Long story short, in college I played Magic the Gathering (a popular collectible card game), and then went into online business back in the early eBay days. When the fees got silly, I opened my own website, using a simple opensource shopping cart and PayPal to take orders, and shipped the cards through the mail. A few years ago the business ended, and I downsized my inventory, but I still have a LOT of cards.
That's maybe 1% of them, just to show a sample. None of them are newer than 5 years old, but most of them are in near mint condition (unplayed). I don't have any of the top 50 cards (which go for $1000+ each), but I do have quite a few cards in the 2 and 3 digits.
Magic is on FIRE
Along with other collectibles, Magic is doing really well during the lockdown. People are pulling out their decks and dusting off their binders. Maybe they aren't getting together to play (or maybe they are?), but they're definitely interested again, and they're definitely buying again. People have stimulus money, or tax returns on the way, and they're bored. (You may have heard the same thing about hockey cards, which are getting their first day in the sun since about 1993.)
Magic is hot, and I have a LOT of it. Suddenly handfuls of $2 cards are handfuls of $15 cards, for example. Not to mention a few from old sets like Legends now over $100. And I could use some spare currency right now.
I still have my eBay account, but my PayPal account is severely limited. I'm now unbanked, and eBay doesn't allow sellers to accept crypto (PayPal would lose too much money if they did), so that's not going to work.
Idea
Could I sell Magic cards directly from Steem?
Long ago, I used to run a large gaming website called MTGNews (later moving to MTGSalvation), and one of the forums was set up for people to post a list of cards for sale or trade. That's where I got my start, before eBay even. People could comment with offers or questions, confirmation was done by email, feedback could be left as comments, and so on. We made it work.
Something similar (likely much better) could be done here on the blockchain. Maybe once a week I could make a post with the cards I have available, photos, prices, and instructions for how to make an order. (My track record and Steem reputation show I'm not some fly-by-night popup scam artist, but I also have thousands of positive feedback on eBay if people want to see that.) Payment could be STEEM , or something off-chain like BTC.
The details could be sorted out, I'm pretty sure. But a few questions...
Is anyone else here doing a simple "sales post" model like that? If so, does it work well?
Does anyone around here play/collect Magic? Would there be enough interest to make it worthwhile?
Might it be able to draw people to Steem, for example if my prices are low and my shipping is fast? A tiny alternative (for a few people at least) to corporate centralized platforms with massive fees?
It's possible I could undercut eBay Buy-it-Now prices by 20, maybe 25%.
I think it's time I let somebody else play with or collect some of these cards. I've been looking for a way to earn crypto, since I can't buy it. Could this be the answer?
It would be awesome to turn some unused items into crypto, using the blockchain to make it happen! What do you think?
DRutter
