I was browsing around on ebay and decided to compare the prices of MTG Alpha to Pokémon 1st Edition Base. It blew my mind to find out that EMPTY Alpha booster packs sell for $500, with no recent recorded sales of a sealed pack. Comparing this to $900 dollars for a sealed 1st Edition base pack, I can’t even imagine how much a sealed Alpha back goes for.
Alpha is only 5 or so years older than 1st edition base. Any cross-collectors have any input as to why its so much more expensive than 1st edition base? I assumed they were comparable in rarity but I guess I am wrong.
Alpha is much more scarce. There are only 1100 of each Alpha rare in existence. Alpha’s print run is at least several times smaller than 1st Edition Base, probably many times smaller.
Someone tried to estimate the print runs for 1st Ed Base somewhere but I can’t find the thread.
I believe the prices for MTG reflect the sheer amount of speculation around that particular hobby, especially towards the reserve list. The best public example of such speculation would be Rudy, who even though being a collector at heart does contribute to promoting speculation and FOMO around particular items. A famous MTG youtuber even went as far as saying people were buying high value MTG cards as a way to mask their proceeds from drug trafficking, bitcoin, etc.
Just the fact that you have numerous websites tracking prices of MTG cards in real time, indicates that the collector/investor mentality is completely different to Pokemon.
Something that may seem irrelevant but, in my opinion is a huge difference between both hobbies is the creative freedom given to the artists during the early years of MTG. There was no political correctness, some cards were seen as outright satanical due to the gory and visceral depictions of characters, and that in itself adds another layer of collectability to them. In Pokemon, artists were always constrained by the ‘toddler friendly’ policy and the depiction of characters in the anime, which makes Pokemon cards a bit more bland in terms of artist creativity.
Pokemon does have some high end speculators, but the FOMO factor hasn’t yet reached our community. Card prices do go up and down, but there simply haven’t been (to my knowledge) any targeted buyouts from a particular speculator that made a card go up 1000% overnight. When you get a Library of Alexandria for example, you are getting ‘The Library of Alexandria’, not a version of it, not a reprint, not a full art. That’s the only one that exists, so it is easy for someone to throw a chunk of money at buying it out and make the price shoot quickly.
In Pokemon most people seem to focus on collecting within their means and have no problem settling for a cheaper version of a card if they can’t afford the most expensive version of it. Personally, being involved in both hobbies, I find the Pokemon collector mindset to be much more genuine and less financial than MTG’s. And to be honest I prefer it. Found Pokemon collecting community to be much less toxic than MTG’s.
@kaldoverde, Pokemon is definitely more collector driven.
Why you have the price websites for MTG is mainly due to larger consumer income. Not only is the hobby older, but the average age is as well. Therefore more people want to stay on top of pricing. Even for me, I collect binders for mtg purely to enjoy, and the price websites are an invaluable resource.
Finance naturally enters when the room is full of adults, which is MTG. Pokemon’s age range is extremely wide ranging from children-adults. The average age is probably half of mtg. I would guess average age for mtg is probably late 20’s early 30’s.
Highlights include empty holon phantoms $68, empty 1st edition neo boxes $60+, two separate empty base 1st boxes $500+, empty neo destiny 1st edition $160. I see empty base unlimited packs sell from time to time for a couple bucks a piece and base 1st packs $10+.
I saved every box that I opened as well as most of the packs thinking I’d do some interesting display or project with them, but at this rate I’ll just sell the whole English empty box collection for a few grand in a couple years.
That’s always my concern at least.