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I was checking out card prices on ebay (for the first time) and came across a lot of rare beta cards.

they were being sold for ridiculously cheap so i knew they couldn't be the real thing.. they were called repacks i believe.

what are these things?

A lot of those bids on 'repacks' involve a lot of rares, with maybe one set of the Power 9 scattered throughout say, about 500 repacks. If they sell for..say...10 bucks each (usually more), that's $5000+, which basically pays for the Power 9 and beyond.

If you're going to buy cards on ebay, use MOTL's price guide. They pull directly from ebay auctions, and, so you know, they place a Beta Black Lotus at less than $1k USD. The search option is on the left hand side, about halfway down. Google search for "magictraders," and its the first hit.

Stores, due to paying workers and other bills, must have higher prices - often, 2-3 times higher than what you can get online. If I'm buying crap rares, I tend to buy them online (or trade for them), because stores will sell them for $2-3 - when MOTL says I can get a playset for $2 (shipping included).

A warning, though - it takes them a while to get new sets (currently Future Sight) in the system. FS is not currently in the system. sad


Oh, and on the repacks - don't buy.

Why?

Well, often, the seller will say "1000 of these are for sale." or something. Look at the number at the top - often, its less than 1000 - meaning that there's no way to know who has and has not purchased anything. So, if you buy, oh, 900 of them, and 100 other people each buy 1, that's 100 people he/she can say "got the Mox/Lotus/Walk/whatever," and you're not really able to communicate well with the other people on ebay.

Unless you're looking for a bunch of crap, its a good idea to avoid card lots that do not have complete listings of what's inside, or at least a reassurance that you will get X and Y cards. Take this as from personal experience (though I did break even on the deal...by reselling it).

Yeah, a lot of the lots won't list what's in them. I had a friend buy a lot of 1000 cards and he got a few OK rares, maybe 8-10. Nothing large though.

I only bid on lots that list the highlight cards that I'd want for sure. Haven't won a lot yet though scream

For the most part, re-packs are scams.

Though with that said, I did once pull a Fastbond from one. ^^;; Still, I wouldn't count on pulling much of anything worthwhile from a re-pack, as the odds aren't that great.