-14T12:09:00.002-04:00

Here are the Visions card up for sale:

Honorable Passage $0.81
Cloud Elemental $0.23
Three Wishes $0.45
Urborg Mindsucker $0.23
Wake of Vultures$0.23

Individual Cards: Antiquities

2009-04-14T12:07:00.001-04:00

Here is the Antiquities section of individual cards for sale

Artifact Possession $0.36

How prices are determined

2009-04-11T15:35:00.003-04:00

Ever wonder how I determine the price of each card?

Well I'm going to tell you.

I look up the price's card on anycraze.com
Excel gives an automatic 40% discount (multiplying by .6). That is the price of a near mint card.
Excel gives an automatic extra 20% discount (multiplying by .80). That is the price of a used card
Excel then takes the average of both resulting prices to find the price of an in-between card. Not quite near mint, but better than used (like Very Good condition)
I look at the card and pick the appropriate price.

That is how the price is originally conceived.
However anycraze often has incredulous prices that, even after these discounts, are still too high for market value.

So every once in a while I access my inventory, and pick a query called "Re-check prices". This query lists all of the items listed more than 15 days ago, and arranges them in price order from highest to lowest. I can then recheck the prices by looking at the competition's prices (like trollandtoad, or ebay). Once that is done I'll change the price and change the new listing date.

So if I check the prices of a few cards every once in a while, it should keep my inventory to an overall nice low price.

Nothing gets done if you don't try

2009-04-11T14:20:00.003-04:00

I've decided to take a look at my current database.

# of records: 2592.
I have 2592 individual cards recorded on my database. This does not include duplicates.

# of total cards: 4045

And to think I still haven't inventoried the 3d, 4th and 5th edition cards. Nor have I inventoried Unhinged cards, nor cards from re-releases.

If I go to Magic Card Haven and go to individual Cards only. I see 169 listings. 169 out of 2592. I am about 6.5% of the way there. That is why, even though my internet connection suffers when it's raining, here I am listing cards for two extra editions:

Alliances and Visions

True it's only about 20 cards total, but since I list them by edition, it makes it seem like a bigger effort than it is. Besides, a little goes a long way.
If you look at editions only, I have about 56 different editions - 8 of which are listed. So by edition it looks like I'm about 10% of the way there.

This is gonna take a long time.

Shipping rates are lowered

2009-04-09T23:59:00.000-04:00

After careful consideration of how much money would actually be spent on shipping, we've decided to lower our shipping cost from 3$ to 2.5$ (for the 1lb and under shipping, which is what most customers would fall under).

That is because

If the customer buys a card, shipping would be about $1.20 plus $.18 digital confirmation, plus padded envelope cost (about $.30). Thus $1.68
If the customer buys a theme deck, shipping would be about $1.85 plus .18 plus .30. Thus $2.33
In the rare case that a customer buys exactly 1lb worth of item: $2.23 plus $.18 digital confirmation plus a box with padding (about $.40), the total would be $2.81.

So by lowering the shipping cost to 2.5$, we would still be able to cover our costs. In the rare case that the customer buys 1lb, or close, of merchandise, we'd be too happy over the sale to worry about 31 cents.

So why not make the shipping cost 2.33?
While it's true that we probably wouldn't pay above $2.33 in shipping cost. There is also the cost of tape, and more substantially, the cost of paypal fees to worry about.

What if I'm buying only a few cards and therefore would have a real cost more around $1.68?
You are always welcome to contact us for a detailed invoice specific to you. Simply email us with the products you wish to buy and your zip code. We will then email you back with a proposal. If you agree to our proposed price, email us back with your shipping information and we will invoice you directly to paypal.

Payment information

2009-04-09T21:15:00.003-04:00

If you are interested in any products at our store, add them to your cart. When you are sure of your order, you'll be able to pay.

What payment methods do we accept?

We only accept paypal.

Do not be shocked that our paypal address is not the same as our contact address. Payment goes directly to the owner's personal account, which uses his personal email address.

What if I don't have paypal?
If you have a credit/debit card, paypal will let you make a transaction even if you do not have a real account. Of course you can make an account if you want, paypal is free to use.

We do not accept any other payment methods. Do not even ask about money orders, bank wires, checks, etc...

I am hoping to convince the owner to get Google Checkout, but that may not happen. Ever.

Do people who ask you for a specific invoice also have to use paypal?
Yes. If you requested a specific invoice (because you wanted a more realistic shipping rate, wanted to request items that haven't been listed yet, wanted a faster shipping, or wanted to buy from outside of the USA, etc...), then we will send an invoice to your paypal account.

If you do not have a paypal account, we will send it to your regular email and you can still pay as long as you have a debit/credit card.

Concerning Shipping

2009-04-09T20:45:00.002-04:00

So you've decided to buy something, and you've paid for it, what now?

I will receive an email notification of an order
I will check that the payment went through
I will locate the product(s) and make sure they fit the description. If not I will email you concerning a refund/free gift. If you purchased a card, I will email you no matter what in order to ensure you know the card's condition beforehand. A response is required for the next step
I will create a shipping label for the current or next day, depending on what time it is.
I will pack your products in a padded envelope. If you've purchased multiple items including decks, I may have to use a padded box.
I do not usually include a copy of the invoice. It's a waste of paper since paypal will have each item purchased listed. I will include a business card with contact info.
I will bring it to the post office either on the same day or the next, whichever time allows.

How are our shipping prices determined?
Our shipping price is determined by package weight by the pound. So if you buy 1 card or 2 or 10, you'll have the same shipping price since the package will still be under 1lb.

These are the prices for inland USA (Hawaii and Alaska are 50 cents more)
1lb - 2.50
2lb - 3.00
3lb - 3.50
(obviously for every pound, there's 50 cents added)

Where do we ship?
Normally we ship to USA only. We do ship to Hawaii and Alaska. However if you are not from the USA, but still wish to purchase something, email us with:

the products you wish to buy
The country you live in
The region you live in (or a full address)

We will email you back with a price and, if you agree to it, we will invoice you.

If you are from the US and think the shipping is overpriced, or if you want expedited shipping, email us with

the products you wish to buy
Your state
How quickly you wish for the item to get here (optional)

We will email you back with a price (or prices if there are multiple shipping choices), and if you should agree to a price, we will invoice you.

Contact Us

2009-04-09T20:11:00.002-04:00

If you would like to contact me, simply email me at MagicCardHaven@gmail.com, or click to my profile (on the sidebar).

Of course if you are uncomfortable with emailing me, you can always leave comments on this blog. If you're worried about anonymity, just write "do not show this comment" and I will not publish it. Just remember to bookmark the page so that you may read my response later on.

Our most expensive products

2009-04-09T19:53:00.006-04:00

Here is a list of our 5 most expensive cards (as of April 9th)

Why would you, the customer, need to know our most expensive cards?
Cards have value from rarity, and from gameplay efficiency. In other words expensive cards are usually really good in battle.

1. Nebuchadnezzar $4.80
Legends

2. Bronze Horse $4.08
Legends

3. Battlefield Forge $3.75
Apocalypse

4. Howling mine $2.75
7th edition

5. Northern Paladin $2.70
7th edition

Individual Cards: 8th Edition

2009-04-09T19:40:00.004-04:00

Here are the 8th edition cards up for sale:

Persecute 151/350 $1.00
Jayemdae Tome 306/350 $0.41
Fodder Cannon 302/350 $0.23
Yavimaya Enchantress 290/350 $0.36
Spitting Spider 280/350 $0.23
Giant Badger 253/350 $0.20
Fertile Ground 248/350 $0.20
Craw Wurm 239/350 $0.20
Boil 180/350 $0.90
Dwarven Demolition Team 184/350 $0.90
Venerable Monk 55/350 $0.20
Storm Crow 104/350 $0.20
Index 84/350 $0.20
Coral Eel 70/350 $0.20
Healing Salve 22/350 $0.20
Circle of Protection: Blue 11/350 $0.27
Mind Rot 144/350 $0.90
Raise Dead 157/350 $0.20
Fear 134/350 $0.20
Looming Shade 140/350 $0.20
Anaba Shaman 175/350 $0.20
Crossbow Infantry 15/350 $0.20
Honor Guard 25/350 $0.20

Individual Cards: 6th Edition

2009-04-09T19:18:00.002-04:00

Here is a list of our 6th Edition cards for sale:

Sibilant Spirit 98/350 ($0.36)
Staunch Defenders 45/350 ($0.61)
Fyndhorn Brownie 231/350 ($0.20)
Merfolk of the Pearl Trident 82/350 ($0.20)

We wish we had more, but unfortunately these are our only non-land 6th edition cards.

Individual Cards

2009-04-09T18:43:00.011-04:00

Once inventorying is done, and all of the pictures are taken, we list our individual cards. These are not in boosters or theme decks, and therefore you can actually choose exactly which cards you want. We do not necessarily have each card in an edition.

Here are the editions that have already been listed:

6th Edition
7th Edition
8th Edition
Alliances
Antiquities
Apocalypse
Dissension
Exodus
Homelands
Ice Age
Legends
Mirage
Nemesis
Prophecy
Starter
Stronghold
Tempest
The Dark
Unglued
Visions
Weatherlight

Here are the editions whose product pictures have been created, and therefore will be listed next:

Fallen Empires

Obviously I decided to go on an inventory spree for the editions prior to the insertion of card #'s and rarities.

Why do most of our individual listings only have "1" card?
While many of our cards are available in duplicates, we prefer to list them one by one. This is for quality purposes. Having duplicates does not ensure the cards are exactly the same. One might be in near mint condition, the other one could be faded, the other could be used. So by listing only 1 card at a time, this forces us to readjust the listing every time for the next card to be sold.

About Us

2009-04-09T18:33:00.000-04:00

Magic Card Haven is an ecrater Store that specializes in selling Magic: The Gathering cards and other goodies.

What is ecrater?
Ecrater is a free store platform for all. Think of it like eBay, but without the auctions and all the fees.

Who runs Magic Card Haven?
Well there are technically two people. There is Michael, the owner, who owns all of the merchandise. We have some boosters, theme decks, and tournament decks. Most of which are already listed on the site. However his real merchandise are the 4000+ MTG cards he wishes to sell. Some are really valuable, others are not. Some are in great condition, and others have some wear. All details are given on each product's listing.

Then there is me, Caren, the owner's girlfriend (aka, the co-owner). I'm the one who actually runs the store. I inventory; I take pictures of the cards; I decide the prices; I list them online; I ship them; I run all customer service; I do the promotion (which I'm not good at); and lastly I came up with the blog.

Why do I do so much? I'm unemployed and therefore have more time to attend to these things. I also have a lot more computer time. Lastly, I actually have selling experience from eBay, and from my own ecrater store (Cloudine's Bazaar).