The Yang Zing Twins

Hey guys and gals,

You all continue to crush my expectations when I check how many views these articles/blogs/whatever get and I can't thank you enough. But let's get into this week's article!

1. The Current Trend
The Banlist caused Raigeki and Glow-Up Bulb to skyrocket in price. You already know this.
This week, Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss jumped from its already high price of $60 to the astronomical price of $90 because of the Burning Abyss Tuner being spoiled. The new Tuner is crazy, as most of you know already. I really think BA is going to be able to compete with Shaddoll and Qliphort after New Challengers.

2. Speculation Targets
I've spent the past week picking up the Yang Zing monsters. With the exception of Chiwen and Baxia, none of them are more than $2 and in case you weren't aware, the deck is getting three new monsters in New Challengers.

Let's start with the least impressive of the three:
Taotie, Shadow of the Yang Zing
Level 5
Dark
Wyrm/Effect
2200 ATK/0 DEF

When this card you control is destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to your Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 "Yang Zing" monster from your Deck in Defense Position, except "Taotie, Shadow of the Yang Zing". You can only use this effect of "Taotie, Shadow of the Yang Zing" once per turn. Once per turn, during your opponent's Main Phase or Battle Phase, you can: Immediately after this effect resolves, Synchro Summon 1 Synchro Monster using only "Yang Zing" monsters you control (this is a Quick Effect). Control of a face-up Synchro Monster that used this card as a Synchro Material cannot switch.

This card has the standard Yang Zing floater effect, but it's level 5 and it has 2200 ATK, the same attack as Shaddoll Winda. It's secondary effect of not letting the control of the Synchro it's used to make change seems pretty good too in case Number 11: Big Eye or Evilswarm Bahamut are relevant.

Then we have the new Tuner monster:
Jiaotu, Darkness of the Yang Zing
Level 2
Dark
Wyrm/Tuner/Effect
0 ATK/2000 DEF
When this card you control is destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to your Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 "Yang Zing" monster from your Deck in Attack Position, except "Jiaotu, Darkness of the Yang Zing". If you control no other monsters: You can send 2 "Yang Zing" cards from your hand to the Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "Yang Zing" monster with 0 ATK and 1 "Yang Zing" monster with 0 DEF from your Deck, but banish them during the End Phase. You can only use 1 "Jiaotu, Darkness of the Yang Zing" effect per turn, and only once that turn.

It lets you drop additional monsters to make easier Synchro plays so that you can make the following monster.

Now, let's talk about the card that you should care about:
Yazi, Wickedness of the Yang Zing
Level 7
Dark
Wyrm/Synchro/Effect
2600 ATK/2100 DEF

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
Your opponent cannot target this card with card effects. You can target 1 "Yang Zing" monster you control and 1 card your opponent controls; destroy them. You can only use this effect of "Yazi, Wickedness of the Yang Zing" once per turn. When this card you control is destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to your Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 Wyrm-Type monster from your Deck in Defense Position. You can only use this effect of "Yazi, Wickedness of the Yang Zing" once per turn.

This card is bananas! Level 7 untargetable Scrap Dragon! Oh my! Now think about this. You make it using Chiwen, Bixi, and Suanni. It's got 3100 ATK, your opponent can't target it, it's unaffected by Traps, and it's SCRAP DRAGON! Why would you ever make Leo? I'm not saying that Yang Zing will be Tier 0 or anything, merely that people will want to play this deck and the Hype Train is a real thing. I'm currently staying away from Path though, because at $25ish, there's not much money to make, but if you can buy the baby Yang Zings for $.50 or $1.00, do it. It's not like they can go down in price.

3. What to Dump
For the second week in a row, I don't really have any cards that I would want to move except for Raigeki, unless you have Dante's and don't plan on playing the deck or you think they will drop. I personally don't think they'll drop too hard.

I want to do a little bit of a progress report to see how well I've been providing you all with advice on what to buy/sell.

Week 1
Buy: Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
Sell: Batteryman cards
Odd-Eyes were $15 at the time across the board. Now the Secret Rare copies are $23+ and the Ultimate Rare versions are $35+. I think we did alright.
Batteryman commons have gone down in the meantime with Micro-Cell averaging $2.50 and Fuel Cell hovering around $5.50.
Week 2
Buy: Volcanic Shell Ultimate Rare
Sell: Outstanding Dog Marron
Shells were right around $4.50 and are now just under $10 per.
Marron was $7-8 and now it's less than $5 from DR1.
Week 3
Buy: Mistake
Sell: Nothing really
Mistake was $5 for the Shadow Spectres version and $3 for the Mega Pack version. The SHSP copy gained $3 in the past week while the MP14 stayed the same.

Please continue to tell me what you think, what you like, or how you think these articles could improve.

Keep the juice flowing,
Lyle

Don't Make a Mistake

Hey guys and gals

You all continue to amaze me with the number of views I see every week. I can't explain how much this support means. Anyway, here's today's article, so enjoy.

1. The Current Trend
It's that time of year again, banlist time. And you all know what it brings with it, weird card prices, salt-filled banlist predictions, and worst of all, Facebook feeds full of fake banlist links. But that's not why we're here. I'm only here to make you all money. So here's the trend: banned cards that may come back trend up while cards that may be touched on the banlist trend down this time of year. One of the cards going through the roof is Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, with Secret Rare copies fetching $30 and DT Ultra Rare copies bringing in a whopping $150 per on TCGPlayer.com

2. Speculation Targets
This week's spec target is Mistake, the anti-meta Secret Rare from Shadow Spectres. This card was $25 on set release and quickly shot up to $50 when Spellbook was the deck to beat, before dropping to its current price of $5 and MP14 copies are $3.
I've always been a bit if a control player, so this card is right up my alley as a sideboard card.
This card has already been $50 and people remember that. Price memory is always a factor when it comes to cards going back up in price.
Everyone is hyped to play/beat Qliphort and this card gives you a good chance to catch them off guard because it's chainable to their cards.
It's also really good against Shaddoll because it stops both sides of Hedgehog, Thunder Dragon, and Volcanic Shell if it's played like I think it will.
It's good against both of the Knight archetypes, both Noble and Stellar.
Against Noble Knights, it stops ROTA as well as Borz from using his effect to search for the most important part of the deck, the equip spells. And in case you don't know, Konami has all but confirmed that Noble Knights will be Tier 1 in the TCG.
And against Stellarknights, it stops ROTA and the most expensive card in the deck, Deneb from adding anything. As well as the Pot of Duality's that they're all playing.
Not to mention that it hurts Burning Abyss from searching Tour Guide every turn with Scarm.

3. What to Dump
I don't really see anything that I would 100% advise anyone to dump. Things are pretty stable right now and it's really nice. Just the things I've said before.

Keep the juice flowing,
Lyle

A Shell of a Life

Hey, guys and gals

This week's been pretty crazy and I want to thank you all for the incredible amount of support and feedback that I've received on my first post. It's been humbling to say the least, and for those of you who really know me, I'm anything but.

But I digress, let's get right to it.

1. The Current Trend
YCS Toronto decklists were released this past week, one Shaddoll list in particular played an interesting choice for their Light monster, causing an old common to spike to $7+. Of course, I'm referring to Outstanding Dog Marron. Now, I admit that it's cute, and it's neat to never run out of Light targets for Shaddoll Fusion. That being said, I prefer the use of monsters that do something, whether it be the Lightsworn engine, the Artifacts (my personal preference), or the Thunder Dragon route. I'll be addressing my opinion on Marron from a financial standpoint later in this article.

2. Speculation Targets
My target for this week is an older card, Volcanic Shell, I'm only talking about the Ultimate Rare versions though.
This card seems like a good bet because of the November release of The New Challengers and with that, the release of El Shaddoll Egrystal. The card reads:
Level 7
Fire
Rock/Fusion/Effect
ATK 2450 DEF 1950
1 "Shaddoll" monster + 1 FIRE monster
Must first be Fusion Summoned. During either player's turn, when your opponent would Special Summon a monster(s), if you have a "Shaddoll" card in your hand: You can negate the Summon, and if you do, destroy that monster(s), then send 1 "Shaddoll" card from your hand to the Graveyard. You can only use this effect of "El Shaddoll Egrystal" once per turn. If this card is sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 "Shaddoll" Spell/Trap Card in your Graveyard; add it to your hand.
With this card added to the already powerful Shaddoll deck, you're going to need consistent access to Fire monsters. Volcanic Shell gives you that, because once you get one to your grave, for the cost of 500 LP, you have one per turn. This card reminds me of Thunder Dragon, a card that Patrick Hoban has already praised, in the way that it fetches more copies of itself to guarantee that you'll have a fat hand full of fusion material.
This card seems like a safe bet because it's from Force of the Breaker, a set that was released over 7 years ago and has already had Ultimates spike to crazy prices at the mention of future support. (Remember Gravekeeper's Commandant, Harpie's Queen, and Archfiend General?)
You can get playsets of 1st ed. Ultimates for roughly $14 currently and when's the last time you saw one in a binder?

3. What to Dump
You guessed it, this is where I'm addressing my opinion on Outstanding Dog Marron. Like I said, it's cute, but $7+ for a common played as a one-of in one version of a deck that I have to imagine topped on the back of the deck itself and not its pilot's tech choice. But Lyle, what about Vanity's Emptiness, that's a common that's worth upwards of $30? Vanity's is played as at least a two-of in each of the Big Three this format. As I said before, Marron is a one-of. Keep one for yourself if you really feel like playing it. Dump the rest. Immediately.

Keep the juice flowing,
Lyle

My First Post

Hey there, YGO Community

My name is Lyle and I'm a floor buyer in both Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic: The Gathering. I noticed that there are a fair number of MTG finance writers, but there are no real YGO finance writers, so I decided that I should bring some of my knowledge and insight to the rest of the Yu-Gi-Oh community. This is why I'm writing this series called “YGO Market Watch". In this series, I will be discussing current trends in the Yu-Gi-Oh secondary market along with what is causing said trends. I will also be discussing what cards I am picking up as speculation targets and what cards I am dumping to the hype train-following masses.

But before I go headfirst into what to buy/sell, I want to explain a few things about how the secondary market works. The TCG secondary market in general works the same way as any other market. There are suppliers, the people who make it their business to have the desirable items and to get them to their customers. There are the customers, the players and collectors, the people who keep the whole game going. But with a Trading Card Game, there are many other pieces of the equation:
There are the completely casual players, you know, what we all started as. They sit around their kitchen table with their unsleeved decks playing for the love of the game. These players keep the demand for cards like Blue-Eyes White Dragon high.
Then there are semi-competitive players, they play at local tournaments and win a few matches here and there, but at the end of the day, they'd rather play their gimmicky, fun, magical Christmas land decks or decks that were expensive when they first started playing than the new hotness. These players keep up the demand for wonky combo cards like Exodia pieces as well as past decks like Gladiator Beasts, X-Sabers, and Junk Doppel.
Then we have the competitive players, these are your players who travel for events, crush their locals, read articles, buy the newest decks, these are the primary customers of people like myself.

Then we have the different types of buyers/sellers:
Let's start with the small fish, these are the people, usually younger players, who are on a much more limited income and therefore buy or trade just to make a quick buck because the other guy/gal didn't know their card recently jumped in price. They then try to dump it immediately for any type of small come-up. These players are the type to make one huge juice, then once the other person finds out, they won't do business ever again.
Next we have the big fish, these players tend to have pretty nice binders filled with mid-tier and a few high-tier cards they juiced from small fish. These players tend to negotiate less on their prices because they think they're smarter than you are. This even applies when they're selling to a vendor.
Then there are the sharks, the players with the thick binders filled with high-tier cards. These players get a bad reputation with most of the smaller fish because they tend to only want the newest, shiniest cards. A lot of these players pay less than vendors so they can just ship to actual vendors for a profit. There are actually a fair number of “sharks" who are reputable because this is how they make their living and they know if they juice too often, people won't do business with them. They know that it's better to make $5 profit over 30 trades than to make $100 profit in one trade. One or two of these players at your local game store can actually be a good thing because they can bring an influx of cards back into the shop after bigger events because they have the means /connections to get the cards.
Lastly, we have the actual vendors, the  people with booths at regionals buying cards to take back to their brick and mortar stores or online shops. Examples are: Face to Face Games, CoreTCG, Brothers Grim CCG, Alter Reality Games, Strikezone, and Hotsauce Games. These stores tend to have public buylists so they can try to guarantee the best prices for their customers. One of the best things you can do is to become friends with people working/running their booths at events. These people have a lot of say with players and other vendors and can open doors to a lot of opportunities for you if you treat them with respect.

I'm going to keep this first blog short and only talk about one card per section so that I don't overwhelm any people who are new to this aspect of the game.

1. Current Trends
Over the past few weeks, weird cards have spiked in price, most of them immediately dropped back down to around their original price, maybe a little higher. IE: Mischief of the Yokai
But there were a few bad apples who decided to lie about a card and hype it through the roof as what they're calling a “social experiment" when it was clearly an excuse to take advantage of a few unfortunate people. By now, you've probably guessed that I'm talking about the card Spell Chronicle.

2. Speculation Targets
I've been targeting copies of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. This card has done nothing but drop since its release last month. You can get copies for roughly $15, and I'm a buyer at that price. This card has so much going for it that it's all but a sure bet.
It's a character card and unless they're reprinted ad infinitum, these kinds of cards stay expensive, especially if it's even borderline playable.
It's a secret from the first set of a new block. This card has so much time to grow in value.
It's the first real Pendulum support card.
It's a Dragon and we all know casual players love dragons.
It's level 7, which makes it relevant if Dragon Rulers make a resurgence. Plus it can be used for Sacred Sword of Seven Stars.
It fits into the first real Pendulum archetype, Qliphorts, which everyone is already proclaiming to be the best deck as soon as it drops.
Lastly, and probably most importantly, it facilitates a new strategy by letting you search for your specific need. Think about other Secret Rare cards that helped the newest decks: Tour Guide from the Underworld broke $200 and how could we omit Rescue Rabbit, another $100+ card. I feel like Odd-Eyes is just waiting to go through the roof, and when it does, I'll be ready.

3. What to Dump
Every Batteryman card. The deck hasn't put up any results despite the hype around it driving the prices of commons and rares to $5-10. This seems to be the height of their price, I'm a seller right now.

Thanks again for reading. If you liked this first report or have any ideas on cards you want me to address, just let me know.

Keep the juice flowing,
Lyle