MTG Salvation

Aaaand Negate....

There's always an answer to an answer to an answer, this is MTG after all.
My point was just at least there are answers currently.

Good thing we have Authority of the Consuls.

NEWS FLASH

This card was not designed for Modern.
So quit griping about poison counters.

Is it just me or is she wearing something that Queen Amadala would be seen in?!?!

It's a Two-Headed Dragon with only one head, Lol!

Most of what you have is not worth grading. The money cards you have will run between $15 and $40 each to grade with PSA. That doesn't cover shipping and insurance. If you don't get a grade of 9+ it's not wirth it. Collector's only want those top grades, players want the best price they can get.

If l were you l'd go on ebay, tcg, and other sites to compare relative pricing. If you sell as a lot you'll get less, but you'll get it sooner. If sell individually, you'll get more but it'll take longer. P9 and dual lands are the most sought after cards, so without those it's less desirable. That said there are still some money cards.

If you've been playing any of the cards don't bother grading those.
Since you got the lot so cheap anything going at market value will be amazing profit. Grading is for unplayed cards only, IMHO.

@crimhead: Cannot find any info about World Championship print runs. The 1996 Inaugural Pro Tour decks print run was 20,000 sets.

Also, Lion's Eye Diamond was never printed in gold border. Back in the day everyone thought it was a junk card. It wasn't until the Legacy format started getting explored that player's finally saw it's value.

Alpha 2.6 million cards
Beta 7.3 million cards
Unlimited 40 million cards
CE/IE 4.3 million cards
Revised 500 million cards

Just for some perspective.

I'm all for legalizing gold bordered cards for Vintage and Legacy for selfish reasons, I collect Collector's Edition cards. I think that it wouldn't affect tournaments in any negative way. As Pollaski stated, if you legalize gold bordered cards, their prices would sky-rocket. The only people who would benefit would be people like me who already own said cards. As far as pricing is concerned, I don't believe that legalizing these cards would allow new players to enter eternal formats cheaply.

As far as availability is concerned, there were only 15,000 combined sets of Collector's/International editions printed. I don't have numbers for the pro tour decks. But for CE/IE cards that's really not that many more cards for the formats. Currently on ebay a Revised Tundra costs between $115 to $130 US, and there are around thirty available(only looking at "Buy it Now" cards). There are only four CE/IE Tundras available, and while there's one for around $99, the rest are over $130. So no savings for the masses there. Gaea's Cradle costs upwards of $180 and there are eighteen online compared to the eight pro tour Gaea's Cradles, which average about $45. There are probably more Revised cards on the market, by a large volume, than CE/IE cards. The only real savings is on P9 cards. Price is by and far a larger barrier to entrance in eternal formats than card availability is.

There's an unsanctioned old school format that allows CE/IE cards(Old School 93/94), once that format gained traction those cards started climbing up in price. I don't feel that by legalizing gold bordered cards you'd be solving many of the issues involved with eternal participation, other than getting people who already own gold bordered cards to join. But I have an inkling that would not be a significant enough number to matter much. The only way to increase participation and garner new players into eternal formats(Vintage and Legacy specifically) is to abolish the Reserved List and print aggressively, not likely to happen. So while I'm all for legalizing GB cards, I truly don't believe it would affect much, sadly.

When it comes to the square edge, just double sleeve.(card in a perfect fit sleeve inside an opaque sleeve) That tends to solve that problem>

Edit: according to magiclibrarities.net there were 20,000 Pro Tour Collector's Sets produced.

I thought it was named after the T.V. show that starred James Garner.

There's already something like this in the works, except it starts with Khans block, they call it Frontier.

I'd like a WRG spider,
a better BRG insect, and
a better RG hydra.
Also a five color angel.

@Doctatre, first off go check out which formats are big at your LGS. I'd suggest going to some Limited events just to check out the current mechanics. Standard seems to be the most prevalent format by volume. Also Standard'll have a smaller card pool to have to deal with rather than something like Modern. Right now Standard is five sets:
Battle for Zendikar
Oath of the Gatewatch
Shadows over Innistrad
Eldrich Moon
Kaladesh

The next time standard rotates will be fall 2017, and the first four expansions listed will rotate out. My advice as far as purchasing boxes would be to start with Kaladesh since your investment will be in the format longer. You can pick up singles from the other sets as needed with out wasting a bunch of money. FYI, Aether Revolt will be released Jan. 20 2017, the second
set on Kaladesh.

If you're looking to get into Modern, my advice would be to find a deck you like, and fits your play style, and just get the cards to build it. Modern decks can be expensive to build,
but once built it'll last a life time(barring anymore stupid bannings). In the Modern threads below are tons of decks to check out.

As far as competitive Magic goes, Standard is easier to get into and comprehend, but you have to keep up or get left behind. Modern(and Legacy) are more expensive to get into and the metas can be much more diverse. If you don't know and understand what your opponents are bringing, you'll get crushed.

Do you still have your old cards? If so, how far back do they go. If you have enough of the right old school cards, and your LGS supports it, Legacy could be a way to go.
And what kind of budget are you working with, this can determine which directions you get to go?


@Colt47, in the OP, "ideally to play competitively" is a direct quote, just sayin'.

If you head on down to the casual threads, and in the Homebrew section there are a few Old School variants floating around. In the past few years nostalgia formats have been on the rise, other people miss that old school feel too. So just hunt around for folks interested in Old School and casual. They're harder to find but they do exist. 93/94 happens to be my favorite "format". You should post some pics of your rare stuff, would like to see if you've some drool worthy cards.

If Mill is a consistant threat try Wheel of Sun and Moon.