Selling Mini Magic Starter Decks
Back in the day Magic used to sell starter kits. They were a little cardboard box of various cards from the main set. The goal was to buy a starter kit and a few boosters and you could build a custom deck.
When I started they sold things called starter decks. Little 60 card standard precons with some sort of theme. I had an 8th edition starter kit which came with two half decks to play with, and a 7th edition Armada precon deck. It was a white deck full of angels which was a fun introduction to a game I had always been told was full of evil stuff.
Today they only sell boosters and pre-constructed Commander decks. Because, well, most people play Commander. Even with an expensive Commander deck it's still cheaper than trying to build a competitive standard legal deck which is why I think so many people do so only online.
But what I miss is going to the store and picking a little deck from various options and playing it against friends. Jumpstart basically took the place of this product for modern cards but not all jumpstart cards are standard legal so that throws a wrench in things.
Now, I am still selling through my Magic inventory. I have lots and lots of bulk. Like, I took all the commons out of my shop and need something to do with them. So I figured why not try to sell bundles of just common cards? I know there are other formats that people might need them for and those of yall who build cubes need several copies of staple cards.
For the modern stuff I plan on just filling up some 500 card count boxes with all one color of commons and tossing them on eBay for $30 shipped. But for my old and dusty cards, the premodern bulk that has been dragged across a table a few times, I wanted to do something a little different.
So the idea is to build little mono color common only decks with the old cards. Something you could buy four of and you and your buddies could play for fun when you didn't have four hours to play one commander game.
I'm not sure yet if I want to make them complete decks or not though. Should they just be 60+ (whatever fits in the box) mono commons - no duplicates? Or should they be proper 60 card mono common mini decks complete with land ready to play? I know I have the land to do this but it's not premodern. If the land isn't going to all be premodern then should I make all the cards just a free for all? They won't be standard legal anyway.
I've already ordered the little deck boxes off amazon to put them in and some labels to print what color they are. (The photo just shows a concept I printed out and taped together. It actually has Pokemon cards in it to test how many fit lol.) So price wise I'm looking at minimum 5 dollars to ship them because USPS has lost its mind. The box and label cost me 45 cents. Then there are 60-72 cards that are worth ten cents a pop. So ballpark ten bucks shipped is the goal so I'd price them at 5.99 each on eBay and combine shipping afterwards.
Having premodern mystery mini decks might be a fun idea. Or do I just make them ultra pauper mystery mini decks with the modern bulk I have? I'll see what I can throw together this weekend when I finally yank all the commons out of my boxes.
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.