Magic The Gathering Card Buying Tips

In this installment of Magic the Gathering Tips, I want to get away from the playing aspect a little bit and concentrate on something that I feel is just as important if not more so... how you go about buying your cards. You may or may not care about the little tidbits you're going to read here, but at least be aware of this stuff.

Let's begin with the two basic ways that most people buy their cards, at least when they're first starting out. As time comes on, they may continue alone one of these paths, both of them, include other options or toss these completely out the window because they've found that there's a better way.

The most common card buying method for new players is buying individual packs. Why? Well, mostly because it's the cheapest method, or at least appears to be on the surface. But I'll get into more of that later on.

A pack of Magic the Gathering cards is roughly about $4 depending on where you live. Inside, depending on the set, you get 15 cards. Early expansions had a lot fewer, which is why I said depending on the set. Any new set you buy is unlikely to have fewer than 15 cards but who knows? The only thing constant in life is change.

By purchasing individual packs, a new player can slowly build his collection over time without spending a lot of money at one time. For many people, this is their only option, especially if their source of income is mom and dad's allowance each week. When I was a kid, if Magic was around, I would have gotten enough money to maybe buy 3 packs a week.

Another option, which is more expensive up front but actually cheaper in the long run, is to buy a whole box of cards. There are usually about 36 packs in a box depending, again, on the expansion. At $4 per pack, this would normally sell for $144 for a box. But, you can get a whole box, again, depending on where you live, for about $110. So as you can see, this is a $34 savings on every 36 packs. That's not too bad.

Those are your most common methods of buying cards, but they're not the only ones and, in my opinion, not the best ones IF you're looking to get the most value out of your purchase.

Ah, but what is value? This is something that each person has to define for themselves, which is why all I can say is that the "better" way is only my opinion. Buying packs or boxes may be better for what you're trying to get out of it. For example, some people just LOVE opening up a box of cards. And while it may not be the most economical solution, depending on what you're looking for, it is a LOT of fun.

But over the years I have found, since I always end up looking for certain cards, that buying packs and boxes is a no win scenario. To understand why, you have to understand the rarity system in Magic.

Every pack in the most recent sets contains 15 cards that are broken down as follows:

1 rare or mythic rare 3 uncommons 11 commons

Let's say I am looking for one rare card. Since we know that there are 36 rares in a box (1 per pack) my chances of getting that one card, if I buy a whole box, is 1 in 36, roughly. And that also depends on how many different rares there are in a set.

For example, in Magic 2013, there are 58 rares and 15 mythic rares. That makes 73 possible cards to fill up those 36 slots in a box of cards. So you're really looking at odds of 1 in 73 of pulling one specific rare.

Let's say that rare costs $20 on the open market and it takes you an average of 2 boxes of cards to pull that one card. That's over $200 spent, on average, just to get that ONE card.

Now, if you're looking for other cards in the set, you're going to pull some of those two. But most likely, unless they're commons and uncommons, you're only going to pull ONE of each of them.

What do you do if you're looking to play competitively and you need 4 of a certain card in order to do it?

Do you see how this starts getting expensive?

Sure, you can open one pack of cards, spend $4, and pull a $50 rare out of the pack. But the odds of that happening are stacked against you.

And that's just the point. Opening up packs and boxes is like playing the lottery. Sure, you might win, but more likely than not, you're going to end up spending most of your money on what's going to amount to 4 play sets of common cards that you can buy for 10 cents.

So what's the alternative?

What I do is buy the rares that I want on the open market, either through eBay or a dealer. Sure, I may pay $20 or more for one card, but if it's the card I need to put together a competitive deck, it's cheaper than hoping I get it through opening packs.

But what about the commons and uncommon cards?

You can purchase a complete play set of common and uncommon cards for about $40. I've done the math. In order to get a play set of both reliably, you have to open up at least 2 boxes of cards. That's $220. Sure, you get 72 rares but you have no way of knowing that the rares you get are going to be the ones you want.

Sometimes, if I really love a set, I'll buy one box just to see what I get like I recently did with Return To Ravnica. But ultimately, I ended up having to shell out about $300 for the rares that I wanted and I still don't have all the commons and uncommons.

And the larger the set, the harder it is to complete a collection.

The reasons why this is financially unfeasible are beyond the scope of this article. You need to do a lot of probability and understand exactly how the rares and mythic rares are distributed to "get" it.

Suffice it to say, most of my Magic the Gathering card buying is done on Ebay or through a dealer buying individual cards.

If you enjoy opening packs and boxes, go for it. But if you're looking for a specific card, you're better off buying it directly.

To YOUR Magic the Gathering Enjoyment,

Steven "Land Boy" Wagenheim

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Halloween Is for Babies Too!

You might think that a Halloween costume for a baby is ridiculous. They cannot eat candy, they don't know what Halloween is and they are probably going to poop in their costume anyway.

Here is some great advice for getting a costume for a baby if you want to get in on the fun:

Go to the stores that sell baby costumes the day before Halloween or the morning of Halloween and get a costume at half price. This is the one time in your life as a parent that your kids will not care what costume they are in. Well, maybe it will be for a couple more years, but enjoy it while it lasts. It won't be long before they have an opinion and an opinion that will change multiple times between Labor Day and Halloween.

My daughter was a cow for her first Halloween because the costumes at The Right Start were 50% off on the day of Halloween. Good thing I took a mental health day from work that day or I never would have discovered that. We had our two other children wear the same costume for their first Halloween and now the costume is jammed into my nightstand because I cannot part with it. Someday, I will get a hope chest and then I will have a nice place for it along with a few other favorite baby outfits.

And, you can dress your baby up and go trick or treating even if you live in an apartment and all of your neighbors are college students or retired old ladies. We put our baby in the car and drove to 3-4 friends' houses or apartments where we knew we'd find some candy. We had a little metal pail, so at one apartment we just plopped our baby down in her cow costume with her bucket, rang the bell and hid. This is a treasured memory for us and our friends.

You can also use hooded sweatshirts or solid colored bodysuits and black pants to make your own costumes. We added fur ears and a fur tail with wire in it to a black hooded sweatshirt to make a black cat. Our son did not want to dress up for Halloween when he was 16 months old, so we just got him dressed in black pants and the sweatshirt that just happened to have a tail and ears. He was pretty happy following the older kids around in the stroller until he discovered the tail sticking out of the side of his stroller. We had plenty of chocolate at that point to keep him happy.

Sharing Halloween with babies is definitely more about fun for the parents than fun for the baby, but that same baby will love to see pictures of them dressed up for their first Halloween costume later on.

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The Power of Music and Your Child's Brain Development

The impact of music and how it affects the brain has been a hot topic for parents and scientists in the last ten to fifteen years. More and more studies are proving that children exposed to music have higher IQ's, auditory development, verbal development and memory skills.

Music is an effective means for triggering and influencing moods, aids in communication, transcends language barriers and encourages interaction with others. The movie, television and marketing industries use music to trigger our emotional response or urge us to buy a product. When we lose someone we love, we listen to sad music; when we are on a long road trip, we tend to listen to peppy music to keep us alert or chase the blues away. To get us in the Christmas spirit we listen to holiday songs.

What Recent Studies Have Found

A Canadian study published on September 2006 in the ScienceDaily, produced evidence that children studying music had improved listening skills and general cognitive functioning related to memory and attention, than those children not studying music. Other studies have found that "assignment to musical training is associated with improvements in IQ in school-aged children." The 2006 Canadian study explored how music training affects the way in which the brain develops. The outcome of the study proved that music is good for your child's cognitive development, and that "music should be part of the pre-school and primary school curriculum."

Northwestern researches have been directly looking into what happens after a child stops taking music instrument lessons after only a few years. What they have found is that adults with one to five years of music lessons had "enhanced brain responses to complex sounds, allowing recognition of sounds in complex and noisy auditory environments." They had more finely tuned auditory perception, decision-making function and auditory communication skills than those with no music training. Those adults with no music training had less enhanced brain responses. Past studies were focused on the music student who continued their training into adulthood, spending a lifetime in music training. The new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience captures a much larger group, since most children exposed to music training generally do not continue beyond middle or high school.

Exposing your newborn or infant to music and song benefits them even before they can talk or walk. A McMaster University study discovered that one-year old babies who were exposed to interactive music courses smiled more, connected and communicated better, and showed more sophisticated brain responses to music and song.

A new study published in BioMed Central's journal, Behavioral and Brain Functions, found that auditory working memory and musical aptitude are "intrinsically related to reading ability," and they found a biological basis for this link via common neural and cognitive mechanisms.

The Bottom Line

Many parents do not recognize how music affects, influences and benefits their children. It can positively aid in their development and growth from the very start. There are many reasons to expose your child to music, even from within the womb. Here are our top ten reasons:

Aids in brain development, including cognitive, communication, memory and auditory functions. Facilitates the development of self-confidence, self-esteem, self-expression and self-control---all key ingredients to a successful life! Provides emotional well-being. Stimulates motor skills. Accelerates language development and improves vocabulary development in toddlers. Inspires creativity and improvisation. Motivates concentration. Encourages interaction with others. Strengthens the bond between parent and child. Music is a highly powerful method of setting your child's moods.

There are multiple ways for parents to connect with their little one and expose him or her to the great big world of music. The wonderful thing about music is that everyone loves it, and it is so easy to incorporate simple interactive action music games in the home or attending an interactive music class. Singing "peek-a-boo my baby girl(boy) or "here is your wiggily little toes" while playing with babies feet to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down," may seem silly, but baby will not only find it amusing but learn from it. The rhyming and actions in many silly songs can help your child learn numbers, letters, words and concepts.

Music is a powerful catalyst for learning, creativity, and development. From lullabies to looney tunes, Bach to Rock, the influence of music and song has a hand in teaching your child. Participate in interactive music and movement classes, and play and share music with your child as often as possible! The benefits are a powerful tool for you to help your child grow through the positive power of music.

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Modern Furniture: A Staging Must!

When it comes to selling your property, there is no doubt about it, you need to appeal to the masses. This means that your 15 year old living room set won't cut it. There are, however some simple solutions that can help you modernize the look of your home, without necessarily breaking the bank. For instance, if you were planning on updating your furniture once you've moved into your new house, it may be wise to do so right away and move the furniture once your house is sold. Certain items such as chairs and sofas can be re-upholstered to give them a fresh new look. You can also invest in inexpensive accessories that will attract the buyer's attention to a more modern decor while preventing your old comfy couch from becoming an eyesore.

As a first step, you will need to determine which furnishing items you will be keeping once you are in the new house and which ones you will be replacing. It is crucial that this step be taken immediately as it will go a long way in helping you sell your home. It is wise and even recommended that the furniture you are planning on replacing after you move, be replaced immediately. It's time to go shopping! Yes it may be a hassle to buy it all now and then move it once the house is sold but remember that if buyers are not making offers because the house doesn't appeal to then, you may never be buying all this furniture, whereas buyers will be more likely to make an offer on a house they see themselves living in. Although they will not be buying your furniture, it is the overall look of the house that has to speak to the buyer. You need to guide their imagination and show them how nice it can be.

Although you are planning to move, you may not be planning on purchasing new furniture. After all, why throw away such good comfortable furniture that has already been broken into. There is also a simple solution for that. Slip covers for sofas, love seats and armchairs are a fantastic and inexpensive way to breathe new life into your dated living room set. For the bedrooms, whenever possible remove any headboards with a dated took and use fresh modern linen to dress your beds. Set the dining table with modern plates and a bright centerpiece to attract attention away from the older table. Re-upholster chairs for a fresh modern look. If your rooms are over flowing with furniture, it will be important to get some of it out of the house and arrange to store it until your house is sold.

Last but not least, you can use decorative items and accessories to attract the buyer's attention and tone down the dated look. Bright, bold and contrasting colors tend to attract the eye. The buyer will be focused on the colorful item and will probably be less likely to notice the dated decor. The most important accessories you can modernize are your window coverings. They are a dead giveaway and no matter how expensive and chic they are, if they are from another time, it will be a turnoff to the modern buyer. Other examples of using accessories to deter attention can be a contrasting colored throw placed on an older couch, which will catch the buyer's eye. The same is true for an old dresser. You can easily invest in a colorful, modern vase to offset the age of the dresser. Adding art to your walls will also have the same effect. The idea is to tone down the older furniture by enhancing it with modern accessories.

In the end, you do not have to buy or rent new furniture to stage your house. You simply need to give buyers what they are looking for and if that is a modern look and feel, there are ways of doing it without spending thousands on furniture you don't necessarily like. If you are going to be changing your furniture, by all means, buy it and stage your house with it. It will go a long way. If this purchase is not part of your plan or your budget, you can use re-upholstering as an effective alternative to bring your old items into the twenty first century. alternately, you can also use modern decorative accessories to give your buyers the impression of a modernized look. The options are plenty and the more modern the look, the more likely you are to sell quickly.

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Niche Marketing Strategy - Popularity Pays

The current wisdom and advice for first time niche marketers is "stick to what you know best." There's a lot to recommend this type of approach since every niche blog or website requires a great deal of writing for content pages, reviews, and promotional articles, and it's much easier to write about a topic you're intimately familiar with.

Another reason offered by those who advocate "stick to what you know" is that you'll be building more sites anyway. So if your first site isn't wildly profitable you've at least gotten your feet wet and will be better prepared to tackle the more competitive niches you probably aren't familiar with.

But with 50,000 new blogs coming on line every day according to WordPress, you can't afford to waste your precious time getting your feet wet - the competition is just too intense.

Of course the exception here is if you're already knowledgeable about something popular like online games, you stand a much better chance of success than the guy who's blogging about bio-fuel furnaces.

Although it may be more time consuming to research a popular topic you know very little about, your efforts will be rewarded financially and you'll become an expert in your new niche sooner than you think.

What Do You Mean By Popular?

Popularity has two components. The first is enthusiastic interest in a product or service by a majority of consumers. The second is year round, or "evergreen," appeal.

Once again, there are exceptions. I know of many instances where people do very well with seasonal niches like Halloween, but these niche topics are a tough nut to crack because they're over saturated with activity.

Look for niches in products or services that are in demand year round or informational niches relating to issues constantly on their mind, e.g., sex, love, relationships, pets, entertainment, food, apparel, electronics, health, personal appearance, making money, and last but not least, porn.

Speaking of porn; you have to laugh when the various media outlets come out with their annual year end "Top Ten Searches of the Year" list. What they should really say is: "Once we eliminated porn related searches, which comprise 25% of all internet search volume, these were the next ten in line."

The next step after deciding on one or more broad topics to use as your seed keyword(s), is finding a profitable niche keyword phrase for the title of your website or blog and, hopefully, a matching dot com domain name.

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What Is Bedside Care? Unraveling the Mystery of Patient Care

What would you answer if someone asks you "what is bedside care?" It is the combination of all activities and support given to a sick person who has been confined to bed. This can be an adult or a child. When you fall sick and get admitted to hospital, there are things you cannot be able to do. You need the assistance of your spouse, close friends and relatives. A doctor may recommend that you get a lot of bed rest. Then there are those who are very sick or incapable to care for their own health, as is the case for many elderly individuals. All these put together with you, have one common denominator; they are sick and unable to take care of themselves.

Hospitals are only good for getting treatment and receiving professional attention from different people in the medical field. Once your doctor has given the go-ahead for you to be discharged and continue receiving care from home, you are being handed a lifeline. People who see themselves in hospital may lose the will to live. This can intensify the illness and lead to longer hospitalization. By considering the escalating medical costs, living at home is a smart idea for many. Some doctors feel that a patient is likely to recover faster, if they are at home compared to in a facility.

What is bedside care? To answer this question, you must first understand the predicament of a bedridden person. They totally rely on others for help. With bedside care, a patient relaxes knowing that there is competent and trustworthy team of caregivers by his side. These are people who will encourage you on a daily basis. There is nothing as refreshing as seeing other people sacrifice their time for the sake of your well-being. By taking good care of your parents, you feel proud of being at the forefront of taking care of people who educated and took proper care of you.

Bedside care also involves ensuring that the food you eat is balanced and you have all basic things at your disposal any time you need them. The person entrusted with the overall task of taking care of a sick person calls for a quick thinker and someone who likes getting the best out of every person.

Bedside care can also be professional home care services for sick people who have chosen to recuperate from their homes. Most of the time, it is associated with elderly people who do not have sufficient strength to fend for themselves. The hospital may assign a nurse to keep a tab on the progress of such a patient. Other people do have nurses hired for them and caregivers, who will cook, wash their clothes and clean the house. They will also ensure the sick person is well cared for and is comfortable.

If you are planning to have an elderly parent move in with you, it is a good idea to do some research on elderly bedside care. This will aid in preparing your home to care for your loved one. You will need to purchase a variety of supplies and other things to make their stay at your home a little easier for both of you.

There are agencies that provide caregivers at a fee. Hiring a caregiver might be a good option if you find that the overall task is time-consuming. You need to closely monitor the care your elderly loved one is receiving at the hands of people you have hired. Your loved ones health and overall well-being is the most important thing. Always make sure you talk with them about bedside care and the type of help they would like.

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