Dies to Removal

Stores don't rip customers off. They charge a fee for convenience. Don't hate stores just because they sometimes charge more than SCG or sell their FTV's above MSRP. They need to make a profit and you get the product you're looking for without spending an hour seaching online for a better price. Of course, you get the odd store selling mapped packs or whatever, but that's a different story.

As for ripping stores off by finding gems, they at least made their money back on that purchase. If the store didn't know the value of the 40 Demonic Tutors, the store obviously didn't pay the guy more for them - they would have paid for the stuff they actually put on sale (which hopefully would have sold for a profit). The person who really got ripped off was the guy selling his collection.

Dude, I'd sell my entire trade binder to you at 3/4 SCG value! That's actually a really good deal for the seller if they value their time at all.

I don't consider myself a shark, but probably 75% of the trades I make these days favours me, if only slightly. I don't overvalue my stuff or anything like that, but the fact is that I have most of the mid-level cards that I want these days. Most of what I want is either expensive and rare or dollar-bin garbage. Because I want to have a reason to make a trade (and I'm not looking for anything specific in their binder), I ask for a little extra value, like their $8 shock for my $7 shock or something. That way I can hopefully build up to one of the more expensive cards I'm actually looking for. I'm also notorious for asking for random throw-ins since I often want a random junky card or two that they don't care about anyway.

Actually, one kinda sharky thing I do is trade standard strait up for legacy or modern cards, especially if I opened money at the prerelease. It's even value, right?