A tough talk - INVESTORS GO BANKRUPT 

Sometimes I like to glue Black Lotus proxies to my body and slide around on the kitchen floor pretending I’m Rudy from Alpha Investments.

Old WotC staff should begin a company called Lizards of the Toast and produce a collectable cardboard tile game called The Tragic Slathering. I'd be all in.

A example of why being a collector is better than being an investor.

'The market can always stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent'. That's a good quote, I'm using it.

You don't gamble more than you can afford to lose - "stonks" absolutely do not always go up and more people will get killed on the crackback than luck their way into millions when you're dealing with these highly volatile "investment instruments"

Was this the guy that went in 30k on Scarab Gods? That guy is a true mad lad, he tried to buy out ALL the scarab gods, then when I saw the secret lair with the scarab god in it I imagined this guy having a meltdown

As we walk together through the valley of cardboard, DON'T INVEST ON LEVERAGE.

The lesson: Learn your fundamentals before making big investment decisions, don't just blindly invest on items because they have hot topic tags like "reserved list". Be careful and do your homework folks.

I remember you making a video about exactly this, the dangers of penny stocks. The example you gave was a person that buys sealed product vs someone that invests in single cards. Crazy that we now have a real world example Edit: The video was called "The Timmy Trap" Edit Edit: There's another similar one called "The Story of 3 Timmy's"

I used to buy cases of new sets to trade for cards upon standard rotation, I played semi competitively and I’d vendor cards to fund my trips to Gp events. I’d pick cards I saw potential in and I’d usually do pretty well with this I’d pick staples that saw play in multiple formats and just simply swarmed the market at that time. Since wizards has changed how they reprint cards I’ve been unable to do nearly as well as I’ve been able to in the past. I miss the “ good ole days”

Honestly laughed out loud at that ending, brother. Keep it up. Content has been 🔥🔥🔥 lately!

I appreciate these types of videos. I've learned more about market behaviors and investing from your talks than I have from anyone else.

LOL the ENDING!!! But yeah, excellent points - People get angry when they feel they are losing money / value / perception, and they love to blame people. Sorry that it's going to be you, most likely... I remember in March-June 2020 that everyone praised me for being a Teacher in the pandemic and how we were all awesome and yadda yadda yadda, only to see the public bash the crap out of us in August-October 2020 because of this/that/the other thing.. (Sidenote: Retired early in June '21 and have never been happier ) I applaud you for your efforts to educate us all in the world of Cardboard Finance, because it's just fascinating when you put it all together. Happy Taco Tuesday dood! ROCK ON!

This is some of the best general financial advice on RU-vid

I’ve followed you for a while. Love the content and very informative. Some advice has paid off during quarantine and even now. I was there when you warned last time. I hope hustlers worldwide will dust their shoulders, hold that crown up, and keep sniping!! Keep up the amazing work

Timmy got so completely hosed across the board that his step sister had to get HIM unstuck from the washer/dryer.

One of my favorite magic card quotes, stronghold mana leak: The fatal flaw in every plan is the assumption you know more than your enemy. That quote changed my world view.

👋 Guilty, I bought 25 copies of powder keg but it was cheap enough that I can’t remember. I’ve got the inside scoop though, Tulips! They’re the new gold people!

Magic today really, really, really reminds me of what happened to the comic book industry in the nineties.

I am a fellow investor/collector of some of these lower tier reserved list cards as well. And yes Rudy had a little hand in the inspiration of my reserved list collecting. Thing is I make sure all my bills are paid and only buy what I can and want with extra income. I never leverage for some of these riskier endeavors. You have to be able to buy them, preferably enjoy them and be willing to sit on them for a long time. I also collect a lot of the mid tier and higher tier reserved list cards as well. Just got my first piece of Unlimited P9 recently!

I remember your videos telling people not to leverage to buy reserve list cards that aren't worth the inflated prices. Turns out you were right!

My Timmy collection of junk RL rares were so bad even Rudy wouldnt make an offer. Oh well! I'm in for the long haul!

Rudy,.dollar a month Timmy patron here... I've been buying 10-20 dollar ABU , reserve list, etc every paycheck since 2017... I can say that many of the smaller reserve list cards have not been worth it BUT I also speculated on many non reserve list cards like Alpha Uncommons, hot staples like Unlimited Lightning bolts, Revised Birds of P, etc etc... When I went to buy a house for the first time this year the Alpha Uncommons were the highest gain on investment. They solely allowed me to fund the down payment on my house. I could not have done it without these small long term investments. I started in 2017 ish and it slowly built up. Many of those 20 dollar cards turned in to 100-300 dollar cards. Alpha Investments was always the best things to do.

I own like 300 lightning bolts. They used to be worth like a buck a piece. Now they're back down to a quarter where they belong. I only paid like 10 cents each, so I'm still winning. I just collected them for the art. Simple and beautiful.

I feel the same thing. Wizards will regret crushing the LGS competitive crowds.

Bitconnect schtick never gets old. It's eternal.

I learned a ton about markets and investing here. I bought a bunch of high end reserved list cards, made money, and got out early. I went wide on high end nm cards and diversified. I still really enjoy watching the market and Rudy’s rants.

You gotta cut your losses. Take your frozen assets and make them liquid (including the cards purchased). The difference in interest you would pay if you did not sell the cards and held on to them for 20 years as opposed to selling them and paying interest on a lower balance will still save you 10 × the amount of money you would make over appreciation of holding on to these cards.

ThAnks for sharing my story. I couldn’t bring myself to making a video about this

I agree Rudy. When people sell all their shit to you because they are over leveraged. They will hate you when the market comes back around.

I’m on the Thrull Champion wave with Mox Man and I know I’m not the only one. Someone has been buying out on card kingdom regularly.

I remember being a broke fresh graduated student a couple years ago. I partied my way through college and spent most of my income that way, besides the regular living costs. And then I found Rudy in 2018... I remember vividly on the way back from my first full time job watching the video of the Alpha Godbook, the shady world of grading, and all the other classics, and thinking "This guy has things figured out.". Here we are almost 5 years later, I moved back to my parents house to get out of the stress of a big city, almost paid off a 30 year old mortgage on my first rental property in 4 years, got a nice position in reserved list cards I bought into in 2019, got a decent stock and crypto portfolio, and other smaller investments. Got a super cozy position in a company nearby and do additional freelance stuff after hours. I'm happy. Also got rid of the blood/money sucking ex-fiance from my life. Thank you Rudy for guiding me all this time man. God bless your soul. If it wasn't for your videos I'd probably still be a timmy.

Don't get discouraged! I will keep watching you no matter what

As a collector and an investor doing just fine holding for as long it takes. Also there is a shop selling products for a loss near me. People always want the cheapest they can get but that shop won't last...which is sad but less competition...

Rudy, I have invited you for lunch over the years if you ever come to Southern California, but your not coming here, so if I'm ever in Florida I'll look you up. Thanks for all the wisdom and level thinking. I hope others are able to see the seriousness, focus, and sacrifices it takes from your stories and examples. P.S. I had tacos for breakfast.

I bought like 50+ didgeridoos from every card shop a few years ago. Spent 3-5$ Canadian each NM-M. Money well spent.

"Do you want to keep the cards?" "No, I don't really care about magic." This should be the only thing you need to ask yourself before "investing" in magic. If you don't care about magic, investing in it is a bozo act. Because having a passion for the game and hobby is basically your insurance for not making profits. Having a product you genuinely care about and cherish having doesn't feel as bad or like 100% failure.

Man, I remember watching that video and thinking how that was not a great investment. Now if they were trying to unload after a year or two... buying out tier 3 reserve list cards COULD be profitable I think, but man we are talking 10+ yrs to see a decent return. You do that, you are just better off buying sealed, every sealed product has gone up in value over time. It's unfortunate to hear this happening, and it's a big reason why it's so important to understand Magic.

It’s a shame and a sad situation to be in, I remember the moment, I was looking at card prices for things like Exalted Dragon people were buying them for 15 dollars when they were 2 a few weeks prior. Rough

FYI another Amazon dump is currently LIVE! I just bought a box of Dominaria United Collectors Edition

In 2018 I started buying out old 1999-2005 non reserve list foils that were historically deemed worthless because my mathematics indicated that in 2018 the supply was extremely low on any given foil from that time that fit the criteria of being deemed worthless historically for over a decade and almost 2. I decided to become the papa Rudy of worthless og non reserve list foils.

*Rudy looks out the window as he flies to London in his private jet. The phone rings.* "Hello Rudy here" he answers "mumble mumble Metazoo mumble..." the voice says "Pump it" rudy says with finality as he hangs the phone up

Feels like the eternal masters era again with Rudy.

This is a sad story. Never leverage on collectibles (as they are dead money until you sell and then you have to account for fees and inflation) what has worked well for me. Is first match your 401k if you have one and company matches (thats 100% return) then contribute to a roth ira up to the maximum then spend extra income on cards and collectibles with disposable income and make sure its something you like. Thats just what has worked out for me . Everyone is different but this strategy has worked for increasing my wealth over the years and add to my collection. Most of my investing money goes to something that will compound and pay interest and dividends. That way i never have to sell what i collect. But who knows im just some stranger on the internet. Im glad you posted this! Great video! 2020 was awful and made people think they will always make money on anything and thats just not reality

I remember your videos on this topic, your advice to avoid this strategy. Right on once again.

There are sooooo many Fallen Empire cards. They must still be printing them somewhere and not telling us. I love The Dark though, it is a great, cohesive set

Used to watch Rudy for box openings, now he is my life coach

I'll still be watching this channel in this bare market

Something i realized a while back is that wotc is currently doing everything the comic book industry did in the 90s right before it collapsed. Makes me wonder about the future of the game and potentially card games in general.

I am still buying my Nachos every week, but buyouts have died on the vine for now markets change.

friend of mine has been buying out earthbind for the last 7 years, simply because he likes the art. NOW he has a binder (so to speak) full of them, that he estimates is worth 10k. morale of the story: Buy what you love. BTW, he's NOT selling ANY of them.

Much love from Florida Rudy!!!!!

Here we go, reminder to buy old reserve list cards from ice age forward to increase Rudy's holdings.

Rudy’s videos are the only interest I have in cards and magic,I’m no collector or player, never even opened a pack. But his opening videos are awesome and so are these ones love it

LOve Rudys channel, not just MTG stuff, great to hear honesty

Yo Rudy doubt you will respond to this, but do you know of any Distributors who are actively accepting applications. Been trying to sign up for southernhobby for over a year now and still no response so anything you can recommend?

I have been keeping my eye on a few singles for a while now. Noticing everything is starting to fall. Not a lot, but by a dollar or two. I don't know what the market will looks like, but if I can grab some of these things that have been on my wish list for years at a good price, I think I will pull the trigger. Mostly because I want to actually play with the cards and not just keep them on a shelf. but what do I know

Nothing is darker then Magic 30

Collectibles are NOT real investments. I'm not saying you can't make money, especially on a fast flip, but true investments generate income. I enjoy my collectibles and some are, on paper, have gone up in price. Nothing so ridiculous that you have to sell before the market dies though. And of course I own a lot of stuff that has lost value too and even more that I have donated to the local charity shops because I no longer cared. People that pay the big bucks on collectibles that are not for their personal enjoyment are just parasites that drive up prices that prevent real collectors from possibly enjoying them. The problem for them is when they buy from other speculators to sell to other speculators in a cycle until they long ago passed what any collector would pay, so the prices eventually collapse. My sympathy for these people is minimal.

My first reserved list card I got was an acidic dagger from a cheap bulk buy of random rares, it was worthless then and still is today.🤣

I remember you saying Rudy that " wizards are gonna hit it out of the park this year "

There are guys like me with 100+ copies of reserved list cards that were bulk rares 5 or more years ago and I obtained them as free leftovers from buying collections. I tend to wait until they are $10 each and buylist them 8 to 20 at a time for $6.

I agree with Jeff Pavlik, collect for yourself. When I have a play set of four cards I don’t continue buying. I do like to collect the same cards from different sets, to complete my set. The cheaper they get the more I can complete my collections.

Should've invested in Pokemon

Yup - good video Rudy. A lot of people ain’t happy.

Rudy, an early lesson I’ve learned from working in the commodity industry is don’t feel smart when the market is up because you don’t want to feel stupid when the market is down. Same thing here, don’t be happy when he market is up as you don’t want to feel sad when the market is down. Markets do what they do, and I don’t assign my happiness to where the market is at. It also helps to play the long game and never buy into the hype. If you read this, giggity in the next video.

I go with the "invest in what you can afford to lose", then you can ride out any changes in the market. Good thing about investing in cardboard, you can also look at it, touch it, play with it.

Thanks for the prediction at the end. It’s nice hear the wisdom

I've been slowly (when I can throw the money away) buying the Player Rewards version of Terror. Aside from Cyclopean Tomb I think it's just the coolest art in mtg....so they aren't for sale. Like 100 copies now and theyre getting thin in the NM slot. And theyre beautiful....and they're mine....All Mine!! MIIIIIINNEEE!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

I remember when Fallen Empires came out I felt like I was trying to make Chicken Salad out of Chicken Shit to make a handful of card in that set playable in Standard (Called Type 2 at the time) and even in Extended. 1. Cards that were just straight up amazing without work (Hymn to Torach, Pump Knights) 2. Cards I twisted my deck around to make playable: Derelor (Won local tourneys with this deck think Bloodlust and Berserk) eventually Derelor and Su-Chi was replaced with Juzam Djinn and Ernam Djinn. 3. Cards that I couldn't play in tourneys but strong enough to play in casual games vs friends with fairly strong decks. (Orgg, Rainbow Vale, Storage Lands) So Fallen Empire had around 7-12 playable cards and thats counting each pump knight seperate and storage lands. In reality it was just Hymn To Torach, Derelor, Orgg, Rainbow Vale, Pump Knights and Storage Lands. So not seperating pump nights and Storage lands that is 6 cards that are playable in an ENTIRE set of trash. Yet this clueless guy buys 100 Copies of Elvish Farmer thinking he's gong to effect the price? I recall my best friend when 3rd Edition came out attempted to corner our local market on Serendib Efreet and he had 200 copies of that damn card. He literally did effect the demand for that card because anytime I saw someone offer a Serendib Efreet for trade that was as good a tradeable as a dual land at the time in Birmingham, AL.

I'm just going to sum up his entire video in layman's speak for everybody else to understand very clearly and succinctly, don't buy speculative assets with credit because it's a speculative asset if you're going to do that you buy it with hard cash.

Any investment is like playing the lottery ... but for some reason people seem to be surprised and shocked when they don't win.

Hey Rudy can you do some research into the Topps Buyback Program that they are doing with baseball. Do you think Wizards could save face and pull something like this?

Right I’m now is definitely the time to buy certain products. Charizard upc bottomed out and lost confidence, mtg booster boxes, you name it; it’s a good Time to grab underrated products.

How can I get on of your alpha investments t shirts

10:33 Frodo knows all about that

glad im just now starting to collect

Was the spec Thelonite Monk (the only other Fallen Empires Reserve List Green Creature is Elvish Farmer, and that boy seems to be treading water from his all time high)? On a long enough time line, it will always be a silly speculative purchase.

@13:00 ish, this is quite true and Im already seeing it in the Pokemon area

17:41 I sold a vast majority of my singles in 2020, didn’t buy anything until last month getting cards at a fraction of the price I sold them for. That said see you Wednesday at Wendy’s for second shit Rudy.

My take: The buyer was a fool for multiple reasons. Buying cheap reserved list cards at $6-7 each when it was likely they were 50cents-$2.00 not that long ago meant he already paid a high premium for them. Also to think you are going to 6X, 7X, 10X your money on a card that was never worth much over almost 30 years is absurd. Realistically, people investing should be happy buying a card for $5 and selling for $7.50 and making a 50% profit, or grabbing some for $1 and doubling or tripling up to $2-3. Just like people now with stocks and crypto thinking you're going to turn $1,000 into $25,000 in a week, that almost never happens unless you had some blind luck on timing. But the biggest mistake was obviously spending money you can't afford to lose, and then going to people like this and begging for help. Don't use credit cards to buy cheap magic cards. And if you're in a position where you need money so bad you'd be willing to take a 90% loss to sell out to Rudy, maybe consider those cards already gone. Put them in a box in the back of the closet, ignore them, and maybe in a few years you'll have something worth enough to break even or show a profit. If you owe a company $50,000 and Rudy gives you $2,000, you're still F-ed. Why let this guy win over and over at your expense. Take your financial beating like a man, file for bankruptcy if needed, but don't take the shaft on some lowball BS offer from a major card dealer when what they pay you will still not solve your problems. Also while this video comes across as a "cautionary tale" and charitable advice, remember that he didnt say he wouldnt buy them at all. If stores are buying these "worthless" cards for even $2, that means they intend to sell for above that, which means they ARE worth money, and just like everything, when the economy and market turns around, those Fallen Empires rares will be worth more, and yes, people still do build and collect sets. Anyone playing commander/EDH should and often does want at least 1 copy of every card ever made for the fun decks and what-if's on combos and synergies, so owning a full set of FE, Homelands, Ice Age etc is definitely worth it.

Great and on point vid Ruby, we are at the start if the Blood in the street phase, stay solvent, don't over leverage or your wheels may come off. Stay the course, diamond hands for the win, plus build in a little buffer to be able to take advantage when opportunities arise, recently took advantage when Wazzocks of the coast dumped their load into Amazon and I picked up some additional collector boxes at below wholesale prices. Stay strong and stay solvent .. diamond paws for the win.

Only invest a dollar amount in something that won’t financially harm you because the most likely/worst-case-scenario instance is you will lose some of, if not all of it. If you can’t spare the money to even invest in something then don’t invest in anything yet. Wait and save up. People should never even be taking out credit cards to use to invest or buy items to flip. That’s just insane.

Oh my... Fallen Empires... The name keeps proving accurate.

Loosing $10k USD for a lesson in Collectibles is really cheap compared to the prices of your education system. Those people should learn from it and they will earn that 10k back in the future easely.

It's all about entry price. Same as stocks. Only load up if you're in some kind of bottom scenario. Gotta have an entry and exit strategy in mind.

Another great video. I see it everywhere. So many people just down in general. You certainly called it on revised. My strategy, if you want to call it that, is just to buy and hold. Some things have gone down due to reprints. Many have gone up substantially. I collect, and simply enjoy the cards I have for what they are. It will be very interesting to see where we are in 12 months. Hopefully a better place. That all said, the market appears to be recovering at this point, if only temporarily.

If I’m hearing you correctly Rudy, what you’re saying is we need to collateralize all these shitty buyouts into a collective buyout obligation, that we layer with other, better investments in more valuable reserved list cards, which we can then use as the backbone of the American economy until 2108.

Really looking forward to the recession hitting the retro video game market, I got my eye on a Castlevania symphony of the night black label complete in box.

Random question Rudy - how high can you pile those boxes without the ones on the bottom getting damaged? I always see you surrounded by mountains of cardboard and I cringe for the bottom boxes.

Lord Rayden : "No. Every mortal is responsible for his own destiny. Chan believed this. Why can't you?" MORTALLLLL COLLLLLLLECTIBLES!!!!!!!!!!

Always look forward to the end of Rudy’s videos! 😊👊

I'm all in on thelonite monk too!

Mouth hugs all around during these sad times

wait wait wait I thought things only go up! I WAS LIED TO!

Those tulip gamblers will all go down...

That was the nicest looking picture I’ve ever seen

I hate to repeat this because ive said it SO many times. Magic is a trading card GAME. Its not stocks. It's not your retirement fund. Its a game. It's all fine and good to collect cards. But treating this like an investment is allways a mistake. If I had my way the reserved list would be gone, and you know what, old cards that are collectable and valuble now would remain as they are. old and collectable.

Rudy, what do you make of the argument that commoditizing the market and driving down the price of singles with reprints is good for the game long term because it expands the player base, which ultimately drives up demand and long-term value? To everything there is a season - could it be that while this is bad for prices in the short term, it will be a good thing for the game in the long term, and we may see a swing back in the direction of more scarce cards in the future? At the end of the day if nobody is playing Magic because it's too expensive for kids and new players etc., that's not good for anyone. What do you say?

Rudy what’s your opinion on the new Starter Commander decks?