I make a point of sharing my financial success stories with you — it’s only fair that I confess when I make mistakes. I’ve been doing so well for so long, that I’d forgotten what it’s like to “fall off the wagon”. Yet that’s exactly what’s happened since I returned from vacation.
On my first day back at work, Nick told me, “There’s a new set of Magic cards out.” During my bleakest financial period, I was addicted to Magic: The Gathering, a trading card game that is addictingly fun to play, but which is designed to part suckers like me from their money. I quit cold turkey a couple of years ago, around the same time I started to get my finances in order.
I’m not sure what I was thinking, but Nick’s comment, which I would normally ignore, prompted me to purchase a box of Magic cards. That’s $95. By the end of the week, I’d spent an additional $66 to play Magic online. That’s right, folks: I’d reverted to an old, expensive habit, and I stayed with it for entire week.
This afternoon, I realized what I was doing. Not only had I spent $161 for a bit of fleeting escapism, I was also neglecting duties like yardwork and, more importantly, my writing. Today’s post was supposed to be a book review, not a guest post. I had to dig into reader-submitted stuff because I’d been negligent.
It’s situations like this that drive home the importance of knowing yourself. Each of us is different. We each have things that tempt us, and if we know what these things are, we can try to avoid them. There’s nothing wrong with spending money on something that brings you joy, so long as it’s money you can afford to spend. But I lost sight of my goal, forgot that I still have over $12,000 in debt that I’m working to eliminate. I also forgot how consumed I become by this game. I made a poor decision, and I admit it, but I’m ready to move on.
I’m smarter than this. And I’m not going to let a $161 mistake bring me down. I’m going to forget about it and get back on the path I’ve been following. I’ll just reach my destination a couple days later than I would have before…
I’m not the only personal finance blogger who’s spent a lot of money on Magic: The Gathering. Trent at The Simple Dollar also used to be under its spell.
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“a trading card game that is addictingly fun to pay”
‘pay’ not ‘play’? Is your subconscious telling you something?
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James: quite possibly, yes. I re-read that sentence probably a dozen times while editing, and never noticed that mistake once. Yikes.
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Welcome back…
I played Magic about… hmm, ok, almost 12 years ago now in college. Back when it was first becoming popular (or at least I thought it was). I built a very nice red/black deck which was a lot of fun to play in college. Right before I left, I gave my deck away to some friends as I entered the work force. They were all first edition cards for the most part, but I had my enjoyment from them and was moving on…
Among the cards I had were several black lotus cards. Imagine my surprise a couple of years ago when I was at a convention, and came across similar cards for sale. First edition black lotus was going for $250.
It’s the same feeling you might get when you’ve realized that those comics you threw out as a kid which included superman #1 might have funded your retirement, or that as a kid you’d used a Mickey Mantle rookie card to make that cool thwap-thwap noise in the spokes of your bike.
Being a glutton for punishment, i then did a mental inventory of the cards I owned back then and realized that I’d probably given away a set of cards worth about $5,000 in today’s market.
Of course, my economics classes kicked in at that point – I make $85 as a programming contractor, so that’s about 60 hours of work. If i had kept the cards, i would have continued to play – degrading the condition of the deck (probably feeding the habit by spending more for the newer editions) and more than likely i’ve billed more than 60 hours in 12 years that I might have spent playing Magic.
Overall though – you do what makes you happy, take the joy when you can, and just make sure you don’t live beyond your means.
If I had people to play with in my current circle of friends – Magic parties are generally cheaper than a night at the movies. If you’ve spent $161 for the cards – figure $16 for 2 movie tickets, and $30 for dinner – play magic with friends 3 times instead of dinner and a movie dates and you’re breaking even, do it 4 times and you’ve come out ahead.
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Yes, I also have triggers that make me ignore good financing. One of these is my daughter. She will constantly “need” this or that and when I buy it, all of a sudden it’s never worn, never used, or promptly lost. I also tend to spend more on her than on myself. So, this time when she said she “needed” new jeans, I found a couple right away for practically nothing. We did go out to discount stores to buy more, but she was starting to pick up other items. I said:”Jeans. That’s what we came for, that’s ALL we’re going to get.” She picked up a jacket very similar to one I bought for her for $60. She wore it about twice. I told her if she didn’t wear it more, I’d never buy her another $60 jacket again. She then wanted to eat out and that idea got nixed too. I’m become aware that I’m a softie for spending my hard-earned money on her and that has to stop. I can’t afford it. Besides, she’s of the age where she can start earning her own entertainment money. She did manage to divert me from my work though for the entire day. Hopefully, I can now make it up, but I am behind. I can’t wait for summer to end and for her to get back to school.
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J.D.
Sell the cards you have for some profit. There are a couple of buying bots in the marketplace which will pay a *low* price for each card you have. You could also try to sell your collection to one of the collection buyers or in the auctions channels.
Yes i’ve been addicted to magic too and I made some money from it when I admited I was a bad player but a good card trader.
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Oh Magic. It is my husband’s favorite time-waster and my bete noire.
See, my husband beta-tested Magic Online and got a few virtual packs for free. Now he has somewhere around 27,000 virtual cards – and since you get 45 cards per draft, you can kind of get a feeling for how much he’s played. He is proud that he has never put money into the game, but he sure has wasted a lot of time, energy and emotion on modo.
And do you know how many non-virtual Magic cards I have in my home? The answer is too damn many. Again, my husband has never bought a single card – they represent years and years of tournament winnings from when he was sponsored by a store – and to be fair, we’ve made several thousand dollars by selling off some of his accumulated card collection. He never plays real-life magic anymore, though, so I’m not entirely sure why we need these cards crapping up our house.
What I mean to say, JD, is that you are not only doing yourself a favor by quitting Magic, but you are also helping me out as well. If other people weren’t spending money playing, there wouldn’t be anything for my husband to win. So in a way, you’re saving my marriage. Heh.
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ME TOO.
We have a whole lot of Magic cards in the upstairs closet I keep saying we should sort and sell.
But if I touch them, I’ll get sucked back in.
I love M:TG. My husband and I used to play the tournament circuit.
Ah, M:TG. lol
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My husband is trying to sell his old magic card . Any buyers???
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Wow, this post bring back memories. I spent too much money on Magic cards also. I still have all my cards in my closet. I have about 11 playing decks — my best is blue and black — what a bruiser.
Do they still worth anything?
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I was so addicted to magic. Cards and the online Play. Its really easy to ‘give away’ money to join a tournament or buy some new cards for the chance of getting that rare one you need for your deck.
I stopped cold turkey too, and I’m glad I did, although I do miss the game from time to time. I was neglecting schoolwork and such just to get a small high from tapping my royal assassin. Haha..oh man. Great post.
It’s just like gambling to me, and I try to stay away from it now.
My best deck was a land destruction deck, black and red. You couldn’t get any mana out and you’d die from pings from my 1/1 creatures, hahaha!
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Wow…this should be a M:TG site. Still miss playing but sold all my cards a long time ago. My wife is so happy. And I stopped wasting time and finished my degree.
Made some good money selling Alpha, Beta and First Edition cards as well as some of the early expansion sets.
Man, I miss it. Had too much fun not being an adult then…
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That’s understandable. I enjoy online games a bit too much and have been sucked in before. The thing I keep in mind is that I may go back to them once I reach the crossover point (which you noted in a previous posting). That thought keeps me focused and motivated.
I’m a naturally lazy person, but if I keep in mind that I can have the ultimate laziness lifestyle later, when I don’t have to worry as much about the finances, even my extreme laziness can be quelled.
Good luck with it JD.
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Add me to the list of ex-M:TG addicts who enjoyed every minute of it (including one PT:London adventure), but had to quit cold turkey to recover his life. That said, MMOs like Evercrack and WoW are far more addictive and time-consuming than Magic ever was. I guess that’s what makes Magic Online so “dangerous” — it’s a cross of both.
Now that I’ve quit them all, I am amazed how much time I have to read, spend with my family, work on “getting rich slowly”, etc.
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Hey if you want to buy my cards, I’ve got loads, and I’ll sell them really cheaply too!
Anyone? Bueller?
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It doesn’t help that MTG was the best game EVER!
I had some great times playing, but part of it was also the people I was playing with. I had one really good deck, and a lot of my friends had 3-4 really good decks, and a dozen or so good, but not expensive decks, so I could always borrow one of theirs on the off chance I got tired of playing mine.
Part of the reason I stopped buying new cards was because I only had one deck. New sets had new rules or abilities, and my deck was so finely tuned with the older cards I had that I couldn’t swap anything out to put in new cards, so why buy them? The other reason was they were getting into Warhammer 40k, cause that’s not even more expensive. No, not at all. (I played, but used their armies, saving my wallet)
I still have a few boxes, just in case they are actually worth something someday, but my real (geeky) hope is that the game comes back in style and I get to whip out all my old school cards and amaze all the kiddies.
“Back in my day, we could get killed with a Channel / Fireball on the first turn…. and we liked it!”
…. I’m such a dork.
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Wow, great post. Have to say it brought back some painful memories of my own spending on this fun but obsessive game.
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I haven’t played Magic: The Addiction in a while. I start, spend money on it, then life chances and I stop. I keep all my cards, in sleeves. I’m pretty sure I could sell them for a chunk’a change.
If you just bought the cards and they’re in mint condition chances are you could probably sell them and make up a bit of the money you spent.
If you put time into it you might even come out ahead.
Then again, you could alway just keep the cards and play with them. Stop playing draft and try to build a couple of decks that can play each other.
I don’t really get Magic online, it always seemed kind of strange to buy virtual cards.
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I’m thankful I never played MTG, but I did waste months of my life in WoW. By the time I quit cold turkey, I had over 100 days /played time on my main character. My dozen or more alts all had /played time of 10 days or more. That number represents the actual amount of time I was logged into the game and doing stuff on that character. Even if I worked minimum wage for all that time, I would be out of debt right now!
I’m really glad I never picked up MTG, it seems like its a huge timesuck and it costs a lot of money to play. What a combination!
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Nice post. I can relate.
There are two types of diversions. One designed to relieve stress and the other is to procrastinate something more important.
The latter is the dangerous one.
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I have never heardd of this before. I figure I can say that I am less geeky.
JD at least you have realised after a week rather than a year.
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I’d like to echo californian’s point of just continuing to play with your existing decks, without buying new ones. Of course, then the temptation is always there.
So does anyone know of any good non-collectible card games that play in the style of Magic? That would solve the personal finance angle of this, because then you could just buy the base game and go at it, without there being $8 booster packs to buy. I’ve read about Hero Card, but any others?
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Yep, I am a sucker for the game too. I have about 5000 cards and want to sell. As far as controlling the addiction, I budget for fun money each month and if I feel like playing and getting the most money for my dollar I’ll save up to attend a pre-release tournament. Attending them is fun, and I see all the people that have wasted time and money on the “sport” and remind myself why I don’t want to be them.
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Heh . . . I have a few longboxes of Illuminati: New World Order cards I’d like to unload myself. That streak of acquisition ended back in the mid-Nineties, aided by the cessation of new releases from Steve Jackson Games. Also, I lost patience with trying to come up with new decks all the time, remembering all the annoying little interactions among card effects, and contending with a rules munchkin who played the same deck over and over and pouted when we eventually designed ways to crush it.
Now that I play poker, I have only one deck to worry about, and it usually makes me a little coin.
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[...] Money Mistakes: That Old Black Magic I strongly identify with this article. I’ve attended exactly one tournament since getting my financial house in order. I happened to win it and sell the cards I won to make a profit, but without that victory, it would have been a financially painful day. It’s very fun but just far too expensive to enjoy. (@ get rich slowly) [...]
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I’m impressed that you can write about the mistakes you make so openly. It is inspirational for others to write about and learn from.
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As an old magic player myself I managed to quit and sell off my collection but recently I find myself playing a lot of NON COLLECTIBLE board games. The same old magic group gets together but now we can enjoy playing the games rather than worrying about our next “fix” of rare cards. A good site to find some great games is http://www.boardgamegeek.com
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Okay, so I’m not into Magic, but I’ve recently spent money on stuff I don’t need and I’m beating myself up about it. Nordstroms annual sale was my temptation, and while the deals were really good, I said goodbye to $230. Though, if I felt really bad, I think I would return the items, and I’m not, so what the heck does that say?
I’m just going to get back on track now. I didn’t stray too badly, and I’ll still have my credit cards paid off in October, on schedule, so I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up over it too much.
It’s so frustrating b/c I know buying clothes is unnecessary (it’s not like I don’t have enough at home). I think once I have the credit cards paid off entirely and I’m paying cash for this stuff, funding my IRA, AND savings accounts more, I might not feel as guilty about it…can’t wait for October.
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PS. Thanks for posting this. Sometimes I read these blogs and I think I’ll never be as disciplined as the authors, so it helps to be reminded that everyone gets tempted.
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It’s not just the money. What was most interesting to me is how you talked about the wasted time.
Thanks for the post and the reminder to focus on what is most important.
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Wow, I thought I was going to be unique as another M:tG player. I almost thought Kitty was my wife, but I checked and she’s not. I did the same thing as her husband did: Randy Buehler signed me up for the Alpha test back around the time of the first Pro Tour Barcelona (the one Kai won) and I got some free packs when it went live.
So in 6 years I’ve accumulated over 100,000 cards and never put in a dime. My advice to you is: get better at Magic!
Actually, I hardly ever play anymore because my wife hates it so much (I used to play a lot). In fact, she prefers I play online poker! At least there, when she complains I can have them send me money that she can spend, rather than just accumulating more cards.
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Uuummm you are a dork
I remember an old boyfriend of mine who would do NOTHING but play magic and damned video games. Needless to say he’s single right now! 
But it is kinda cute.
psssss…I’m a Mac geek so sometimes I fall off and spend TONS of money on vintage macs (I just sold off my collection), new stuff, and Mac paraphernalia
Hey we all can’t be perfect!
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So, after posting I was thinking about this – MTG does cost a lot for the cards, there has to be an alternative, as a computer geek I was thinking is there an open source MTG? a quick google search turned up this:
http://www.lorax.org/~cwarren/twilight/printable_pages.html
it’s somebody’s homebrew expansion pack for magic, about 330 cards worth, and they look pretty good too. So maybe all you need to play something similar to MTG is an internet connection, a color printer, and google.
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[...] or drastically cut back? J.D @ Get Rich Slowly shared yesterday that he recently got bitten by an old Magic The Gathering addiction to the tune of $161. Let’s start by getting the problem out in the open and listing the [...]
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JD, Thanks for sharing. It is very easy to fall back into old habits. I still on-line shop but I put the items into my shopping cart and I don’t actually purchase them. I then go back later and see if I still want to buy the items. I have 6 or 7 items in my Amazon cart – some since May – and we’ll see if I ever purchase the items. I try to get my books now from the library now.
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I feel your pain J.D. I have some friends that went through the same thing a few years ago and dragged me into some drafts. I have to admit that drafts are a lot more fun and cheaper then playing constructed decks.
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We all do this. I’ve been trying to go back to reading books from the library to get my fantasy fix. It’s a little cheaper than video games or magic cards. Of course you have to respect the strategy and freedom of the games.
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I think I’m in an unusual position as someone who managed to spend relatively little on Magic, although that may be because I got far more enjoyment out of casual play. For me, the extra work to be competitive in tournaments overshadowed the thrills of competition or victory. Pauper Magic(all common format) is a way to compete cheaply, and it’s pretty challenging (and satisfying) to build a $7 deck that mops the floor with your friend’s $300 deck. Still, for those with addictive personalities, Pauper Magic could be the dangerous gateway drug that leads to wanting those $300 dollar decks your friend has.
As far as cheap Magic alternatives go, I like Dungeons and Dragons. Sure, it’s a completely different game, but surprisingly enough, there’s a huge overlap of people who enjoy the two games. Instead of spending $80 every 3-4 months on the new Magic set, you only need the one time expense of dice and the core rulebooks (around $70 altogether.) If you like to use premade adventures, you can start with just the Player Handbook ($20), dice ($3-$8), and a premade adventure ($10-$20) every few months, and the best part is that these costs aren’t repeated with each player, so the cost is around $1 per month per player plus startup cost of $5 per player. Since I’ve gotten a regular group to play with a few months ago, I simply stopped going to the local game shop to play Magic without even trying.
Boardgames are another cheap alternative that do double duty as party activities, as they are far more accessible to casual players. Chess, Settlers of Catan, Blokus, Carcassonne, Elfenland, and San Juan are all fun games that have the challenges of strategic planning and adapting to your opponent’s strategy, without the frustration of mana screw, combo decks that play solitaire, or control decks that don’t allow you to play the game.
Wow, I am a huge game nerd. =)
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I’m not a religious man but I’ve read the Bible. The best advice in there is (Mathew 6:13) “lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil”. Paraphrased I take it to mean, avoid destructive temptation. Excellent advice by any standard.
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I was into Magic:TG for a very short period of time after finding a decent box full of cards at a yard sale. The game is fun, no doubt, but I quickly grew tired of being beaten by people who spend all of their money on rare cards with devastating effects.
I’d have to agree with those comments advocating board games. There are some really good ones out there, many of which have already been mentioned (unfortunately, you won’t find them on the shelf of your local department store).
One of my favorites might appeal to this crowd…it’s called Modern Art (don’t let the title fool you…it’s far more about creating a market than the art itself). Each player runs an art auction house and is trying to turn a profit by buying low and selling high. It’s card based and very easy to set up (unlike, say, Settlers of Catan or Puerto Rico…both great games, but not so quick to get started).
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[...] kind of hobbies taken to extreme — some hobbies can be really expensive. I still remember my Magic: The Gathering days [...]
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I understand that this is a really addictive hobby, but my question to all the people that posted something about them spending to much money on MTG is how many of you SMOKE……..My point is don’t knock one habit unless you clear up all your other habits. True I spend my fair share on Mtg cards but there are so many more worst habbits you can have you can be spending your money on drugs and alcohol. It could be ten times worst take my word for it. I am not denying that Mtg is a very fun and addicting game, What I am saying is don’t judge.
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my name is muhammad kaleem ullah khan . my date of birth is 28/2/1946. i am challanging all the magician in this world . is there any one who can break my magic i am a black magicain no one can beat me in this world .no one can break my magic if some one cast spell to me i will reverse his spell to him i am challanging all magicain to cast spell to me and my sons i have there sons mateen , mubeen ,moiz and her mother name is salma if some one cast spell to my son i will reverse his spell to him i am challanging to all magician to beat me
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Best game on earth is what Magic is. Good passtime while in school, but it can be a handful if you let it. It’s fun to play competitive magic and travel. Kaleem, you suck. My lands would own you lol I wouldn’t need to cast any spells
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Curt, I love ya. I’m a video-game fanatic as well as a guy who appreciates honesty and loyalty. And sports stars who stay “real”.
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Yeah that game is a money pit! Here’s what you do if you wAnt to play cheap
Buy two intro packs for 25 dollars total and two people can play. And just play casual. Forget new cards, forget the local tournaments, forget all the spin down life counters, sleeves, boxes, and all the other crap. Buy two intro packs and find a buddy to play against. Me? I’m lucky, my wife and I play each other when time allows. but yeah, I can see where the addiction can become very tempting to always get new cards. Just ignore it and play small.
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Magic is an addictive, ridiculous game that is completely unbalanced. Magic Online is a huge time-suck, waste of money, that will eventually lead you to become a burnout. I wasted nearly $350 on Magic before I realized that I had nothing to show for the time I wasted. Even the “fun” you’re supposed to have with Magic is fleeting, and hard to find. It’s an intense cut throat game, more so online.
The best thing that ever happened to me is the day I lost my cool and cursed out a Magic Online player. I was reported and a few days later found I couldn’t access my account. I have never cursed anyone out in my life, but such is the influence of Magic.
At first I thought, wow, all the money gone in a flash. I was a bit sick. But then I felt a lot better. I realized what a release it was not to have that old Magic monkey on my back. Getting banned was the best thing that could have happened to me. I deleted MTGO from my computer and never looked back.
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