Magic the Gathering – Testing the Beta Market
For over two years I have been hoarding and holding Magic the Gathering Beta cards. The time to buy them now cheaply has passed as they have seen a 300% rise in value since around December 2017.
I hope your reading this @reggaemuffin!
What are the reasons for the expediential increase in value? I cannot really say other than it is pure speculation and hoarding.
The Magic the Gathering Beta Core Set was released in October 1993 and had a print run of 7.3 million
As it stands the cheapest common Beta in now $3 and some of the more regular cards which have never been tournament regulars such as Grizzly Bears are touching $20 each.
This doesn’t mean I can demand this price, it’s simply a median value. You need to realise that Beta’s were made in late 1993 making these pieces of cardboard 26 years of age in today’s world.
The print runs were also very small. Look at the chart below, and you will see that only 44,800 common cards of EACH were printed.
Factor in the years, cards being ripped up in anger by players losing games, dogs and babies eating them and natural disasters. We are then left with a number that is so much smaller.
I was fortunate to pick up some Power Leaks maybe TWO years ago and the sender sent me around 10 extra ones for free.
Power Leak isn’t one of the more valuable commons, but its averaging $4 now. I paid around 80p each for two or three, but received a bunch of them.
The perceived price is Europe is higher as the distribution of the very early sets was skewed toward the United States.
Betas are rarely seen in the UK, and if they are usually drooled over by anyone who knows anything about the history of the game.. You can see from the graph that by that start of 2018 the price went crazy and shot up.
The last Power Leak to be sold on eBay UK was listed at £6.99 and sold subject to a lower bid. I can’t see what the lower value is but am guessing at possibly £5.
What I am going to do is test the market with another Power Leak at the same price. A 500% mark-up sounds good to me, and considering I have 15 of these I’m quite happy to sell one to pay for all the rest.
Rare cards from the set are in a different league. Only 3,000 EVER made of each makes them ridiculously hard to come by. Do I own any Beta rares?
Just one, and its one of the crappiest cards from the entire set being an ante card. Ante cards are banned from tournaments and generally not used in today’s meta.
Even so this once £30 buy is now valued at near $230, and just look at the European valuation. It’s not quite Mint but would pass for Near Mint.
Am I going to sell my Contract from Below? Not a chance, as its value is only going to increase in years to come.
My 'Excellent' quality Power Leak is now for sale. I think it will sell. It's not a lot and will yield me £5.72 after eBay take all its cuts and charges.
I have a load of old Arabian Nights, Antiquities and Legends ready if this goes well. It's whether to keep a hold of them or start getting rid for a neat profit.
If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.
Do you think it is the original players that are compelled to collect the cards? Maybe it is like a nostalgia type of thing?
I have a bunch of things to sell on Ebay but never took the time to truly learn how it works.
I'm not sure who's buying them up, the card on sale has had a few views but has not sold yet. I still think it will.
I’m feeling like I have totally missed out on something major in my life - as I have absolutely no idea what this is!
That said it looks like you have a good roi from recognising the collectibility of these gaming cards - which is the real magic realising when something could gain value in future.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Sup Dork! Enjoy the upvote!!!
Well, honestly, I was never into these type of cards and games associated with them. But, all people are different and interested in different things. I had one teammate when I played in Morocco and he was crazy this types of games played with similar cards. I mean he was literally playing online every day. And, he talked very passionately about it as well.
I hope you manage to sell your cards for a good price, my friend. Have a great day. :)
Ahh, I definitely missed out on this. Maybe for the best, I don't think I have that much storage space left.
I hope you manage to sell the ones you've listed on ebay! Too bad there's no decent option to sell them via Steem, I don't think the market here is big enough ;)
I would take STEEM for them if there were any offers. It's too bad there's hardly anyone who knows that they are, never mind interested in buying them.
Oh.. that beer caused me no issues at all. its on my hit list now.
That's what I would have expected of that beer, you just had one, right?
Yes, just the one.. it foamed up like hell... because I didn't pour it correctly.. maybe that's what I should do to get all the gas out?
Yeah you should definitely get most of the gas out, usually you just pour it slowly against the inside of the glass and then you tilt the glass back straight when it's about 70% full, giving you a head of about 5 - 6 cm.
Wow, that is pretty impressive. I never would have viewed them as such an investment. I think my nieces were gifted a starter set a couple of years ago for Christmas and I told them to hold onto them because they would definitely be worth something some day.
Probably hearing about this for the first time
If you play SteemMonsters, there has been some inspiration from this game. It is where it all started.
Oh. Yes I played it. Now I remember.
Posted using Partiko Android
Just think how many Rusty Androids you could buy when that sells!
That's a better mark up than on the Munch Bunch books I sold recently. I'm sure they more than trebled in value in about 6 years.
The only problem with Ebay is I find it such a pain in the backside to use.. listing (photos especially), printing postage labels, getting off my ass and posting, it's OK for one or two products but when you sell several, there's a shitty afternoon sorting out all the posting right there.
It's the main reason my cellar's still full of crap. I guess cards are one of the easiest things to sell online however, relatively hassle free!
I thought you might have heard of this game, its mostly geeks and nerds who play as it requires some intelligence. Your students might well play it.
Agreed, that's why I get @bingbabe to do all that donkey work, she's really good at it too.
I think I have one Beta Ankh of Mishra from my dad’s collection, everything else is Unlimited, Revised, Legends, or later. I have a couple of lucky Arabian Nights cards in there too. In 5 years time, I’ll probably give them back to my pops so he can sell what he pleases - I would never sell his cards. I play with them though! :) Nice haul man, best of luck with your sales!
I hope you use sleeves when you play, those sets are getting more valuable by the month. Even Revised are in demand now. I bought boxes of the things in '94-95' and didn't think of what the value would be years later.
It's a far superior game to SteemMonsters but demands a lot more of your attention. I'm hoping SM gets some more of it's ideas in the future from this.
Haha I guess I should have guessed you had an inner nerd from your participation as an early adopted of this blockchain. Now I have proof you are one of us!
Nice to see the stuff you amassed back then increase in perceived value. Can you sell them or would you even?
Posted using Partiko iOS
Oh yes.. the nerd has always been there. I don't write about MtG much now as nobody knows what the hell I'm talking about.
I sold most of my beta's in the nineties and had a lot more than what you see in the post photograph. If I had kept them and sold them now, I could give up my day job..., this lot I acquired only in the last few years and its a fay cry from what I did have once.