I was feeling pretty good about my progress. The Illusionary Mask was being mailed to my hotel and I had prepared my trade binder for the four-day trading extravaganza that would ensue. I had never been to GenCon but I could only hope that all the insane trading stories were true. As I walked into the convention center I heard live Celtic music being playing by the escalator. The place was packed! There were people on the leaning, against or sitting on every flat surface. The atmosphere was thick, like a festival. I felt like I just walked into a party at the Shire.

I made my way over to will call and then picked up a program, "Where the hell is all the Magic stuff?" There was room after room of games and mobs of people in costumes. I fought my way through the crowds, past the guy juggling swords and into a small food court area. Right on! They have food on site! I thought to myself. I flipped through the massive program to the maps section.

The map had an area marked as the, "TCG Hall". It was in this section that I spotted the Wizards of the Coast portion of the hall. Coincidently I was headed in the right direction; either that or my spidey-sense was leading me. As I approached the entrance I saw a goblin perched on a throne atop a stone staircase surrounded by some posters of Jace, the Mind Sculptor wrapping the wall behind it; finally, a hint of familiarity in this place. I entered through the badge checkers and made my way to the back of the hall. There was a handful of kids playing magic but no one was trading.

I was surprised by this and a little bit discouraged. Where are all the insane trades!? I sat down to plot my next move. How was I going to break the ice? My phone buzzed, it was a text messages from Kelly Reid and some unknown number. Kelly was on his way, the unknown number was looking for me:

Who the heck is this guy!? I hate asking people that via text, because then they get all hurt that I didn't save their name on my phone. It turns out that it was my buddy Mannix. He approached the table with my other buddy Sheffield. I greeted them, "What's up dudes!?" Mannix answered back slightly annoyed, "We were looking for you, I texted you!" I laughed, "That was you! Sorry about that." I looked over a Sheffield, "Hey man lets trade, I need to break the ice, up in here." He pulled out his binder, "Man, I hate trading with you Medina."

He says that every time we trade, I think he likes the opportunity to say that more than he dislikes trading with me. He had a playset of foil Library of Alexandria proxies. I asked him where he got them and he said that he had got the playset for $20 on ebay. Well, that was valuable information. Now I knew that he was only into them for $5 each. With GenCon being a Vintage / Collector Mecca, I knew that I could move this Library at $20 and all I had to do was offer Sheffield more than $5. "Hey Sheffield, I really want this library can you find some stuff for it? I'll give you $10 on it." He was a bit shocked that I was offering $10. This is what he found:

My (15.98) Temple Garden 9.99 Wilt-Leaf Liege 5.99 His (20.00) Library of Alexandria Proxy 20.00 Net: +4.02

I slid the Library into my binder and then searched the room for another person to trade with. I felt kinda bad for the next guy. When I asked him to trade, he excitedly took out his binder. I can just imagine that inside his head he was picturing the perfect trade for a Primeval Titan. He looked like a type two player so that was the best trade fantasy that I could draw up for him. He opened my binder to much disappointment; there were no hot type two rares. I could see that he just wanted to close the binder and move on. I told him that I was looking to make the binder grow and if could find anything to trade for that It would help me out. He flipped through again and said, "I guess I can use a Flame Slash." I said, "Awesome, how about you give me the crappiest rare in the binder for it." I quickly scanned the page that I happened to be on, "How about this Yeti!?" He obliged and I thanked him.

My (.25) Flame Slash .25 His (.49) Karplusan Yeti .49 Net: +.24

The next situation was similar. Magic players are so passive-aggressive. Even if they don't see anything that they want to trade for, they typically can't just come out and say, "I don't want to trade with you because your binder is so boring that I would rather stab my eye out with a used spork, than look at it for another minute." I guess if you can't give me a little honestly, then you are going to have to spork over some cards. He reluctantly revealed that he needed a Combust. I said, "Don't worry bro, It's a Combust I am not going to rake you over the coals for it man." I said, "How about I trade it for a promo that no one plays." He agreed and we did the deal. Here is the secret, Pathrazer of Ulamog has seen play in Legacy Reanimator's sideboard for the 43 Lands match-up. Besides that, the art on this card is ridiculously cool and people can't help but trade for this guy!

My (.49) Combust .49 His (1.49) Pathrazer of Ulamog 1.49 Net: +1.00

The trade action was pretty cold so I decided to take a seat and shoot the breeze with the locals. I met this dude; I don't remember his name, if you're reading this then forgive me because I really suck at names. I think it might have been Mike, so that's what we'll call him. I asked Mike if he wanted to trade with me, he was hesitant so I said, "If you're not sure, then why don't you look at my binder before you take your stuff out." He agreed and opened up my binder. Immediately he was drawn to the Library of Alexandria proxy. He asked me what I valued it at and I said $20. He explained his situation to me, "I really want this card, but I need to be trading for stuff that I can sell, so that I can bring some money home for the wife." I could definitely identify with Mike's goals, I also love to bring money home to my wife.

I said, "I'll tell you what man. Let's forget about the Library for now and I will look at the stuff you have for sale or trade and let's see if we can work something out." I genuinely wanted to help him along on his mission and I could afford to take a break from Pack to Power for a while. We sat down and I looked over his stuff. I made him some offers and though he didn't accept the offers, he said he would keep them in mind. I understand this logic; it was the first day of GenCon, so he wanted to leave himself open to other opportunities that might have materialized. I shook his hand and wished him good luck on his mission then I closed our meeting with, "Enjoy the show, brotha".

I looked up to find that this table was quickly becoming the trade table. I pulled out my regular binder to feed the trade frenzy. My buddies Ryan and Dan showed up to the party. These guys are grinders (people who trades cards in the style of a dealer for profit) that I met in Philly, at the SCG Philly 5k. They run an online store. The cool thing about trading as much as I do is that you get to meet so many people. It's great to compare notes with some of the best in the biz and it's a luxury that regular traders or players don't really get. The last one to join the party was Josh Beisiegel, he's one of the hardest working grinders that I have ever met. He probably travels more than any of us. I decided to get the dealer tally on the binder. I wanted to know how close I was to power so I handed it to Ryan, "Can I get the 'in' on this binder?"

"Sure", he picked up the binder like a doctor would peel a medical chart of the wall. He looked it over. Flipping the pages and keeping count in his head. He confirmed, "You want the 'in' price, right?" I answered, "Yeah, if I was going to trade that to you how much could you give me on it?" I ask because even though he would give me a slight premium over a dealer, it would still be dealer buy-pricing and that would give me a good idea of where I was at. He asked me, "What are you looking to get for it?" I answered back. "I am looking to get a piece of power for it, preferably a Mox Pearl."

He said, "You are pretty close." His response only left one question to be asked, "Do you want to do it?" I asked. He flipped through again; the answer was all over his face. It wasn't enough, I added some frosting to the cake, "Oh, I have an Illusionary Mask incoming. Would that get us close enough?" We had a short discussion about the value of the Mask. My iPad helped to back up my pricing assertions. He looked at the binder again. It was as if the new information about the Mask caused him to look at the binder with new eyes. He put the binder down and said, "If you get me a Mask, we can work it out." I was pumped, but worried at the same time. It was already Thursday and the package hadn't made it to my hotel yet.

Regardless, I was still in a good position. I basically had a guaranteed Mox Pearl, as long as the Mask made it before Saturday, that's when Ryan was leaving. On the flip side, if I could gain $100 in profit then I was pretty sure that I could get the Pearl without the Illusionary Mask. I decided to err on the side of caution and make my new goal to gain plus $100 in profit. Ryan was ready to do some business, so Pack to Power was going to have to wait until either the binder was leveled up or I had the Mask in hand.

So, what do grinders do when there is no one to trade with? We trade with each other, it's an addiction. I passed Ryan my binder and we start to work on a trade for a Beta Mox Sapphire out of my personal collection. He went into the Pack to Power binder and throws the Library on the table. I said, "We've got to do that separate man." He answered back, "I know." I was curious about what he valued it at, "What will you give me on the Library?" He said, "How much do you want on it?" I told him $20 but he countered with $12, I said, "We will work something out." Which basically meant no, but I am open to making a deal. I was about to start adding the cards up when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and it was Mike from earlier.

He asked me if I still had the Library. I pointed to it on the table. I said, "I was just about to trade it to this guy but if you want it, I can trade it to you." This situation was awkward. Ryan shot me a look, he said, "The Library is a done deal, man." I asked Mike if he would trade with Ryan for the card. I could tell that he didn't really want to. He said, "He's a dealer, isn't he?" Ryan answered him, "I own a store but I am here trading." Mike passed Ryan his binder, Ryan started to ask about values and Mike got uncomfortable. This is the worst situation for a casual player to be in, talking values with a dealer type who they haven't built trust with. Ryan made an offer and Mike declined, he took his binder and started to leave. I stood up to walk with him for a second, "Hey, I'll hold on to the Library for you. Hit me up later man." He said, "You seem like a nice guy, I really wanted to trade with you. Not that guy." I assured him that I would hold it for him and walked back to my seat.

I told Ryan to hold on a second while I searched for Sheffield. I knew he was drafting close by, then I saw him walking by, "Sheffield! Come here for a second!" He walked over, "I need those other two Libraries." He opened his binder and said, "Those two Libraries?" with a smirk on his face. I said, "Yeah, I'll give you $8 apiece on them, cash." He thought for a second. "That's almost what you paid for the whole playset." I reminded him. He pulled then out and passed them across the table. "We'll settle up later." I walked back to the table and threw one of the Library's down. I slid the one from the table back into the pack to power binder. "I'll do that one for $12, even though you blew my chance to get $20!" We totaled up and I became the proud owner of a Beta Mox Sapphire.

The rest of the day was unsuccessful for Pack to Power trading, but was filled with shenanigans with Kelly, Ryan and Dan. We went to a nearby pub to talk shop and blow off some steam. After a two hour debate about relationships and the best chicken strips that I've had in years. Ryan, Dan and I headed back to the site to get in some gaming, Kelly went to explore the happening night life of Indy. Once we got back to the site, I found a place to chill out while Ryan and Dan went to draft. I sat for a couple of minutes, just soaking in the fact that it was 2am and there was still magic going on. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, do you still have that library for trade?" It was Mike. "Yeah, I was holding it for you." I pulled it out and he passed me the binder. I knew better than to talk numbers. I also didn't want to make the trade seem too lopsided by asking about a bunch of cards. I saw an Ancient Tomb and I asked him, "Is this for trade?" He said, "Yeah there are two of them there." I was careful not to pull anything out yet. You have to deal with causal player differently than tournament players. I flipped through a couple of pages until I found a Goblin Piledriver, "Is this for trade, I asked?" He said, "Yeah." I asked him, "How about that and the two Ancient Tombs?" He said, "Sure." I shook his hand and thanked him. We spent some more time shooting the breeze after the trade. I then I went to get some EDH in while I waited to see if Kelly needed to be bailed out of jail or whatever.

The key thing to take away from this last story is that you should not be a jerk to people, you should take an interest in them and how they are doing. Even if you never get to trade you still win by getting to listen to someone else's story. Sure, I didn't make a killing on this trade but I bet I made Mike experience at GenCon a better one. If you have the right attitude it will forge relationships that span over multiple tournaments. It's relationships like that which will enrich your trading experiences and give you opportunity to gain value.

My (15.98) Library of Alexandria $15.98 (value I traded for it) His (30.97) Goblin Piledriver 16.99 2x Ancient Tomb 6.99 Net +14.99

That was the end of day one at GenCon. I will be back next week with day two! Thanks for reading.