High stakes in a 'magic' game
Though he spent a year collecting them, Steve Woo Wai-chin has just discarded about 10,000 'magic' cards - but he still has that number for the game of Magic the Gathering.
Steve, 24, is devotee of the card game which was launched in 1993 in the United States and is now set to take off in Hong Kong.
He was at Times Square recently where the game was officially launched in the territory with a Tournament of Champions.
Manufactured by the Wizards of the Coast card game company, the game was developed by Richard Garfield and has captivated millions of players in the US.
A minimum of two people can play and each has to build a deck of 60 cards with different weapons and power levels to fight the enemy.
Steve began playing over a year ago and has spent about $30,000 on the cards to date.
Each packet has 80 cards but only a few strong cards. Enthusiasts continue to buy packs in the hope of collecting those powerful cards.
'I've spent $6,000 for five powerful cards. I know it's a waste of money, but I consider it entertainment so I don't feel so bad,' said Steve.
'I have 50 packets of cards left after I threw away those 10,000 weak and repeated cards. Still, only 3,000 cards are most frequently used.' Steve said the game required players to use their wits to win.
Fellow player, 27-year-old mathematics teacher Kwok Chun-hung, said he enjoyed the dynamics of the game.
'There are so many different combinations of cards which make the game challenging. It's the strategy that makes you win,' said Mr Kwok.
He said he had been playing for more than two years and owned about 20,000 cards.
'I prefer card games to computer games because you play with human beings. You can communicate with your friends as well as make new friends.' However, he said the card game might be too expensive for students to play.
He said the initial cost to buy a deck of cards was not expensive, but continuous consumption on the cards to build powerful hands would end up in huge investment.
World champion Tom Chanpheng, 19, has spent about $23,600 on his collection of 10,000 cards.
Born in Laos and brought up in Australia, Tom is a second-year student at the Queensland University of Technology.
He said he started playing when he went to university and now plays the game about 10 hours a week.
'It's an easy game, it takes about 10 minutes to pick up. But it needs a lot of practising to play well,' said Tom.
He said the trick was to build a good deck of cards that would beat the enemy.
'I had one month's preparation with my friends before taking the world championship title in August last year,' Tom said.