Ready to hit the stores!

Okay, so I've been poking around the last few days trying how to figure out what I'm going to buy from the stores.

The first thing to decide is what stores I'm going to use in my search. A lot of the online stores overlap and share similar features, and some of the stores themselves use the same actual sellers in game. Those stores are more like middle men who just facilitate various trades for a fee, and consolidate billing.

Since this was an initial effort -- I let Google do most of the work for me. Based on a Google search of MTGO card sales, I'm using these four sites for my first venture into MTGO sale stores. When it's all said and done -- I'll rate each site on how well they met my needs as a budget buyer. I've added the links to each of the sites below.

1 . MTGO Traders

2. Cardshark

3. Cardhoarder

4. ABU Games

What will I be buying? Well, I'm not letting the cat out of the bag just yet -- but my emphasis will be on improving the pseudo-tribal decks I enjoy playing in the Casual Room. Mostly Angels, Dragons and Merfolk. I'll also be looking at some staple cards that can go in almost any deck of a given color -- but I'd wager my first buy will be mostly Blue, White and Red.

The final buy list will contain at least 20 cards that I can reasonably expect to buy for around $10. My final decision will be based primarily on lowest costs, but I will also factor in availability and ease of service into the equation. Of course, any special offers will make a difference as well -- so I'll be keeping an eye out for advertised discounts along the way!

I plan to make my purchases between tomorrow evening and the weekend -- so look out Monday for The Thrifty Djinn's first store rating extravaganza!

Later,

Don!


P.S. There's a lot of discussion over on the MTGO General Boards about the possibility of 'free' tourneys and such. I'll make a post on that as soon as the details become more concrete -- but keep your eye out for some new promotions for getting people to play more MTGO.