Your Binder and You

Anyone who is poor or lacking in cards usually are just starting the game or had quit earlier on and sold everything and now has to rebuild their collection, as well as those who are poor and just lack tradeable cards. Getting tradeable cards isn't as hard as a lot of players think. The trick is to start low and work your way up, and money is a way to do this. Poor players usually spend extra money their parents give them on food and other various things except for cards. If you are a poor player, you should know that you should do whatever it takes to get what you need. I myself am a poor player, yet I've owned cards like Dark Armed Dragon and Judgment Dragon, as well as other high money secret rare cards before their reprints like Il Blud and Necroface. If you are going to any event, regionals and locals more so than anything else, you can use any extra money you have aside from your entrance fee towards cards you can use to trade for more better cards.

When I go to regionals or locals I usually go with $20 for locals and $40 for regionals. When I do happen to go to regionals, I use that extra $20-25 on cards I can use to trade off and get more cards I need or more cards to build up my collection. This is one good way to help build your collection. Now lets say you haven't ever quit the game or you aren't just starting off, but you lack good cards. The best way to start building up your collection with only bad cards, again is to work your way up, starting with cheap but good cards. Trading online isn't always the best way of trading, so be sure to be safe and if you have to send first, you can always do whats called a "mod" trade. Using a moderator on the site you are trading on to make sure your trades are safe. The reason I suggest online trading is because there are people who take "points". Points are a large number of cards that are super rare or higher that you trade for specific cards. Each rarity is worth a certain amount of points and traders place a certain number of points next to cards and you trade cards whos total points equal the card you are trading for.

Knowing What To Trade For And Card Values

When you are trying to finish your deck or build your binder, you need to know what to trade for. Otherwise those who know what the money cards are will possibly try to cheat you out of it if you happen to have one and don't realize the value on the card. There are many ways to know what cards to target first when it comes to going for stuff you want. One of these ways is to look on websites that do coverage on major events like nationals and Shonen Jump Championships. This is because all sites that do coverage on major events tend to list the top 16 decks. Look through those decks and you will know what cards to target for your deck or if you are just looking for cards to trade.

Now that you have an idea of some of the decks that are winning right now, and what cards you want to target, you need to know the values on the cards you have as well as the cards you are targeting. Most people use eBay completed listings and go by an average value. Without knowing your values, you are asking for your good cards to be ripped off you and you getting less than you could have gotten so its best to know the values of your own cards before you start trading with people.

Organization

Most people dont really care about how their binders are organized, and this really isn't very important but you'd be surprised by how well an organized binder attracts people. Most of the time, I see players that want better cards putting their best cards in the front. No player really feels like going through a whole binder with mostly cards they dont want or dont need. This works both ways. If you are trying to trade off your bad cards, spread your good cards out and mix them in with the bad cards. This works as well, as it gets traders to go through your whole binder to check and see if you have something they will want or something they need. Once you manage to get a binder full of decent cards that people may want or will want, you can put all your good cards in the front or you can keep them spread out.

Budget Decks

This also isn't a big thing either, however more often than not I find myself playing budget decks. This allows me to put more good cards into my binder which attracts more attention in the long run. Recently I was limited to just a Six Samurai deck and a Plant deck. I ended up trading a lot of that off for even more trade bait. Now I've got cards for decks like Blackwings, Hopeless Dragon and for fun, Aliens. Build a deck that you know is within $20-40 that can do well. Recently we've seen Rock Stun decks become somewhat popular as some people believe the deck has potential, and it does and the new Koa'ki Meiru Guardian is a common in Raging Battle, so its cheap. The only real money card you would really need is Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, unless you believe you need Solemn Judgment, then it becomes a $100-110 deck. My advice here is to just simply find budget decks to use. Aliens, Morphtronics and Batteryman decks are all good budget decks to use and all fit within the $20-40 range and play well at a local level.

Rares and Commons

Recently I've had more respect for rare and common cards, as I've traded off a bunch of commons and rares off lately to get most of the Hopeless Dragon and Blackwing stuff that I do have right now. Get a second binder and get as many good commons and rares as you can. If you know what decks are good then get the easier to get rares and commons from those decks and build a binder out of them. You'd be amazed by how many people would actually want some of the rares and commons you may have. Examples of commons and rares people are after would be Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind, Trade-In and Foolish Burial. All three of those cards are in high demand and are fairly cheap. Getting multiples of these as well as other highly used commons and rares really helps your chances of getting more foil cards that you may want or need.

Other Things You Should Know

Some other things you should know, especially when it comes to building your binder is never trade down. Always try and get more than you are giving, even if its only a very small bit, still try to get more than what you are giving. There are desperate players in the game that you can easily get stuff you want or need off of for something you have that they want. When you want to build your collection you need to be rather serious about it, trade as much as you can, get cards you know people will want as well as it increases your chances of getting more stuff you want and need.

I hope this helps you budget players out there as much as it can, and good luck on all your trading and thanks for reading.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me at nova1990@live.com