Miriam SAR went from several hundred dollars upon release down to about $60-$70 at the time of making this thread.
Iono was also listing for more than $200, but everything day 1 or less of release is always crazy high. It looks like you could snag one off eBay for $130-$140.
Aside from the waifu differences, the next biggest difference between Miriam and Iono is their playability. Iono is perhaps one of the best, if not the best, “comeback” supporter ever printed. I’m worried about too many players wanting to bling out their decks and the price of this climbing.
What do you all think? Buy now? Wait? We only need 1 copy for our drafts, so it’s not like I’m looking for a playset or a gradable copy.
In general, I’d say about 6 months or so after release of a set card is the best time to buy it. Perhaps a little sooner like 3 months but sometime in that range is when the card will likely be its lowest.
I would recommend waiting 60-90 days for cards that you need for decks (use the cheaper non-SAR prints for the time being). If you wait up to 6 months, that will likely be the lowest price point for the SAR.
At a certain point the stress of trying to minmax the price is just not worth it. Let’s say it falls to the Miriam SAR price. Then you “lose” $60. But if the card has utility to you then maybe it’s not worth trying to play 3 moves ahead in this market chess game to save what will realistically be $20-40
is this English Iono? If thats the case, then just wait a few more months and get it cheap. PE just came out and if history has taught me anything, its that the first month is often the worst time to buy any singles for any set.
I think I’m going to wait a bit. There are some older full arts like Iris and Cynthia & Caitlin that need to pick up as well. So I’ll focus on those first and come back to Iono once I’ve snagged some of the older ones. Maybe by then the price will be a little more established regardless of up or down.
I agree with this take. There is a lot of time wasted min-maxing when to buy. I personally just buy the card whenever I feel like it’s a good price for me. Additionally, prices post-release have been more volatile as of late, so I think it’s better to just bite the bullet after a certain point rather than optimizing where you enter.
I’m not necessarily trying to min-max my way into making any money at all. I don’t plan on selling any of the cards I buy since they’re meant to be played with. Being interested in newly released “big” cards like Miriam and Iono are new to me - mainly because I’m nearly caught up on full arts and promos from older sets. Still some stuff to buy, but I’m inching closer to standard’s sets.
Miriam was a little easier for me to figure out. It’s almost purely collectible. Yes it’s maybe going to see some play in standard, but it’s a supporter Rescue Stretcher like effect with a poor draw count. Can totally see where players would prefer to use item based recovery and continue to use larger draw effects. Was obvious to me to wait until the hype died down. I think I grabbed my copy for $55; over $100 less than they were first listing for. This is a very good card for singleton draft environments, but not a standard or expanded powerhouse.
Iono is a different story. I never played in standard formats where there were really impactful cards like this that were also extremely high rarity. For example I don’t remember what N went for back in the day. Iono will clearly see tons of play. Was worried about it doubling or something crazy like that and wanted some thoughts on it. Haha
my personal plan with SV is to collect all (or most) ARs and any SARs i really like in japanese and the rest in english…
as for what i buy in english, there doesn’t feel like any rush. unlike japanese cards, you don’t have a narrow 6 month window before prices begin jumping back up for most english singles, especially supporters.
Sorry for my noob question, but if the card is so highly playable and such high rarity, wont the players just opt for a regular print? I don’t have a player mindset at all, so I am not aware if many players will opt for using the SAR in active decks even if they have one (considering the rarity), because you end up wearing out the card, one way or another. But if I am a player, I would just opt for a much more available card in terms of the regular print.
The fact is that playability has an impact on the demand and prices, but I also feel its hard to quantify it purely based on that metric because at this point the number of collectors just outweigh those of the players, and the price can be driven just by the collector demand. I personally would not consider the playability of the card as something that would drive the price high.
Some players like to play with max rarity decks to flex. Its also easier to take mental notes with FA supporters for example. Those cards eventually do end up damaged from riffle shuffling, so with most playable supporters i try to get a nice mint copy while the set is in print, somewhere around 3-6months after release, when prices have stabilized somewhat. With other playable cards that are sub-20usd, i just buy it on the spot and not think too much.
There’s definitely a subset of players that like to play with highest rarities. I’ve known many of them. Plus I come from a Yugioh background and that game is full of players that have entire decks in max rarity (I know because I was one of them LOL).
You could be right that the player demand really isn’t all that impactful in the grand scheme of things.
