MTG: Kaldheim Appreciation Post

[cygnusx]

@jonandek

@cygnusx

Huh, that’s a very interesting fact about Beta Karma. If you don’t mind me asking, are there any other 93/94 era cards that you’ve handled that also seem to have categorically poor production qualities?

Don’t get me started. Alpha or beta?

Summary answer there are MANY of them. Another interesting is beta Stone Giant. Almost all of them have a nick on the card in the exact same spot. Another one I bought hundreds of trying to get a gem mint copy.

In alpha there are so many cards that have issues, either with centering or printer ink splotches. Personal Incarnation in Alpha is the lowest pop card in 9 and 9.5 given the major issues it has with ink splotches.

Wow, that’s fascinating! As a new MTG collector, information like this is really valuable. It’s hard to discern information from the pop reports without this type of experience; I can’t really tell if a card has a low pop because it’s hard to grade or if there was never any incentive to grade the card. For Alpha/Beta, do you think the rarity of a card on a print sheet has less to do with the population of that card in a high grade compared to factors like placement on the print sheet? For instance, could there be fewer total gem mint copies of a Alpha common card in existence compared to some Alpha rares due to printing issues? What about for other 93/94 sets?

[jonandek]

@cygnusx

@jonandek

Don’t get me started. Alpha or beta?

Summary answer there are MANY of them. Another interesting is beta Stone Giant. Almost all of them have a nick on the card in the exact same spot. Another one I bought hundreds of trying to get a gem mint copy.

In alpha there are so many cards that have issues, either with centering or printer ink splotches. Personal Incarnation in Alpha is the lowest pop card in 9 and 9.5 given the major issues it has with ink splotches.

Wow, that’s fascinating! As a new MTG collector, information like this is really valuable. It’s hard to discern information from the pop reports without this type of experience; I can’t really tell if a card has a low pop because it’s hard to grade or if there was never any incentive to grade the card. For Alpha/Beta, do you think the rarity of a card on a print sheet has less to do with the population of that card in a high grade compared to factors like placement on the print sheet? For instance, could there be fewer total gem mint copies of a Alpha common card in existence compared to some Alpha rares due to printing issues? What about for other 93/94 sets?

I feel bad taking this thread off topic but I can’t resist geeking out on your question a little. I’ll speak to alphas here as that’s where I’m most current. In general, in terms of high grade population, rares < uncommons < commons. But a combo of playability and print flaws create quite a few exceptions. Keep in mind there were 1100 printed of each alpha rare, 4500 of each uncommon, and 15900 of each common.

There are a lot of examples of common and uncommon cards being scarcer in high grade than a typical rare. Here’s a few, that I’ve also juxtaposed against more “typical” cards of the same rarity.

Common: Dark ritual was a heavily played card AND suffers from a “double whammy” of printing issues, namely bad centering and print splotches. It’s only pop 5 in gem mint and if you could find one it would sell for at least $10k. Other commons like Spell Blast have a gem mint pop of 53 and in a basic gem mint would probably only sell for $200-$300.

Uncommon: Conversion has a pop of 33. It’s mostly considered a junk card and sells for $300-$500 in basic gem mint. Counterspell is a highly played card that suffers from terrible centering. It’s only pop 7 is gem mint and only pop 23 in 9. 9s sell for several thousand and 10s are probably comparable to dark rituals in price.

Other super low pop commons are raise dead (centering, print dots), creature bond (same) and giant growth (centering). Other super low pop uncommons are black ward (centering), phantasmal forces (centering), keldon warlord (centering) and simulacrum (centering).

[cygnusx]

@jonandek

@cygnusx

Wow, that’s fascinating! As a new MTG collector, information like this is really valuable. It’s hard to discern information from the pop reports without this type of experience; I can’t really tell if a card has a low pop because it’s hard to grade or if there was never any incentive to grade the card. For Alpha/Beta, do you think the rarity of a card on a print sheet has less to do with the population of that card in a high grade compared to factors like placement on the print sheet? For instance, could there be fewer total gem mint copies of a Alpha common card in existence compared to some Alpha rares due to printing issues? What about for other 93/94 sets?

I feel bad taking this thread off topic but I can’t resist geeking out on your question a little. I’ll speak to alphas here as that’s where I’m most current. In general, in terms of high grade population, rares < uncommons < commons. But a combo of playability and print flaws create quite a few exceptions. Keep in mind there were 1100 printed of each alpha rare, 4500 of each uncommon, and 15900 of each common.

There are a lot of examples of common and uncommon cards being scarcer in high grade than a typical rare. Here’s a few, that I’ve also juxtaposed against more “typical” cards of the same rarity.

Common: Dark ritual was a heavily played card AND suffers from a “double whammy” of printing issues, namely bad centering and print splotches. It’s only pop 5 in gem mint and if you could find one it would sell for at least $10k. Other commons like Spell Blast have a gem mint pop of 53 and in a basic gem mint would probably only sell for $200-$300.

Uncommon: Conversion has a pop of 33. It’s mostly considered a junk card and sells for $300-$500 in basic gem mint. Counterspell is a highly played card that suffers from terrible centering. It’s only pop 7 is gem mint and only pop 23 in 9. 9s sell for several thousand and 10s are probably comparable to dark rituals in price.

Other super low pop commons are raise dead (centering, print dots), creature bond (same) and giant growth (centering). Other super low pop uncommons are black ward (centering), phantasmal forces (centering), keldon warlord (centering) and simulacrum (centering).

Thanks! I really appreciate your reply. Apologies for taking this thread off topic; I just find this interesting. It’s crazy how few gem mint Alpha Dark Rituals there are considering there’s at least 14x more of them printed than an Alpha rare. In terms of Pokemon cards, it’s unfathomable that a gem mint common card could be rarer than a gem mint holo rare.

[jonandek]

@cygnusx

@jonandek

I feel bad taking this thread off topic but I can’t resist geeking out on your question a little. I’ll speak to alphas here as that’s where I’m most current. In general, in terms of high grade population, rares < uncommons < commons. But a combo of playability and print flaws create quite a few exceptions. Keep in mind there were 1100 printed of each alpha rare, 4500 of each uncommon, and 15900 of each common.

There are a lot of examples of common and uncommon cards being scarcer in high grade than a typical rare. Here’s a few, that I’ve also juxtaposed against more “typical” cards of the same rarity.

Common: Dark ritual was a heavily played card AND suffers from a “double whammy” of printing issues, namely bad centering and print splotches. It’s only pop 5 in gem mint and if you could find one it would sell for at least $10k. Other commons like Spell Blast have a gem mint pop of 53 and in a basic gem mint would probably only sell for $200-$300.

Uncommon: Conversion has a pop of 33. It’s mostly considered a junk card and sells for $300-$500 in basic gem mint. Counterspell is a highly played card that suffers from terrible centering. It’s only pop 7 is gem mint and only pop 23 in 9. 9s sell for several thousand and 10s are probably comparable to dark rituals in price.

Other super low pop commons are raise dead (centering, print dots), creature bond (same) and giant growth (centering). Other super low pop uncommons are black ward (centering), phantasmal forces (centering), keldon warlord (centering) and simulacrum (centering).

Thanks! I really appreciate your reply. Apologies for taking this thread off topic; I just find this interesting. It’s crazy how few gem mint Alpha Dark Rituals there are considering there’s at least 14x more of them printed than an Alpha rare. In terms of Pokemon cards, it’s unfathomable that a gem mint common card could be rarer than a gem mint holo rare.

Yeah, I’s say this is very unique to Alpha and to a lesser extent (but it’s still quite frequent) in Beta. I happen to own quite a few alpha dark rituals, including a pack fresh raw copy I pulled from a starter deck, a graded 9 that a friend pulled from a starter deck, and one of the few gem mint copies. I have several in lesser grades too for playing. Not in this thread but sometime I’ll post them in my side collection thread to highlight the common issues with the card and maybe some of the others I mentioned.

[cygnusx]

Is anyone else excited for Time Spiral Remastered? Time Spiral block is one of Magic’s most creative sets and is my favorite limited format hands down. I hope TSR captures the same magic that drafting Time Spiral has for a fraction of the cost. Also, I really like the choices for the timeshifted cards; I’ll be looking to get a few of the old border foils for my Legacy decks. This is the first time I’ve actually had the desire to buy a new MTG box in a long time.