I’m currently finding copies at $8, and in 6 weeks would not be surprised if prices were closer to $6.50.
As far as not paying attention to tcg market, it is usually a terrific measure of a cards value, but the problem is that it has not had time to adjust to the market. Both buyers and sellers are gauging the market to see how many copies are entering. Considering it is being opened at Walmart and target I think we will see plenty of supply enter the market. I got the canopies at $25 but would not be surprised to find them as low as $22 in the next month or so and that in my opinion is one of the more stable cards in the set.
I’m currently finding copies at $8, and in 6 weeks would not be surprised if prices were closer to $6.50.
As far as not paying attention to tcg market, it is usually a terrific measure of a cards value, but the problem is that it has not had time to adjust to the market. Both buyers and sellers are gauging the market to see how many copies are entering. Considering it is being opened at Walmart and target I think we will see plenty of supply enter the market. I got the canopies at $25 but would not be surprised to find them as low as $22 in the next month or so and that in my opinion is one of the more stable cards in the set.
Oh this set is going to be a glorious bloodbath in the coming months. If someone already planned to buy something when prices dropped and don't want to wait, though, there's really not a huge problem buying now or later. Horizon Canopy will probably fall down further, but it's also usually just a one or two of in most decks so even if the price falls later the most I could imagine someone would lose on it is 4-8 usd. Baubles are dropping as well because there's no way they could hold at 5+ with the quantities that are coming. Tolarian did a box opening and got only a few baubles, but his boxes are actually more of an example of the horrible RNG going on with the booster boxes. The good news is that the bottom of the set looks glorious and if the MSRP wasn't 240 usd per box I think this would be one of the best sets wizards ever printed. Doomed Traveler, Seeker of the Way, Thran Dynamo, Rift Bolt, etc, are all really great cards. Why they can't make standard sets actually have this kind of quality is beyond me.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
If Horizon canopy hits low 20s I am gonna be that guy that buys 20 or 30 and holds them for a few years. Its a modern AND legacy staple. Plus itll never get reprinted in standard IMO.
If Horizon canopy hits low 20s I am gonna be that guy that buys 20 or 30 and holds them for a few years. Its a modern AND legacy staple. Plus itll never get reprinted in standard IMO.
I don't think it's going to hit 20 dollars, but 25 is probably about where I'd expect it to land in the long run. The Big three for modern decks are shocks, fetches, and fast lands.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
If Horizon canopy hits low 20s I am gonna be that guy that buys 20 or 30 and holds them for a few years. Its a modern AND legacy staple. Plus itll never get reprinted in standard IMO.
I don't think it's going to hit 20 dollars, but 25 is probably about where I'd expect it to land in the long run. The Big three for modern decks are shocks, fetches, and fast lands.
It's only behind Colonnade (40 dollars) and Cavern (50) are the only two non fetch/shock/fastlands ahead of Canopy. Colonnade is another good one to buy for long term and has been going up and up lately also.
If Horizon canopy hits low 20s I am gonna be that guy that buys 20 or 30 and holds them for a few years. Its a modern AND legacy staple. Plus itll never get reprinted in standard IMO.
I don't think it's going to hit 20 dollars, but 25 is probably about where I'd expect it to land in the long run. The Big three for modern decks are shocks, fetches, and fast lands.
It's only behind Colonnade (40 dollars) and Cavern (50) are the only two non fetch/shock/fastlands ahead of Canopy. Colonnade is another good one to buy for long term and has been going up and up lately also.
Given the kind of manipulative stuff wizards is pulling with the services they use it's not really a reliable place to look for information on how much the cards get played. It's a good land, but it still isn't used as heavily as other lands which is why it's price is going to likely drop further. People are in a buying fever at the moment though, so now is a great time to sell them off.
Also good time to note that box prices have now dipped below 160 usd. With free shipping. On a masters set. It's almost like people prefer to buy what they need for their decks.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The key is that the set has a TON of first time reprints. Magus of the moon, Glimpse the unthinkable, Bloodghast, etc etc. Even though these are masters set the perceived 'value' sells a ton of packs... enough its comparable to a full release of 5 or 8 years ago. That said the staples like Bloodghast and Canopy will certainly rebound in the longer term to 50-100% higher than their lows in 2-3 months. Its just a time thing.
The key is that the set has a TON of first time reprints. Magus of the moon, Glimpse the unthinkable, Bloodghast, etc etc. Even though these are masters set the perceived 'value' sells a ton of packs... enough its comparable to a full release of 5 or 8 years ago. That said the staples like Bloodghast and Canopy will certainly rebound in the longer term to 50-100% higher than their lows in 2-3 months. Its just a time thing.
Horizon Canopy isn't going to rebound 50% of it's low value. This card is more like Karakas that sees some limited play in modern. We're looking at low 25 and maybe high 35 dollars and that is if boxes aren't extremely overly plentiful. I'm just saying that if someone wanted to invest and sell later that would have been the fetch lands in MM2017 when they were at their low, because those see a ton of modern play.
I've seen this story before with cards from this time period. It doesn't matter what the price was on Ebay or TCG player prior. That price was due to the extremely low supply of the card. IMA is proving to be one of the most heavily printed masters sets that have come out in a while and the lands included in it are not staples across multiple deck archetypes.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yeah the prices on TCG player are a fantasy right now.
TCGplayer prices are clearly a pipe dream of the sellers at this point.
Yep, I never pay attention to them. Ebay buy it now pricing is much more indicative. I caught/bought a single copy ofMishra's Bauble for $5.00 shipped a few days ago. Haven't seen one that low since. For a brief and I mean brief time I saw a few for $4.95 on buy it now, but that time seems to be past. As far as I'm concerned, barring another fall, these have bottomed out and my prediction of no sub 5 dollar prices (minus TCG baloney) is shown to be true.
Despite the fact that TCGplayer currently has NM copies for $4.65 shipped, I think it's waaay too early to claim anything from this set has bottomed out. I'm interested to see if Walmart/Target will re-stock shelves with IMA product once their initial stock is gone; if so, the floor for a lot of these reprints is incredibly low. Let's not forget that MM17 booster boxes were still readily available for ~$182 w/ Amz Prime shipping like 4-5 months post-release and that set blows IMA out of the water. I don't think players understand the gravity of the financial situation now that Masters products are in big box stores; any premium set release prior to this was just a drop in the bucket in terms of supply. In the US alone, there are 4,672 Walmart locations and 1,834 Target stores.
^^^ Good points. But with that said, I have checked 4 local Wal-Marts in the last 2 days and have seen ZERO Iconic Masters at those locations. Bauble also appears to be one of the rare uncommons as well. Wizards tracks or controls the supply of these and from the box openings I have watched online this seems to bear out. 12 packs from draft packs later of IM (a small sample) and ZERO Baubles out of 36 uncommons. Bauble has bottomed out, even the unrealistic pricing on TCG is heading upward. Card Kingdom is sold out of their copies at 6 bucks each. I'd love to see Bauble for 5 bucks shipped but the indicators I see don't show that at this time.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I decided to pull the trigger and buy two more Baubles yesterday when I saw them drop to just shy of $4 NM shipped on TCG. Looks like other people were doing the same because by the time I got to checkout, they were gone. Had to settle for just shy of $5 shipped. Really it was my fault (read: wife) because it took me longer than usual to make the purchase.
I don't know if the price hiccuped due to TCG's Kickback sale yesterday or there's more room for it to drop further. I don't think so. When it drops significantly below $5, they don't seem to stick around.
Prices are going to sneak up on mythics, but things like Bauble and the other rares / uncommons in the set are going to bounce up and down for a while.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I know it's just one person with one box and doesn't mean a think, but I pulled 2 Baubles from my box.... I am not the guy who pulls chase uncommons, my box of Aether Revolt brought zero Push, MM17 zero Paths, etc.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Project Booster Fun makes it less fun to open a booster.
To introduce something not related to Iconic, does anyone have any idea why the price of Bitterblossom is so high. It feels rather overpriced. Granted that price memory is a thing but the card seems next to no play whatsoever, it's not exactly an EDH all star? Where's the demand coming from to cause it to gain $10 since its reprint?
To introduce something not related to Iconic, does anyone have any idea why the price of Bitterblossom is so high. It feels rather overpriced. Granted that price memory is a thing but the card seems next to no play whatsoever, it's not exactly an EDH all star? Where's the demand coming from to cause it to gain $10 since its reprint?
If I had to guess, I'd say price memory, iconic Rebecca Guay artwork, along with a limited supply. MM15 was printed more than MM13, but not as heavily as the Masters sets which followed; thus, its first printing in Morningtide & other "real" re-printing being at mythic in MM15 have helped keep it at a stable price. Right now TCGplayer only has ~173 LP/NM copies between both printings.
Picked up a copy of Horizon Canopy @ 30$ just in case the card ends up rebounding. I've noticed there's a pretty crazy demand for them in buy/sell groups that the supply doesn't seem to be keeping up with. Everyone wants them for 25~ but no one is giving them away for that.
Picked up a copy of Horizon Canopy @ 30$ just in case the card ends up rebounding. I've noticed there's a pretty crazy demand for them in buy/sell groups that the supply doesn't seem to be keeping up with. Everyone wants them for 25~ but no one is giving them away for that.
Picked up a playset on ebay for $100, but only because I play Bogles and I sold my FS canopies once IMA was spoiled. I thought Canopy was going to end up bottoming out ~$15, but that was before I learned IMA product can be purchased at big box stores. I don't mind paying more, so I can play now, but I'm still expecting it to crash in the coming weeks. This is very similar to how Goblin Guide's value shook out following the release of MM17; people were reluctant to sell the $40 card for less than they thought it was worth. Fast forward two months and MM17 copies were $10 a pop b/c it only sees play in Modern burn. IMO, it's a poor time to buy into most IMA reprints until the market settles; foils are the exception as they can often be found cheaper earlier on.
Tcg is running a 10% kickback on singles today. I was considering picking up some of the staples from Iconic that I don’t already have like baubles, helixes, auriok champion, bloodghast...
So the question comes down to this; do I expect these to drop another 10%, and if so, how long until then? The highly desired singles such as bauble and canopy are not dropping another 10% without another print run in my opinion, and even for some of the lesser demand cards a 10% drop seems like a lot to ask for.
any cards people think will absolutely drop or not drop 10%, and general sense of how this deal relates to the set in general?
prices are going to be unstable for a while on IMA top rares, but if you are looking at getting Lightning Helix, Thran Dynamo and other cards you are probably safe.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
You can still try it, but remember, we still have Masters 25 in the spring and Eternal Masters in the fall. You don't think Ensnaring Bridge, Crucible of Worlds and Engineered Explosives won't be reprinted?
No one knows where the chips will fall, but I will say that Zen fetches will be reprinted at least once more, likely in Masters 25.
The only safe place to put your money is in the three Masterpiece sets, Judge foils and the Reserve List.
Some enterprising souls have begun to notice the foundation id increasingly being laid for a new format that will likely begin with Origins. Good money being dumped into that in anticipation of that announcement in 2 or 3 years. Cards like Tireless Tracker, Cryptolith Rite, and even Attune With Aether will be in demand.
But Modern is dead as for investing or flipping. The expansion into Walmart tells me Wizards seriously wants to make Modern cheap for entry - or, they are liquidating all their equity in Modern before announcing a new format - and the 25th anniversary may be as good an opportunity as any. Modern will suffer with a new format being announced, but it will not endure Legacy type dwindling.
I'm moving my money out of Modern into Masterpieces, RL and new format staples. I'd advise others to do likewise.
You can still try it, but remember, we still have Masters 25 in the spring and Eternal Masters in the fall. You don't think Ensnaring Bridge, Crucible of Worlds and Engineered Explosives won't be reprinted?
No one knows where the chips will fall, but I will say that Zen fetches will be reprinted at least once more, likely in Masters 25.
The only safe place to put your money is in the three Masterpiece sets, Judge foils and the Reserve List.
Some enterprising souls have begun to notice the foundation id increasingly being laid for a new format that will likely begin with Origins. Good money being dumped into that in anticipation of that announcement in 2 or 3 years. Cards like Tireless Tracker, Cryptolith Rite, and even Attune With Aether will be in demand.
But Modern is dead as for investing or flipping. The expansion into Walmart tells me Wizards seriously wants to make Modern cheap for entry - or, they are liquidating all their equity in Modern before announcing a new format - and the 25th anniversary may be as good an opportunity as any. Modern will suffer with a new format being announced, but it will not endure Legacy type dwindling.
I'm moving my money out of Modern into Masterpieces, RL and new format staples. I'd advise others to do likewise.
I don't think this is news to anybody. Hasbro/WotC figured out how to profit off non-standard players with MM13 and they've gone loco with the reprints ever since. However, that is in no way an indictment on Modern or any format in particular, rather, it just cements the fact that sitting on expensive cards isn't safe unless they're in a deck or on the RL. If I had to guess, putting "premium" sets into big box stores was most likely more of a corporate decision by Hasbro in order to keep shareholders happy, shareholders who have no idea what the **** Modern is. IMA has as much Modern fodder as it does EDH, Legacy, Vintage, etc. Investing in Modern is certainly dead, but the format is far from it.
WotC will have a day of reckoning for putting Iconic Masters in the big box retailers. I've purchased several from Walmart, and I need to explain to my LGS that this is not an indictment of them, I only did so because I get 10% off as an employee (and for the majority, a special 25% off as a one time opportunity). If I hadn't had the discount, I would not have bought any, anywhere.
But I am a corner case, and LGS losing sales to, of all places, multibillion dollar corporations has to hurt, both the financial and the 'relationship' side. It's hard enough to stay afloat as an LGS, this will have them screaming up their pipeline, it is very real money taken away from them.
Expect a backlash from the game stores. I do not know what form it will take, but things have really been hard lately, with the change to prize structure at FNM, Iconic Masters being massively overprinted, and general set fatigue. We've had 2 masters sets in 9 months, and we have another 2 coming in the next 9 months. 4 masters sets in 18 months? Conspiracy, Commander Anthology, regular standard sets, Unstable, FTV (which, from all accounts, flopped hard) the flood is relentless.
If I didn't know better, I would say WotC is going under. Decipher pulled a similar move when they lost the Star Wars license.
But I still wonder. If they stopped Masters sets after M25, it would take the market 3 or more years to recover from just Iconic Masters. One can only imagine the damage M25 will do.
I will never tell you what to do with your money but trying to store value in cards that CAN be reprinted at any time was never really financially sound. Overpriced staples and playables in the format are hurting it more than any reprint IMHO.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
As far as not paying attention to tcg market, it is usually a terrific measure of a cards value, but the problem is that it has not had time to adjust to the market. Both buyers and sellers are gauging the market to see how many copies are entering. Considering it is being opened at Walmart and target I think we will see plenty of supply enter the market. I got the canopies at $25 but would not be surprised to find them as low as $22 in the next month or so and that in my opinion is one of the more stable cards in the set.
Oh this set is going to be a glorious bloodbath in the coming months. If someone already planned to buy something when prices dropped and don't want to wait, though, there's really not a huge problem buying now or later. Horizon Canopy will probably fall down further, but it's also usually just a one or two of in most decks so even if the price falls later the most I could imagine someone would lose on it is 4-8 usd. Baubles are dropping as well because there's no way they could hold at 5+ with the quantities that are coming. Tolarian did a box opening and got only a few baubles, but his boxes are actually more of an example of the horrible RNG going on with the booster boxes. The good news is that the bottom of the set looks glorious and if the MSRP wasn't 240 usd per box I think this would be one of the best sets wizards ever printed. Doomed Traveler, Seeker of the Way, Thran Dynamo, Rift Bolt, etc, are all really great cards. Why they can't make standard sets actually have this kind of quality is beyond me.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I don't think it's going to hit 20 dollars, but 25 is probably about where I'd expect it to land in the long run. The Big three for modern decks are shocks, fetches, and fast lands.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/modern/full/lands
It's only behind Colonnade (40 dollars) and Cavern (50) are the only two non fetch/shock/fastlands ahead of Canopy. Colonnade is another good one to buy for long term and has been going up and up lately also.
Given the kind of manipulative stuff wizards is pulling with the services they use it's not really a reliable place to look for information on how much the cards get played. It's a good land, but it still isn't used as heavily as other lands which is why it's price is going to likely drop further. People are in a buying fever at the moment though, so now is a great time to sell them off.
Also good time to note that box prices have now dipped below 160 usd. With free shipping. On a masters set. It's almost like people prefer to buy what they need for their decks.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Horizon Canopy isn't going to rebound 50% of it's low value. This card is more like Karakas that sees some limited play in modern. We're looking at low 25 and maybe high 35 dollars and that is if boxes aren't extremely overly plentiful. I'm just saying that if someone wanted to invest and sell later that would have been the fetch lands in MM2017 when they were at their low, because those see a ton of modern play.
I've seen this story before with cards from this time period. It doesn't matter what the price was on Ebay or TCG player prior. That price was due to the extremely low supply of the card. IMA is proving to be one of the most heavily printed masters sets that have come out in a while and the lands included in it are not staples across multiple deck archetypes.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Despite the fact that TCGplayer currently has NM copies for $4.65 shipped, I think it's waaay too early to claim anything from this set has bottomed out. I'm interested to see if Walmart/Target will re-stock shelves with IMA product once their initial stock is gone; if so, the floor for a lot of these reprints is incredibly low. Let's not forget that MM17 booster boxes were still readily available for ~$182 w/ Amz Prime shipping like 4-5 months post-release and that set blows IMA out of the water. I don't think players understand the gravity of the financial situation now that Masters products are in big box stores; any premium set release prior to this was just a drop in the bucket in terms of supply. In the US alone, there are 4,672 Walmart locations and 1,834 Target stores.
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I don't know if the price hiccuped due to TCG's Kickback sale yesterday or there's more room for it to drop further. I don't think so. When it drops significantly below $5, they don't seem to stick around.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
David Ochoa: "Mono-bacon!..."
If I had to guess, I'd say price memory, iconic Rebecca Guay artwork, along with a limited supply. MM15 was printed more than MM13, but not as heavily as the Masters sets which followed; thus, its first printing in Morningtide & other "real" re-printing being at mythic in MM15 have helped keep it at a stable price. Right now TCGplayer only has ~173 LP/NM copies between both printings.
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
Retired
Legacy:
GRUB Lands
Modern:
U Tron
RG Tron
RG Ponza
Picked up a playset on ebay for $100, but only because I play Bogles and I sold my FS canopies once IMA was spoiled. I thought Canopy was going to end up bottoming out ~$15, but that was before I learned IMA product can be purchased at big box stores. I don't mind paying more, so I can play now, but I'm still expecting it to crash in the coming weeks. This is very similar to how Goblin Guide's value shook out following the release of MM17; people were reluctant to sell the $40 card for less than they thought it was worth. Fast forward two months and MM17 copies were $10 a pop b/c it only sees play in Modern burn. IMO, it's a poor time to buy into most IMA reprints until the market settles; foils are the exception as they can often be found cheaper earlier on.
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
So the question comes down to this; do I expect these to drop another 10%, and if so, how long until then? The highly desired singles such as bauble and canopy are not dropping another 10% without another print run in my opinion, and even for some of the lesser demand cards a 10% drop seems like a lot to ask for.
any cards people think will absolutely drop or not drop 10%, and general sense of how this deal relates to the set in general?
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
You can still try it, but remember, we still have Masters 25 in the spring and Eternal Masters in the fall. You don't think Ensnaring Bridge, Crucible of Worlds and Engineered Explosives won't be reprinted?
No one knows where the chips will fall, but I will say that Zen fetches will be reprinted at least once more, likely in Masters 25.
The only safe place to put your money is in the three Masterpiece sets, Judge foils and the Reserve List.
Some enterprising souls have begun to notice the foundation id increasingly being laid for a new format that will likely begin with Origins. Good money being dumped into that in anticipation of that announcement in 2 or 3 years. Cards like Tireless Tracker, Cryptolith Rite, and even Attune With Aether will be in demand.
But Modern is dead as for investing or flipping. The expansion into Walmart tells me Wizards seriously wants to make Modern cheap for entry - or, they are liquidating all their equity in Modern before announcing a new format - and the 25th anniversary may be as good an opportunity as any. Modern will suffer with a new format being announced, but it will not endure Legacy type dwindling.
I'm moving my money out of Modern into Masterpieces, RL and new format staples. I'd advise others to do likewise.
Standard: lol no
Modern: BG/x, UR/x, Burn, Merfolk, Zoo, Storm
Legacy: Shardless BUG, Delver (BUG, RUG, Grixis), Landstill, Depths Combo, Merfolk
Vintage: Dark Times, BUG Fish, Merfolk
EDH: Teysa, Orzhov Scion / Krenko, Mob Boss / Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
I don't think this is news to anybody. Hasbro/WotC figured out how to profit off non-standard players with MM13 and they've gone loco with the reprints ever since. However, that is in no way an indictment on Modern or any format in particular, rather, it just cements the fact that sitting on expensive cards isn't safe unless they're in a deck or on the RL. If I had to guess, putting "premium" sets into big box stores was most likely more of a corporate decision by Hasbro in order to keep shareholders happy, shareholders who have no idea what the **** Modern is. IMA has as much Modern fodder as it does EDH, Legacy, Vintage, etc. Investing in Modern is certainly dead, but the format is far from it.
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
But I am a corner case, and LGS losing sales to, of all places, multibillion dollar corporations has to hurt, both the financial and the 'relationship' side. It's hard enough to stay afloat as an LGS, this will have them screaming up their pipeline, it is very real money taken away from them.
Expect a backlash from the game stores. I do not know what form it will take, but things have really been hard lately, with the change to prize structure at FNM, Iconic Masters being massively overprinted, and general set fatigue. We've had 2 masters sets in 9 months, and we have another 2 coming in the next 9 months. 4 masters sets in 18 months? Conspiracy, Commander Anthology, regular standard sets, Unstable, FTV (which, from all accounts, flopped hard) the flood is relentless.
If I didn't know better, I would say WotC is going under. Decipher pulled a similar move when they lost the Star Wars license.
But I still wonder. If they stopped Masters sets after M25, it would take the market 3 or more years to recover from just Iconic Masters. One can only imagine the damage M25 will do.