sigh, time to sell all of my japanese boxes and buy english ones. zzzzz.
Anybody in the market? 
1 Like
I have a good sum of cash that i’d like to buy some of the power 9 in high grades with. I’ve got no issue paying a record price but I have no frame of reference for any of this stuff. With pokemon I have instagram, facebook, ebay, e4 etc. with MTG I only know of ebay. Is there a place where I can get data about the owners/past sales for these cards?
Alpha? Beta? Unlimted?
You’re talking of dropping 5-6 figures without any context seems quite bizarre to me. However you’re looking at ebay and the known auction houses best of luck.
Sorry for lack of details, any of them (a/b/u)(not sure how I feel about collectors edition though). 6 figures for sure. I don’t have too much knowledge about the playability, but I’m primarily interested in collecting. I don’t mind paying record prices, I just want to make sure I don’t get taken advantage of (like the people who paid $5k+ for a psa 9 base zard). For now I am interested in all of the p9 in a/b/u. I know I won’t get all of the variants, I’d just like to have some exposure to them. These will be held for 10+ years so 10-20% fluctuations in price don’t really matter to me.
Join the purplemana discord and/or the high end FB group. Lots of P9 being sold in both of those all the time. The guy who runs purplemana (Ankur) has tons of P9 and is very reputable/easy to deal with. Most of what he has is played condition, though. If you’re looking for minter stuff, Emanuel Monteleone on FB has a pretty insane inventory. I haven’t personally dealt with him, but I’ve only heard positive things.
Alternatively, eBay is a fine option. But if you’re not experienced with recognizing counterfeits, you’re better off going with an established dealer (or buying graded cards, of course).
1 Like
Yeah I’ve seen a ton of alphainvestments, and from this I don’t have confidence that i’d be able to catch marked/altered cards or rebacks 100% of the time. For this reason I will stick with graded or buying from S tier people in the community. Appreciate the leads!!
1 Like
I haven’t seen anyone mention Secret Lairs yet, but may have missed it. Secret Lairs are small, exclusive art sets of mostly reprint cards. They have more recently been printing crossover collections with cards that aren’t reprints, and can only be obtained through buying the Secret Lair (and yes, they are the focus of much controversy and can be very divisive). As far as collecting goes, I assume that these would be good items to buy as they usually have a small window of time to preorder each set, and aren’t really reprinted much (for now). I preordered the Phyrexian Praetors Secret Lair last month that ships in October and I can’t wait to get it!
secretlair.wizards.com/us
2 Likes
I already see a lot of great information, so I won’t put some of that on repeat. The one thing I want to mention is that fakes are a thing, but are distinguishable under a loupe, and a few other tests. Obviously it’s a lot easier to make a non-foil proxy, and a lot of the more expensive vintage cards weren’t made in foil… so basically any card that would be worth making a fake for 100% has fakes for sale somewhere. Check out Alpha Investments, openboosters, Unhinged Magi, and Edwin the Magic Engineer. These guys alone helped me a lot when I started collecting MTG, and I still watch mostly all of their videos even 2 years later.
Happy collecting.
2 Likes
I played MTG a ton when I was a kid in the early 2000s. For the past while I’ve been collecting sets and graded cards from that era, particularly the foils. They’re hitting that 20+ year old mark soon and some of them are just incredibly rare. The old frame foils just look really cool compared to many modern foils and the card quality is quite a lot nicer too. I usually don’t hesitate to buy them because the pull rates for the foils were so low and some of the sets are enormous (350+ cards). I’m talking mainly Invasion, Odyssey, Onslaught blocks and even some of the stuff in the Mirrodin and Kamigawa era. My favourite is the Onslaught block, the artwork is incredible all through to me and also this is the first block/set that has the Fetchlands which have become a modern staple in so many decks out there. I got a couple graded 9.5s and the pops are in the low single digits so it’s really amazing to own them and it’s another way to get back my childhood memories along with Pokemon cards.
Anyway, this is what I’m doing personally. Other people have a totally different approach. The ABU sets are always going to be valuable and strong demand. Same with many of the other early sets. I’ve managed to get a few cards so far but they’re so darn expensive now but it wouldn’t surprise me if they continue to go up over time like they always have. They’re probably the lowest overall risk as well despite the high price points just because of the fact they are so old and rare and iconic (much like Pokemon Base Set).
The last thing I should mention is that, it’s important to understand that a lot of MTG cards are valued not just on the rarity but also the playability in respect to the game. I think it would be beneficial to play the game for a little while so you can make the good choices if you decide to buy graded cards or seek out certain singles. Artwork and rarity also plays a big role, but I think playability is also very important in finding value. The Black Lotus has all of these qualities: strong art, super rare and super playable to the point it makes literally any deck in the game better (which is why it’s so sought after and legendary).
Hope this might help you.
3 Likes
I agree on all of these points. I think people in the Pokemon world tend to not quite realize just how abyssmal the pull rates were (and are still, to an extent) for foils. For a set like Onslaught, there were 110 rares in the set. And a foil rare appears once, on average, per approx. 36 booster packs. This means that to pull any given foil Onslaught rare appears once every ~4000 booster packs. And if you go back a bit further (they increased the foil pull rate earlier in 2002 with Torment), foil rares are even rarer than that.
The one thing that complicates this is MTGO redemption, which started with Invasion (fall 2000). This makes foil rares from sets starting with Invasion less rare than their pull rates imply (a foil redemption set contains 1 of each card in the set).
2 Likes
For sure… they are undoubtedly rare from this era. I really value them a lot and love collecting what ones I can even find. I can always find my high grade Pokemon cards a lot sooner/faster compared to any of MTG cards I’ve acquired so far. The demand for Pokemon definitely seems stronger and I think it has a wider overall audience, but MTG is no doubt one of the best CCGs still going as well.
Overall, it’s been interesting seeing both and the associated markets change over the years. Quite a few of the older MTG sets people didn’t care much about much for quite a while and now many of them have skyrocketed in price as well, much like with Pokemon. I feel it’s only a matter of time before the market warms up more to stuff from the 2000s that has mostly been slept on so far aside from a few cards that have really jumped. It was interesting for me to find out that many of the commons and uncommons I had as a kid are now sometimes $10, $20 or even $50 cards ungraded. Never ever would have expected that when most of them I might have paid 10 or 25 cents for.
1 Like
I would say that it really depends on the card. It’s pretty easy to find any MTG non-foils in mint condition (except for Alpha/Beta cards or rarer promo releases like guru lands). If I want a mint condition card from even a rarer/scarcer set like Arabian Nights or Legends, it’s not difficult to track one down.
But for foils (especially of playable cards) from the pre-ISD era? I agree. Like, if I wanted to acquire, say, a mint condition foil Umezawa’s Jitte, the only conceivable way to do that would be to open it from a pack. Finding a mint raw copy would be extraordinarily difficult. Much more difficult than finding any raw Pokemon set card in mint condition. MTG foils are just sooooooooo fragile and even playing them in sleeves (without perfect fits) will damage them.
That’s just a product of EDH. The game (but particularly EDH) is so much bigger now than it was in 2000 or 2005, or even 2010. If a common or uncommon from a pre-ISD set is even remotely playable in EDH and hasn’t been reprinted (or was only reprinted in a specialty release), it’s going to be expensive. A card like Rhystic Study just has so much demand due to EDH that, despite being a common from a not particularly scarce set, it can sustain a $30 price tag. Crazy, but it makes sense when you think about it. For cards like that, it’s all just demand for EDH vs. supply. Nobody wants to collect/invest in that card; it just has insane amounts of player demand.
3 Likes
There’s a YT channel called Tolarian Community College, and the Prof does a great job of describing merch and even giving you an idea of what you can pull in a booster box with his “booster box game”. Worth checking out as an intro to the cards and not the financial side.
2 Likes
As for starting into MTG as a hobby, similar to PkMn, I’d say, begin with what you like. MTG is far more affordable than PkMn, for example, I just started my MTG-related collection thread, lands, Most are pocket change, yet still look impressive in a pro binder and every set is practically guaranteed to have some basic lands drop in it. However, there are some MAJOR grails in lands, if you’re really into it. You can also go for color, creature type as someone else suggested, card type like artifact or enchantment. Whatever! =)
1 Like
Definitely; TCC is a great channel (his product reviews in particular are super informative). I’ll also note that some other good resources as it relates to booster box value are:
Dawnglare – gives EVs for most sets, updated in real time
MTGen – super customizable pack simulator for most sets – great way to get a sense of value distribution across the cards in a set
1 Like
MTG is more affordable in some ways, but not in others. For instance, my collecting goals in Magic (ABU + ARN/ATQ/LEG) are much more costly than my collecting goals in Pokemon (PSA 10 EX Series). If you wanted to spend $250k, you could acquire nearly the entire EX Series in PSA 10. That same amount of money would buy you maybe 1/3rd of a raw NM Alpha set. Magic has been a much larger money pit for me than Pokemon.
2 Likes
heh. Ya’ know, I was thinking that when I wrote it and said, nah, it’s not needed. I forgot what sticklers we are for details. =)
Very true. MTG is also more expensive to play because of that mana base. ugh >,< For a beginning collector however, completing say, a standard or modern set, it can be far more affordable. But, yes, you’re right. For me, I have no nostalgia for alpha/beta, etc. I didn’t start till time spiral, so that’s about it for me. (Though some NM Guru lands would be nice…)
1 Like
I have conflicting perspectives with MTG – on one hand, I started during Alara block so it plus Zendikar block are the most nostalgic eras for me. But on the other hand, I’ve always been fascinated with Alpha and the history behind it and its mystique. I’ve pretty much neglected collecting anything from post-1994, with the exception of this guy I recently picked up:
Jace was a humungous card for me, and just such an icon of that era. Once I saw it, I knew I had to have it. One thing I really want to do is collect some of the iconic staples from the 2003-2010 era in PSA 10 or CGC/BGS 9.5 OG foil – cards like Umezawa’s Jitte, Dark Confidant, Arcbound Ravager, Elspeth, the Lorwyn walkers, etc. Very few people grade these, though, and I’ve been having a very difficult time finding mint raw copies. There are so many great cards from that era and it’s a shame that so few people collect them.
1 Like
I’m a bit of a Magic Collector who doesn’t actually play the game.
An easy way to detect a fake is the “Green Dot Test”, if you have a loupe or a magnifying glass, this is the easiest method.
www.detecting-the-fakes.com/checking-details/green-dot-check/
Checking for inking (typically on older cards) I use the method of putting it up to your hand and checking the edges.
Here’s an example of Rudy checking for inking:
If you are looking for a fun set to open, the currently in print premium set “Modern Horizons 2” is a fan favorite.
Regarding “hits”, look for the “M” in the bottom, which stands for Mythic. Generally speaking, those are the best modern hits. It has gotten a little crazy with variants, foils, borders and the like, but I always say you can’t go wrong with a foil rare or a mythic anything.
The 4 horsemen sets are the ones most collectors go to. Alpha and Beta rares are getting expensive and hard to come by, however a lot of the uncommons and commons are still undervalued IMO.
There is also full print run information on these sets for you to digest:
oldschool-mtg.blogspot.com/2020/12/deconstructing-print-runs.html
Hasbro/Wizards has prioritized Secret Lairs. Very cool cards where the print run is determined by the order volume.
secretlair.wizards.com/us/
(Don’t miss out on the “Heads I win, tails you lose” very first exclusive commander set)
A little about what I collect:
- I keep notable pulls in binders. Just random stuff I’ll buy at Target or my LGS.
- Liliana Cards, including promos
- Currently working to fill a binder with a single card from Revised.
- Graded Alpha common and uncommons
- Alpha/Beta/Unlimited of a single card, graded
2 Likes
It’s ironic, because so few people “collect” from tha tera, but at the same time, some of the iconic cards are kept for commander, legacy, etc format, so many people don’t “collect” but they do “keep” them. No?