Back in the late 90's/early 00's, white border cards were an eye sore. Then we all cheered when 10th (X) Ed. was printed black border.
Now I am seeing white border singles' prices start moving upward (opposed to staying flat on their face - really is no need for growth). I am talking about the average white border (even basic lands), not the flavor of the day i.e. 8th Ed. Ensnaring Bridge (this card and others [Blood Moon] have a legit cause for their increase).
Is it a hipster Magic player thing? Or a nostalgia thing?
I've seen people who like white bordered basics for ease of fetching, but that's about it. No explanation for why other white bordered cards would be climbing.
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Magic pricing demand has always been at its heart, a set of emotional decisions. It takes no leap of faith to say that Magic has always been subject to hype and subjective desires. Suddenly a card is cool so it goes up.
White border gains have been talked about for the past few years in possibly the slowest hype trend to ever hit magic. That being said, at some point white border cards have to be the "cool cards" because wizards doesn't print white border cards anymore. It's a hipster thing, a rarity thing, and frankly an aesthetic way of being unique, much like foiling or pimping.
I will note in particular that white border vintage cards--power 9 has had some of the largest percentage gains these past few years. In short Unlimited Edition cards, including UL duals have skyrocketed.
On this thread its been remarked more than once how ironic it would be to see white border cards be for once in magic history, the cool and desired cards.
But as someone who actually started playing magic in 1994, White border magic cards were what I started with. I have never seen them as an eyesore, and I hope they get their day in their sun for whatever new aesthetic trend magic players are now moving to.
I actually did some research into this, as I got interested and while lot of white bordered sets have gone up there are other explanations than larger interest in WB cards in general.
The main reason for certain white bordered cards gainig value from 8th and 9th editions: Lot of the OCD players want all their cards to use the 'modern' lay-out. That means that certain playable cards from 8th and 9th editions have surprisingly strong demand compared to their older counterparts. This group of cards includes some really big gainers like Ensnaring Bridge, Choke and Blood Moon. Also those cards have gained in value across all versions.
If we are talking widespread increase all over the board on the wb sets, then modern border is not the main reason, but it does explain the biggest bulk of monetary growth from white bordered cards anyway (and all growth of 8th and 9th ed.). Unlimited cards growth has been mainly because the supply is so small that any new demand was enough to make values go up, so the 93/94 crowd can be pointed for this. Outside those three sets I haven't noticed any special growth, but it might be because I'm not actively selling those now. But I do have lot of old bulk uncommons, that have been waiting 20 years to appreciate in value enough for me to go through them. At least Ashnod's Altar jump has me hopeful.
I dis check through the set analytics feature on MtGStocks and while some sets show slight growth, most can be traced to single card jumps, like Chronicles value, which is directly linked to growth of Blood Moon and Tron Pieces. You can check this page about 4th edition card average values as an example. Outside the few single cards increasing and the rest staying stable, I could not see any overall growth, but as the supply is still robust, those don't show if there's grassroot interest on the WB cards, so I'm very interested to hear if random commons and uncommons that are not up all over the board (like Tron pieces) from old base sets have started moving better on Puca or some other place.
Another thing I did notice was the TCG average prices for 4th edition lands was way higher than I expected, but got lazy and didn't check the starting data or other lands. On MCM the 4th. ed basic lands are still very cheap and mostly not worth listing, but few fifth edition lands have been going up (like the Pat Morrissey Plains) for a while now.
And as the last brain teaser. What the moderns modern border afficiandos don't explain is the value of 8th edition Bribery (for double the money one can get a judge foil), but that might be just a Commander-thingie...
I bought the 8th edition tron lands because I like all of the cards in my modern decks to have the modern border. Hopefully I can save up for foil tron lands or just get Russian 9th edition ones since those are black bordered non-foil. They do have the added benefit of being easier to find, and playing with them doesn't bother me anymore like it did when I played standard when 8th was legal.
So it's looking like the modern border is a good reason for jumps. A lot of it is aesthetics. For example, I have and always will be partial for the classic borders, thinking it evokes more of a fantasy feel for the card game, as well as the old backgrounds for each color [in the text box], like white has lace, green had wood, black bubbling muck, etc... When the foil Judge's Sword of Fire and Ice was designed w/ the old school artifact look; I thought it was gorgeous.
The turn-off for me about 8th/9th Ed. was partially the border, which felt very mechanical. Guess that is becoming retro now.
I like the look on some cards. I hate it with white cards and most red cards, but with black and some blue cards the contrast actually looks good to me.
Aesthetics is one of the most powerful drivers of demand in magic. Anyone who collect and pimps out their decks know that their card prices are a function of rarity and simple looks as opposed to practical effect.
I've noticed a raising of the floor for cards in general. A few months ago, Channel Fireball increased its floor on jank from $0.10 to $0.15 for commons, $0.10 to $0.25 on uncommons, and $0.25 to $0.35 on the rares. While still pennies, that's still up to a 50% increase. Other places have followed suit (Card Kingdom has had a $0.25 floor for some time now).
I don't think it's anything to do with white border, I think this is simply prices rising. I also have my personal theories about PucaTrade affecting the prices of low end cards as well, but it's usually a fleeting thought.
I purchase white border because it is cheaper than black border except in rare cases. This is especially true with Revised cards, but can be true of other versions as well. I just wanna play, and looks are not quite as meaningful at times.
Now I am seeing white border singles' prices start moving upward (opposed to staying flat on their face - really is no need for growth). I am talking about the average white border (even basic lands), not the flavor of the day i.e. 8th Ed. Ensnaring Bridge (this card and others [Blood Moon] have a legit cause for their increase).
Is it a hipster Magic player thing? Or a nostalgia thing?
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White border gains have been talked about for the past few years in possibly the slowest hype trend to ever hit magic. That being said, at some point white border cards have to be the "cool cards" because wizards doesn't print white border cards anymore. It's a hipster thing, a rarity thing, and frankly an aesthetic way of being unique, much like foiling or pimping.
I will note in particular that white border vintage cards--power 9 has had some of the largest percentage gains these past few years. In short Unlimited Edition cards, including UL duals have skyrocketed.
On this thread its been remarked more than once how ironic it would be to see white border cards be for once in magic history, the cool and desired cards.
But as someone who actually started playing magic in 1994, White border magic cards were what I started with. I have never seen them as an eyesore, and I hope they get their day in their sun for whatever new aesthetic trend magic players are now moving to.
The main reason for certain white bordered cards gainig value from 8th and 9th editions: Lot of the OCD players want all their cards to use the 'modern' lay-out. That means that certain playable cards from 8th and 9th editions have surprisingly strong demand compared to their older counterparts. This group of cards includes some really big gainers like Ensnaring Bridge, Choke and Blood Moon. Also those cards have gained in value across all versions.
If we are talking widespread increase all over the board on the wb sets, then modern border is not the main reason, but it does explain the biggest bulk of monetary growth from white bordered cards anyway (and all growth of 8th and 9th ed.). Unlimited cards growth has been mainly because the supply is so small that any new demand was enough to make values go up, so the 93/94 crowd can be pointed for this. Outside those three sets I haven't noticed any special growth, but it might be because I'm not actively selling those now. But I do have lot of old bulk uncommons, that have been waiting 20 years to appreciate in value enough for me to go through them. At least Ashnod's Altar jump has me hopeful.
I dis check through the set analytics feature on MtGStocks and while some sets show slight growth, most can be traced to single card jumps, like Chronicles value, which is directly linked to growth of Blood Moon and Tron Pieces. You can check this page about 4th edition card average values as an example. Outside the few single cards increasing and the rest staying stable, I could not see any overall growth, but as the supply is still robust, those don't show if there's grassroot interest on the WB cards, so I'm very interested to hear if random commons and uncommons that are not up all over the board (like Tron pieces) from old base sets have started moving better on Puca or some other place.
Another thing I did notice was the TCG average prices for 4th edition lands was way higher than I expected, but got lazy and didn't check the starting data or other lands. On MCM the 4th. ed basic lands are still very cheap and mostly not worth listing, but few fifth edition lands have been going up (like the Pat Morrissey Plains) for a while now.
And as the last brain teaser. What the moderns modern border afficiandos don't explain is the value of 8th edition Bribery (for double the money one can get a judge foil), but that might be just a Commander-thingie...
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The turn-off for me about 8th/9th Ed. was partially the border, which felt very mechanical. Guess that is becoming retro now.
I like the look on some cards. I hate it with white cards and most red cards, but with black and some blue cards the contrast actually looks good to me.
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I don't think it's anything to do with white border, I think this is simply prices rising. I also have my personal theories about PucaTrade affecting the prices of low end cards as well, but it's usually a fleeting thought.