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Years later, my Magic cards have returned to me. All 1000+ plus of them.

Skoal CatSkoal Cat Registered User regular
edited April 2011 in Help / Advice Forum
I want to get back into MTG (my gf has expressed an interest in playing, so yaaay there) so my mom shipped me two big boxes of them. I don't want to get back into the current run of stuff, I just want to get back into playing with the massive shit load of cards that I have. I have random crap going back to Arabian Nights, maybe some earlier stuff, because I purchased a lot of lots on eBay years ago. To put this in perspective, I was really into MTG around Urza Block, it really dropped off once Masques came out.

A lot of my rares are already separated into a binder. I may have some older rares mixed in with my commons because the older sets didn't have the handy dandy color coding system. I searched for a few random cards online to price them, most rares seem to be worth a bunch or less with the random odd ball from an older set going for $60 or so.

Whats going to be my best shot at pricing this stuff? One by one online? Take the collection to a gaming shop? Where should I sell? Brick and mortar would be fastest but they probably give half of market value.

Skoal Cat on

Posts

  • ForarForar #432 Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    At the very least, you could start here;

    http://sales.starcitygames.com/buylist/

    Starcitygames is one of the bigger buyers/sellers online. I'm not saying these are good prices, but at the very least this should shortlist some of the more valuable cards in each set.

    You could also search each set individually and sort out the top 10-20 cards, or anything over a buck (or whatever other cutoff you wanted), which would minimize or negate the likelyhood of accidentally selling or trading away something worth decent money.

    Forar on
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  • RaernRaern Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Speed of valuing them will depend a bit on just how interested you are in relearning the game and what you have. As a rule older cards have high value due to their power level rather than their original rarity, though rarer cards tend to be more powerful.

    Almost anything printed in the '90s you see in these lists is moderately to highly valuable regardless of rarity: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/53b

    The main things to watch out for are cards like 'Force of Will' which is uncommon but very powerful and valuable, or early dual lands such as 'Plateau' or 'Taiga' which appear worthless to a new player, but are actually very good and hold decent value.

    I don't know how trustworthy people in gaming shops are for pricing this stuff, they may be fine, but I'd recommend having some awareness of any $30+ cards in your collection before having someone else value them.

    Raern on
  • Skoal CatSkoal Cat Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Plateau has value?!

    edit: Holy shit it is. A lot has changed in the last 14 years?

    Skoal Cat on
  • RaernRaern Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    lol Well assuming you weren't joking, the Revised (3rd ed) version is the least valuable version and that's sitting at: http://sales.starcitygames.com/cardsearch.php?singlesearch=plateau

    Raern on
  • BradicusMaximusBradicusMaximus Pssssssssyyyyyyyy duckRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I would try and avoid gaming shops at all costs. Through my experiences, they'll more than likely try and lowball you. If you want the most, I'd do a little bit of research on each.

    BradicusMaximus on
  • Skoal CatSkoal Cat Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Its been a long long time since I've priced any of these. This is going to be learning all over again.
    I feel like I should sort these cards a bit more. As a kid I did it by color, because that made sense for deck building. Should i redo it based on set? How do I know what edition something is from? Is it year+1 (1994=5th edition)?

    Skoal Cat on
  • ZyreZyre Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    This took me a week to do, about 3-4 hours every couple days (my collection of cards is quite large), but I found the best way to sort my cards was first by color, then by casting cost, then by type (Creature, Instant, Sorcery), then by Set, and then by rarity. When I go into my box, I know exactly where to find my 2 mana rare green creatures.

    This was a big help for me; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_sets - I think you'll find it useful to find out what set a card is from. Just match the symbol on the card. If a card doesn't have a expansion symbol, then it's probably Alpha, Beta, 3rd, 4th or 5th edition. Those are the only 5 sets that did not have symbols to the right of the card type line.

    Zyre on
  • RadicalTurnipRadicalTurnip Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Don't waste your valuable time, sell them all to me for $15.

    But seriously, I'm a bit unclear? You said you and your gf want to get back into M:tG, but then you talk about selling your cards. Are you wanting to sell them and get new cards, or what? I'm confused.

    RadicalTurnip on
  • E.CoyoteE.Coyote Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    There's also a thread on the critical failures forum for magic which you may want to take a look at, which can be found here, http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=132197

    That and the deck help sections of the forum on the mtg main site should answer any specific questions about casual deck building etc.

    E.Coyote on
  • Skoal CatSkoal Cat Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Don't waste your valuable time, sell them all to me for $15.

    But seriously, I'm a bit unclear? You said you and your gf want to get back into M:tG, but then you talk about selling your cards. Are you wanting to sell them and get new cards, or what? I'm confused.

    I have several thousand cards I think. I want to sell the ones that have any value and keep the rest to have fun with.
    Note: I definitely found my Plateau.

    Skoal Cat on
  • Skoal CatSkoal Cat Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Thanks to my shockingly well organized younger self, almost all of my cards were already organized by color. I'm also damn near 100% positive that I had, again as a shockingly smart younger self, searched every single card I had to determine if it was a rare and dropped those into a special binder. Now its time to price out all of my rares and then organize by sets to find any old commons or uncommons that might be worth a few bucks.

    Skoal Cat on
  • ZeonZeon Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Raern wrote: »
    lol Well assuming you weren't joking, the Revised (3rd ed) version is the least valuable version and that's sitting at: http://sales.starcitygames.com/cardsearch.php?singlesearch=plateau

    Jesus christ. I have like 20 of those. Time to ask my mom to dig out the magic cards and bring them down next time she visits... Holy shit im apparently rich and i wasnt even aware.

    Zeon on
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  • Skoal CatSkoal Cat Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I've gone through my rares, lands, and antiques so far. My prized jewels are my Arabian Night City Of Brass, several Serra's Sanctum, and my 3rd Edition Plateau.
    What kills me is that I had with me for almost all of college, just in case, my favorite green deck ever. It was filled with elves and some crazy powerful shit. I kept it for so long, but who knows where it is now.

    edit: Goddamn it, I had several Gaea's Cradles in there and they're worth ~$60 now. God fucking damn it.

    Skoal Cat on
  • ForarForar #432 Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Do keep in mind, what a store will sell the card for isn't necessarily what you'll get someone to pay you for the card. If you sell to SCG you'll be lucky to get, like, half of their selling price, and I imagine most Brick & Mortar stores would be the same or worse.

    Far as I know, the best way to get money out of your cards if you intend to sell is to go through ebay, though that has its own set of caveats, in that you should probably have (or at least have access to) someone with a solid account rating. Someone with a 1000 rating is going to get more money (on average) from card sales than someone with a 100 rating, who in turn is likely to get more than an account with a 10 or less.

    Forar on
    First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
  • stormbringerstormbringer Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Raern wrote: »
    lol Well assuming you weren't joking, the Revised (3rd ed) version is the least valuable version and that's sitting at: http://sales.starcitygames.com/cardsearch.php?singlesearch=plateau

    Your kidding I have 5 of each of the double lands plus a full set of Beta and Arabian that I need to sell off then. I could build another hot rod at those prices.

    I even have a set of Mox's in played condition that I thought might be worth 50 a piece.

    stormbringer on
  • StraygatsbyStraygatsby Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Threads like these always give me slight pangs of nostalgia for the game. I started playing M:TG in Alpha when the owner of the local Comix Connection opened a box to show the kids in his store this newfangled game they were trying out. I was lost from there. I ended up getting out right after Ice Age, selling my entire binder to the owner of a local computer shop in exchange for a brand new Toshiba Satellite laptop (with a smoking four or eight megs of ram, yeah!). That was the first computer I owned. I remember my parents thinking I must have stolen it until I explained the whole thing. :lol:

    Good luck getting back in. I've always wanted to, but it's become SUCH a huge cash investment just to keep up and current. I just don't think I'd want to support that crack habit.

    Straygatsby on
  • stormbringerstormbringer Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Ok so I am pulling them out of the closet tonight. Do they still do alpha/beta/unlimited core games anywhere in So Cal.

    I have some really cool rack, bad moon, mind twist based decks that I would love to play even if I get destroyed.

    stormbringer on
  • tapeslingertapeslinger Space Unicorn Slush Ranger Social Justice Rebel ScumRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    wow, weird, i just got back into the game after a really long time out too. Nostalgia! I've been using the collection organizer on EssentialMagic.com to figure out approximate values of my stuff and I was shocked to find even stuff like Wasteland (5$ rare 6 years after it was printed) went up to 30+. I like the organizer on their site even though the site itself is ... well.

    tapeslinger on
  • Skoal CatSkoal Cat Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Ok so I am pulling them out of the closet tonight. Do they still do alpha/beta/unlimited core games anywhere in So Cal.

    I have some really cool rack, bad moon, mind twist based decks that I would love to play even if I get destroyed.

    You'll probably find some casual games, but you're more likely to find games that run by current tournament rules.

    Skoal Cat on
  • stormbringerstormbringer Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Skoal Cat wrote: »
    Ok so I am pulling them out of the closet tonight. Do they still do alpha/beta/unlimited core games anywhere in So Cal.

    I have some really cool rack, bad moon, mind twist based decks that I would love to play even if I get destroyed.

    You'll probably find some casual games, but you're more likely to find games that run by current tournament rules.

    Darn, thought as much. Looks like I am off to do some googling for some local games.

    stormbringer on
  • Skoal CatSkoal Cat Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I've been out of the game for awhile (this is my thread after all), but I remember that being standard I the game is designed to get you to buy as many of the new cards as possible.
    And why on Earth would you play with Alpha or Beta cards, holy shit. Sell them and buy a car.

    Skoal Cat on
  • ForarForar #432 Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Actually, if you want in on the new sexiness, this is a format that a lot of people are enjoying, AND you can play with almost anything you own from any set. It's called Commander, alternately known as EDH or Elder Dragon Highlander.

    http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php

    The basics are simple; 100 card deck, no more than 1 of any given card other than basic lands. At the start of the game, one of those cards is put into a special zone face up, this is your General/Commander, and you can cast it anytime you could normally cast it. When it's put in a graveyard or removed from the game you can instead elect to put it back in that special zone for casting again, but it costs 2 colourless mana more each time you do that (so normal cost the first time it's cast, +2 the second, +4 the third, etc).

    Like any other magic game or format, you have your batshit insane decks that can wreck one or more people in a single turn, possibly in the first few turns of the game. You have your theme decks, your 'shit thrown together let's see what happens' decks, and everything in between.

    A further advantage of this format is that instead of having to potentially buy/trade for playsets of 4 of a given card, a single one might be all you need for a deck, which if you enjoy cracking open booster packs has the heightened advantage of making those cards you draw more useful than they might've been otherwise.

    It's also a multiplayer format (to compensate for which, players start at 40 life, though if a given commander deals 21+ damage to a player (even over multiple castings) that player loses the game even if they have a million life normally), and many players include other products WOTC have released over the years, like Planechase and Archenemy.

    I haven't toyed with the latter, but I've played the former heavily with EDH, and enjoy it immensely.

    And as a final note on the matter, WOTC will be releasing their own EDH decks during the summer. 5 decks representing 3 colours each (example; White/Green/Black). Details are sketchy on these thus far, but if you find EDH to your liking, they might be an easy way to get some decks started up, or with a couple you could mix and match to enhance decks you've got built or want to build.

    Forar on
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  • Lord YodLord Yod Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Commander is definitely the way to go for people who played a lot 10+ years ago and are looking to start again. You can build decks out of the old cards you have and then, if you want to, add in new cards.

    Lord Yod on
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  • Skoal CatSkoal Cat Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    My old comic book shop that I played at used to have a giant box of land. The rule was, "want land? take land? why the fuck would we care?"
    Was my shop awesome and special, or is this kind of common? Might I find another mana resource?

    Skoal Cat on
  • E.CoyoteE.Coyote Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Deck builders tool kit maybe?

    E.Coyote on
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Skoal Cat wrote: »
    Plateau has value?!

    edit: Holy shit it is. A lot has changed in the last 14 years?

    Aye, just as a quick note: be sure to not let anyone take advantage of you by looking up those prices! Plateau seemed innocent back when it was first created (there's been many dual lands hence), but its price is because there's never been a set of lands since that has done all of the following:

    1) Provided two colors
    2) Had no negative side effects (taking damage, generating creatures for other players, starting tapped etc)
    3) Are actually considered a "basic" land of BOTH of its root land types.

    #3 is the big kicker here, but #2 is also important. In the more recent years of Magic, there's been a lot of design experimentation with the concept of having special/powerful actions based on having lands of certain types in play. They usually protect themselves from letting any one land be too powerful by not having things like dual lands actually also be "basic" land types, but they can't (or won't) retro out the old dual lands which explicitly say that they're both basic land types. As a result, the dual lands let you trigger all sorts of fun abilities and open the doors for certain actions to be much easier than they ought to be.

    As an extreme example, take "Coalition Victory". You only need three of those dual lands (or two of them and one other regular land) in play to satisfy the otherwise difficult "one land of each basic land type" qualifier for its instant win condition.

    Anyways, that kind of subtle stuff compounded over the last decade and a half may have turned a great deal of cards that you didn't think were a big deal into powerhouses. When someone offers you a trade, be sure to look up the price first as a result. People can be real jerks when it comes to taking advantage of others.

    VThornheart on
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