Magic on a Budget Interview

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Good Day and Happy Tuesday folks,

Today MTG Realm is yattering with Brett Parise, who operates the Magic on a Budget website. Why? Well not only is he a sponsor of MTG Realm but also a part of the Magic Community known to quite a few. Now residing in Orange County California, we've reached Brett to conduct a somewhat awkward but cool interview to know the fella.

MTG Realm (MTGR) : Good Morning or Good Night Brett. We're not sure what time it is out that way.

Magic on a Budget (MoaB) We could settle for "G'Day eh" don't you Canadians like saying that.

MTGR : Correct Sir, Let's flow with that. So the first thing Magic the Gathering Players usually talk about is when they started playing. As you do a fairly decent bit of business with selling Magic Cards, I will assume you play.

MoaB : Correct. I first started playing magic around 1995 when the revised edition came out. A lot of people were playing and talking about it so that Christmas my parents got me and my brothers some cards. Since then I have always played it as a hobby. More recently however I have been visiting a lot of FNMs and really enjoy the tactics and strategy behind it.

MTGR : Very cool, Friday Night Magic definitely one night I do rather look forward too. Most times we get handed our buttocks but that just gets the creative juices flowing in developing strategies against the local meta-game. Anywhoos, enough of our fails, how about your success. When did you decide to go into business for yourself? Was it after a head-bump or did you just get sick of working as a drone in CubeVille?

MoaB : Actually the decision to turn my hobby into a business was made a long time ago. I always thought I would be self employed and have even been supporting myself playing poker for almost a year. However the decision to transform my career from poker to magic cards was made late last year. While I still enjoy playing poker I find it more enjoyable to watch Magic on a Budget grow and become successful.

MTGR : Wow. We're talking about a fairly diverse background with you here. Starting a new business takes a lot of guts, smarts and support. What sort of support did you seek out for your venture?

MoaB : for support I always look to my family, who conveniently enough also happen to be my business associates. My older brother Rob helps me run the day to day operations of our small business. So you could say my family is definitely invested on the success of our venture.


MTGR : That's excellent. I remember as I'm sure most people do earning their very first pay check. I remember getting $5 for cutting the neighbours lawn which I immediately spent on sugar. It must have been a moment to get your first customer order - tell us about that.

MoaB : Our first customer wasn’t as memorable as many would think. It was a $150 order online for basically our entire mythic stock on our newest set. I never got to meet him face to face, but after that I knew that our prices and site was good enough to attract the more competitive players, which I had hoped would be the backbone of the site.

MTGR : Very Good. I should think it takes quite a bit of dedication. MTG Realm has been online since early 2008 and we are now looking at getting our 3-millionith visitor onto the site sometime late December or early January. I really did think I would still be doing this MTG fan site thing this long but now that I have, I'm starting to develop long term goals. What about Magic on a Budget? Where do you see yourself in the short and long-term future?

MoaB : Looking ahead to the next one or two years, the biggest goal really is expansion. After dealing in the industry for around a year, I have really got a renewed passion for magic cards and am glad I am in the industry. Once we receive that growth we will be able to do more promotions for our customers as well as bring on some additional staff to help with the day to day operations. As for expansion I would really like to just stay in the Magic realm of collectibles, and becoming one of the leading websites people turn too when it comes to getting affordable MTG cards.

MTGR : Bret, it was very cool to yatter with you. One of my kids wants the computer to do watch viral vids, do homework or something so I'm going to have to sign off with you. Thanks for your time today with the interview and the best of luck with Magic on a Budget.

MoaB : Thank-you for arranging this.

MTGR : I'll send some maple syrup and back-bacon down to you. Good Night.
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