Hey Everyone - I recently acquired an Aether Revolt booster box in trade with my hobby comic business; which has rekindled my my desire to collect after a rather extended absence. Given the evolution of the game over the past couple decades, I am trying to find a good place to plant my feet to begin building a solid collection and hoped for some advise. I am mostly interested in quality over quantity (i.e. cards that are likely to retain some value and liquidity). As a finance professional, it pains me to see the term 'investment' thrown around with collectibles, but I can rationalize a bigger budget if I have some confidence that the cards are not going to devalue aggressively. I probably won't be playing with paper cards, so I am not restricting myself to the most recent sets. So I guess I am asking the community: If you were trying to build a small, but impressive collection, what sets and cards make up the upper echelon of MTG (notwithstanding the Power 9...)?
The original zendikar block has some really valuable cards. As does llorowyn and innistrad. Conflux had a few really expensive cards. Also khans of tarkir block had some cards I see going up in value in a couple years. The newer sets don't really have anything outstanding in value. The best one recently was origins when it was still in standard had a jace planeswalker card that got up to about $95 or so until it rotated out and it dropped to about $25 or $30. Another good one might be both ravnica blocks. The original and return. They had some cards that might see a price spike even if the return cards are getting some reprints in the new modern masters set. That's another one you might look into. They're more expensive packs but the masters sets are pretty good as far as value goes. There's 2 modern masters and an eternal masters set out and a new modern one comes out next month. Also the urza block had some really good cards that are going up in value and will continue if they don't see reprints
As said above Urzas block is good bet for future value. The modern master's collection's are a safe bet. Some cards to keep an eye on are the commander staples for the fact that commander is booming in popularity thus increasing some cards that might otherwise devalue. Good luck and I wish you the best getting your foot back in the door.
Returning from 20 year hiatus.. Where do I start?!