I don’t think $400k is a crazy asking price, honestly. There has been at least one Alpha Lotus that has sold for more than that. And between a quad BGS 9.5 Alpha Lotus and the original art for Demonic Tutor, I’m honestly not sure which is “better.” Demonic Tutor is easily one of the most iconic cards in MTG history and is still hugely relevant in EDH. The original art for it is 1/1. Whereas there are 45 BGS 9.5 Alpha Lotuses, of which (I’d guess) at least 5 or 10 are quads. IDK, I’m not in the market for either, but I do think this is a close call.
And yeah, the other pieces did about as expected. They did especially well relative to the Tutor. I don’t know how Jayemdae Tome is worth 2/3rds as much as tutor. Tutor is a much better card, a much more iconic card, and has (subjectively) much more interesting art.
$166k also seems low relative to other items in both MTG and Pokemon. Desirable new MTG art regularly sells for ~$5k-$10k, sometimes more. No new piece of MTG art should be worth 1/15th as much as the original art for Demonic Tutor. And the pieces I own (which are all Masques/Invasion block) are worth $2k-$4k each, max. And these are relatively unexciting pieces. If you play a lot of Pauper, you’re probably familiar with one of them (it’s a 1 or 2-of in a niche variant of a very popular archetype), but the other two see (and have seen, to my knowledge) zero constructed play. These run-of-the-mill early 2000s pieces shouldn’t each be worth 2% of what Demonic Tutor is worth. That would be like if PSA 10 1st Ed. Base Rattata was worth 2% of what 1st Ed. Base Charizard is worth – if that were true, PSA 10 Rattata would be a $6k card!
Definitely agree, but we have a few different things at play here that are quite different to the pokemon market. For some odd reason, mtg art is still widely unknown, even within the mtg collectors/players. I have no real explanation why, the only one I can think of is that the market is really exclusive in the sense that there is very few actual public sales and almost 99% of all transactions happen in one fb group. Given that these high value pieces would most likely do much better if there would be outside people interested in them, it really doesn´t help that there is close to 0 public sales data. I wouldn´t be confident to pay 6 figures for something that I´ve basically never seen on the open market. On a different note: one shouldn´t be able to pick up og art from sets for as low as 1.5k, this is just hilarious.
edit: I think a good comparison with the pokemon market would be trophies instead of set cards due to the lack of data and it being more niche. You also have to see that there is a floor for (new) paintings established by the artists. You´ll never see an original piece sell for a 100$. That might mess up the percentage correlation of the highest tier vs lowest tier pieces. Btw, nice to see another mtg art lover/collector on here, thought I´m the only one on here
Re: the lack of public sales data – that’s a very good point. As you said, the entire market is pretty much confined to a single Facebook group. And of the 10k people in the group, the vast majority likely don’t even own any original art.
And yeah, original art is stupidly cheap. Imagine if the equivalent existed for Pokemon – what would the floor price be for 1/1 original art? Even some random common from Neo Discovery would (probably?) be in the five figures lol. With MTG, the floor price is even a bit lower than $1.5k. I’ve seen random Odyssey/Scourge/etc. commons sell for <$1k. Would I rather own a PSA 8 Base Unlimited Charizard or a 1/1, original, 20 y/o piece of MTG art? Hmmm…
@zorloth: Totally true, and it doesn´t help that certain individuals have hundreds sitting around. For some people it´s so cheap that they can pick them up like candy, the market has not found its equilibrium yet in my opinion. Are you in the group? I recall a survey where you had to pick wether you own or not own og art, it was in the old version of the group (the exchange), I think it was 4:96…
Yup, I’m in both groups (and have been since close to each’s conception). And yeah, I think Jerry probably owns like 500 pieces at this point lol. Just 5-6 years ago, many pieces could be had for $200 to $300. He’s probably a non-zero factor in why the market even went up at all. In some ways, it’s kind of similar to how trophy cards were in like 2005 (from what I’ve heard).
Didn’t see that poll. But I believe it. Many people are in the group just to see cool art.
There are quite a few considerations that affect MTG art prices.
Nostalgia Associated to the Card
Artwork Featured on the Card (Is the Artwork Good)
Wall Friendliness (Is it going to fit your home decor)
Aritst Repute (Is this a Rebecca Guay/John Avon/Etc.)
Does it Follow a Collectible Theme (SQUIRRELS!!!)
The List Goes On.
TBH, as someone that has been collecting MTG art for a while, it is generally assumed that the current prices of MTG artwork are overvalued (for resale). By this, I mean that the VAST majority of modern era artwork CANNOT be sold at a profit. In fact, most of the pieces would be sold at a loss. I think the prices of MTG art 2-3 years ago was pretty decent and affordable for pieces that are nostalgic to people. (Like the land tax that I have). Nowadays? I would NEVER pay what Land Tax is worth today if I had to buy it over again.
The animation cel set me back $1.3k USD if I remember correctly. Its mostly just a fun wall mount piece.
The land tax is the judge promo art from 2010 (aka the savior for players who didnt want the purple pimp man in their decks) which got reprinted into standard sets even today. I think its probably? in the top 4 most used cards in white (at least for EDH) (Land Tax, Smothering Tithe, Swords of Plowshares, Path to Exile)
I don’t necessarily disagree that many piece of new art are overvalued. I’m referring more to pre-digital era MTG art. I don’t think that it should be possible to buy original art from any old card frame set (or basically anything up through Lorwyn block) for $1k. That to me is nuts, even if the art is not one that most people would want to hang up in their living room.
Nice! For Land Tax, I’m more referring to CEDH and competitive constructed formats (aka Legacy). I didn’t realize people play it in casual EDH, but it’s good to hear that people are playing it. I remember constantly getting it last pick/2nd to last pick in cube on MODO so I figured most people just didn’t realize how powerful it is.
I think if the card is not memorable (aka if a random MTG player looks at it and doesn’t even recognize the artwork), it may as well just be a random artwork made by a random artist. Then, it is valued as such.
It lets you shuffle your deck just after using things like sensei’s top/scroll rack. It filters out your lands, particularly later in the game. It makes sure you don’t get land starved. Honestly cant go wrong with pulling the card in any stage of the game I put one in pretty much every deck that has white in it.
In legacy I think only parfait uses land tax. Not the best deck though XD
Wait, Chris Rush had the rights to the painting? But actually, that’s amazing. I don’t even want to know how much that cost you. That piece would go for an astronomical amount through Heritage or the like.
I have the original mewtwo digital file but I need to find someone to clean it up a bit and enhance it since it’s meant for a small print and do the printing professionally before framing. I also have a digital mewtwo drawing done by Mr. Rush’s daughter so I plan to have both framed together with the background art.
