So these are all good questions and you should definitely feel good for asking them. Let me attempt to give some answers, although I don't speak from a position of any authority on gold borders.
1) TCGp has prices for the cards that are actually selling. I feel like that's an important distinction - if the cards aren't selling, it doesn't matter what price you put because nobody will buy them.
2) This is the tricky one. The market is "people who want to play the card in EDH/casual, and want a 'real' card but don't want to shell out for the black-border version". I don't think that you're going to get any collectors biting at this - collectors will buy a whole set, or maybe even just one deck, but piecing together a 75 card-by-card? Too much time. So, circling back, eBay is probably your best bet. Post your stuff for 5-10% less than the best current price, and it should eventually sell. I say eventually because these are not too rare, while the people who want one are.
3) It's not a phase, and prices will increase. But only some of them. These are basically extra reserve list cards, so stuff like Cradle is solid - it's not going to get a reprint that will tank the price of the original, thus putting it within reach of more people and reducing GB demand. Look at that Forest that they disingenuously cite as the "true weekly winner". I don't know where Stocks gets their pricing (median listing?), but that's CLEARLY a case of "someone listed some at a lower price and then pulled them", causing the arbitrary line to dip. It's not actually selling at $4. Same with the Randy B bio card. As to why they'd do that - well, it got your attention, didn't it?
4) Thanks, but our numbers are actually up lately. Moving on, no, making people aware of GB cards isn't really going to cause any market swings. It may convince one or two more people to buy GB rather than have a ripped index card saying "Cradle" on it, but there really aren't that many GB cards rotting in binders.
TL;DR - Cradle, Rector, V Stronghold, Survival, Replenish, G Monolith, maybe Yawg Will, and very maybe City are the GB cards that I'd say have legs. The rest are oddities that are mostly overpriced due to zero availability, but there's also zero demand.
So, I actually drafted this on Saturday. It went ... about as expected, honestly.
Elspeth went Naya Aggro. She was a complete house when she dropped.
Liliana showed up in a Golgari shell. Whenever she came down she won the game on her own - no other zombies required.
Daretti went Boros Aggro and ended up winning the whole thing. The pilot didn't even splash for Daretti.
Nicol Bolas went Izzet splashing black, and never got cast.
Ral went full Izzet and never got cast.
I ended up with Teferi, and wow, what a trap. I tried to splash him and a couple big sphinxes into my Selesnya deck, and I never drew both Islands and blue cards in the same game, so I often ended up just color-screwed or with dead cards in my hand.
Tezzeret tried to make Dimir work, but with so much competition it just didn't. He 0-3ed.
Vraska went Golgari, and managed to come down once and win a game.
So I would say that fully half of the planeswalkers were, at best, neutral includes. Tezzeret and Teferi were stones around our necks - I would definitely have done better to play pure Selesnya instead of trying to go Bant. There is NO support for UG nor for WU, but my other option was Izzet-Boros and Teferi isn't what that deck wants to be doing. The Tezzeret player was lamenting the lack of artifacts the whole time. Bolas could maybe have gotten there, and the winner didn't even play his planeswalker. Ral and Vraska are of course in the set, and Elspeth and Lili are monocolored which was a huge flexibility.
Having played it, I can now confidently declare this to be a garbage draft format.
Why are reserved list cards worth so much, who pays such a high price to buy one? Do people really care to spend an extra $400 between a steam vent and a volcanic island for that extra 2 life of damage? It only might make a difference in less than 5% of games.
Reserve List cards are valuable primarily because of a promise from WOTC that those cards will never be reprinted - ever.
If you're serious about playing Legacy or Vintage, and there are prizes on the line, getting the Volcanic Island (TCGMarket at time of this posting, $518) may make the difference between winning and losing. If you're up against a burn deck, those extra 2 life points are free cards for them. Buying the Volc will make your deck that much better and potentially grant returns in terms of winnings. That's one reason that people call them "investments". There are also cards like Lion's Eye Diamond that don't have budget replacements. The card does something truly unique, and if you want that effect, you have to pay for it.
I found some of my old magic cards from when I was a kid. I looked up most and they are worth nothing. I did find a few that are worth something. Need your guys help to see if I’m correct.
I have a orcish artillery
Ironclaw orcs
And then 3 in another language.
Not sure how to post pictures or if I’m even allowed to.
Thanks for helping
Hi Casper, welcome to MTGS. Posting pictures is allowed, especially if you're trying to figure out what cards are (and we'll certainly need to know what edition and language these are if we're going to be able to help you). It only works from the desktop site, not the mobile. The "Upload an image" button should be right under the post frame.
I presume that your Orcs are black-bordered, because only Alpha and Beta are really worth anything. If you're still having trouble with pictures, what's the mana cost on the Orcish Artillery? It changed between Alpha and Beta.
I'd be happy to hear otherwise from someone who does the draft!
Draft is scheduled for first weekend in November. I'll keep you posted.
Basically, I want to try to poke holes in their "this is a good draft" supposition. If no holes appear, great. If holes appear, well, we'll know for next time.
Well, eBay has several listed, and $80 shipped is the low. You're certainly not going to get more than that elsewhere. If you list lower, you may hit someone's price point, and you'll certainly get a wider audience. Don't discount it just because other people haven't managed to sell theirs.
The sealed deck is absolutely worth more than the sum of its pieces. As far as how to actually trade it - I'd probably go with eBay, or a post on Facebook.
TCGp lists sealed packs for $200 USD, and of course nobody actually has any at that price. SCG doesn't even list a sold-out price. eBay has English for under $200 shipped, JPN for $125 shipped. So, I'd aim around $200 USD, which is still a nice return on $6 AUD.
Recently got back into mtg and found a bunch of unopened boosters from Portal Three Kingdoms (amazing what you find moving house). Bought them for $5.99(au) back in the day and it seems they're worth a bit more now. So my question is: should I dump them on ebay and or keep them and hope for a better return in a few more years?
I'd sell those, because WTOC has shown a willingness to reprint all the valuable cards in them, and those cards are only valuable because of their scarcity. Certainly sealed boosters of the set are a collector's item, and a very nice find, but there's nothing in the set that will spike, so while your packs will appreciate slowly, it's not going to make a huge difference.
Availability and price issues aside, I was thinking that it would be really interesting to draft a Mythic Edition box. Then I looked at the planeswalker list and said to myself "Well, wait, I can just grab these cards that I already own, sleeve them backwards, shuffle, and deal them out with the first pack of GRN. Problem solved." Then I looked at the list again and said to myself "Wait, some of these choices suck. What's going on here? I certainly wouldn't want to be the Bolas player stuck between Ral and Tezz. Half of these have black in them. Only one has green. What were they thinking?"
I basically have two questions for the assemblage:
1) Which walkers push towards which archetypes?
2) What's a more balanced list?
I'll take a stab at answering them myself; although the whole point is to get group input I think that it'll help if you know where I'm coming from.
1)
Elspeth is probably going to end up the cornerstone of a Boros/Selesnya deck. Both guilds like her a lot.
Liliana pulls Golgari. There aren't a ton of Zombies (five that aren't at rare or higher) and most have green. I can see a blue splash, but overall she points to BG.
Daretti ... looking at the list, I think that I go Boros splash black, just on the off chance that I can start cranking out Constructs and casting Putrefy for free every other turn.
Nicol Bolas is the capstone of an Izzet or Dimir deck - probably wants to be Dimir splashing red, but could be the other way around.
Ral is Izzet. He works well with the guild mechanics. He's a good fit and an obvious arrow.
Teferi ... is questionable. He's a powerful card, but Azorius isn't there. Selesnya splashing blue, maybe? I'd say Dimir splash white, but there's going to be a lot of competition for black and I don't think that Teferi wants to add to that.
Tezzeret I think is a trap. I don't see him actually making the cut in my final 40. I pass him in favor of a better bomb, hopefully not in black.
Vraska is clearly Golgari. She doesn't have as much synergy with the guild mechanic as Ral does with his, but at the very least she's an Abrupt Decay, and that's always useful.
I don't think that there's any guild that has fewer than two walkers looking to get into it, so I'm not seeing a wide-open lane for Tezz (which was kind of my hope after I wrote all this down).
2) I think I've talked myself into taking a gamble on Daretti - or, at least, that he's not unplayable in this environment - so I swap Tezz for Ajani. Probably Mentor of Heroes, because Selesnya loves "+1: draw a creature card". If I were going to swap out Daretti, I'd probably trade him for Ajani Vengeant. And I'd probably also swap Vraska for either Relic Seeker or The Unseen.
Normally I ask about use cases, but one of these cards deserves special mention: Watery Grave. Shocks are pretty low right now, and they're used in Standard, Modern, and EDH. I'd keep that card regardless. It will be useful forever.
NOW I'll ask about your use case. What kind of Magic do you play? Do you see yourself sleeving up any of those cards in the near future? Venerated Loxodon looks cool for Standard. Pelt Collector has potential Modern and EDH uses. Trostani seems EDH-only, although she does put 5 power on the board for 5 mana so she might show up in Standard. None of these cards are long-term holds, but if you want to use them, don't sell them. Otherwise, go for it. Pelt Collector seems like the one that's going to crash if you don't move it fast - it's selling for a little under $10, but with the amount that this set will be opened that seems high. But as I said, if you think you may want to sleeve it up, hang on to it - the price likely won't fluctuate more than $5, and transactional costs will wipe out any profit that you make if you end up wanting to rebuy.
I know that it's an absurdly bad card, but I think that my favorite card is still Gabriel Angelfire. I remember when I first got one for my GW deck, before it was reprinted in Chronicles. I had a choice - for $17 I could get either Gabriel or the Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. I was advised by the store owner to get the Tabernacle, and I kind of wish I'd followed that advice now, but I bought Gabriel and shuffled him into my 65 (60 card deck? What's that?). I don't know that I drew him in more than a handful of games, but I really liked playing with a Legend.
1) TCGp has prices for the cards that are actually selling. I feel like that's an important distinction - if the cards aren't selling, it doesn't matter what price you put because nobody will buy them.
2) This is the tricky one. The market is "people who want to play the card in EDH/casual, and want a 'real' card but don't want to shell out for the black-border version". I don't think that you're going to get any collectors biting at this - collectors will buy a whole set, or maybe even just one deck, but piecing together a 75 card-by-card? Too much time. So, circling back, eBay is probably your best bet. Post your stuff for 5-10% less than the best current price, and it should eventually sell. I say eventually because these are not too rare, while the people who want one are.
3) It's not a phase, and prices will increase. But only some of them. These are basically extra reserve list cards, so stuff like Cradle is solid - it's not going to get a reprint that will tank the price of the original, thus putting it within reach of more people and reducing GB demand. Look at that Forest that they disingenuously cite as the "true weekly winner". I don't know where Stocks gets their pricing (median listing?), but that's CLEARLY a case of "someone listed some at a lower price and then pulled them", causing the arbitrary line to dip. It's not actually selling at $4. Same with the Randy B bio card. As to why they'd do that - well, it got your attention, didn't it?
4) Thanks, but our numbers are actually up lately. Moving on, no, making people aware of GB cards isn't really going to cause any market swings. It may convince one or two more people to buy GB rather than have a ripped index card saying "Cradle" on it, but there really aren't that many GB cards rotting in binders.
TL;DR - Cradle, Rector, V Stronghold, Survival, Replenish, G Monolith, maybe Yawg Will, and very maybe City are the GB cards that I'd say have legs. The rest are oddities that are mostly overpriced due to zero availability, but there's also zero demand.
Elspeth went Naya Aggro. She was a complete house when she dropped.
Liliana showed up in a Golgari shell. Whenever she came down she won the game on her own - no other zombies required.
Daretti went Boros Aggro and ended up winning the whole thing. The pilot didn't even splash for Daretti.
Nicol Bolas went Izzet splashing black, and never got cast.
Ral went full Izzet and never got cast.
I ended up with Teferi, and wow, what a trap. I tried to splash him and a couple big sphinxes into my Selesnya deck, and I never drew both Islands and blue cards in the same game, so I often ended up just color-screwed or with dead cards in my hand.
Tezzeret tried to make Dimir work, but with so much competition it just didn't. He 0-3ed.
Vraska went Golgari, and managed to come down once and win a game.
So I would say that fully half of the planeswalkers were, at best, neutral includes. Tezzeret and Teferi were stones around our necks - I would definitely have done better to play pure Selesnya instead of trying to go Bant. There is NO support for UG nor for WU, but my other option was Izzet-Boros and Teferi isn't what that deck wants to be doing. The Tezzeret player was lamenting the lack of artifacts the whole time. Bolas could maybe have gotten there, and the winner didn't even play his planeswalker. Ral and Vraska are of course in the set, and Elspeth and Lili are monocolored which was a huge flexibility.
Having played it, I can now confidently declare this to be a garbage draft format.
Reserve List cards are valuable primarily because of a promise from WOTC that those cards will never be reprinted - ever.
If you're serious about playing Legacy or Vintage, and there are prizes on the line, getting the Volcanic Island (TCGMarket at time of this posting, $518) may make the difference between winning and losing. If you're up against a burn deck, those extra 2 life points are free cards for them. Buying the Volc will make your deck that much better and potentially grant returns in terms of winnings. That's one reason that people call them "investments". There are also cards like Lion's Eye Diamond that don't have budget replacements. The card does something truly unique, and if you want that effect, you have to pay for it.
Hi Casper, welcome to MTGS. Posting pictures is allowed, especially if you're trying to figure out what cards are (and we'll certainly need to know what edition and language these are if we're going to be able to help you). It only works from the desktop site, not the mobile. The "Upload an image" button should be right under the post frame.
I presume that your Orcs are black-bordered, because only Alpha and Beta are really worth anything. If you're still having trouble with pictures, what's the mana cost on the Orcish Artillery? It changed between Alpha and Beta.
Basically, I want to try to poke holes in their "this is a good draft" supposition. If no holes appear, great. If holes appear, well, we'll know for next time.
I think that the whole point is to warp the draft around the planeswalkers. Otherwise, why not just do Triple-GRN?
Any time.
TCGp lists sealed packs for $200 USD, and of course nobody actually has any at that price. SCG doesn't even list a sold-out price. eBay has English for under $200 shipped, JPN for $125 shipped. So, I'd aim around $200 USD, which is still a nice return on $6 AUD.
I'd sell those, because WTOC has shown a willingness to reprint all the valuable cards in them, and those cards are only valuable because of their scarcity. Certainly sealed boosters of the set are a collector's item, and a very nice find, but there's nothing in the set that will spike, so while your packs will appreciate slowly, it's not going to make a huge difference.
I basically have two questions for the assemblage:
1) Which walkers push towards which archetypes?
2) What's a more balanced list?
I'll take a stab at answering them myself; although the whole point is to get group input I think that it'll help if you know where I'm coming from.
1)
Elspeth is probably going to end up the cornerstone of a Boros/Selesnya deck. Both guilds like her a lot.
Liliana pulls Golgari. There aren't a ton of Zombies (five that aren't at rare or higher) and most have green. I can see a blue splash, but overall she points to BG.
Daretti ... looking at the list, I think that I go Boros splash black, just on the off chance that I can start cranking out Constructs and casting Putrefy for free every other turn.
Nicol Bolas is the capstone of an Izzet or Dimir deck - probably wants to be Dimir splashing red, but could be the other way around.
Ral is Izzet. He works well with the guild mechanics. He's a good fit and an obvious arrow.
Teferi ... is questionable. He's a powerful card, but Azorius isn't there. Selesnya splashing blue, maybe? I'd say Dimir splash white, but there's going to be a lot of competition for black and I don't think that Teferi wants to add to that.
Tezzeret I think is a trap. I don't see him actually making the cut in my final 40. I pass him in favor of a better bomb, hopefully not in black.
Vraska is clearly Golgari. She doesn't have as much synergy with the guild mechanic as Ral does with his, but at the very least she's an Abrupt Decay, and that's always useful.
I don't think that there's any guild that has fewer than two walkers looking to get into it, so I'm not seeing a wide-open lane for Tezz (which was kind of my hope after I wrote all this down).
2) I think I've talked myself into taking a gamble on Daretti - or, at least, that he's not unplayable in this environment - so I swap Tezz for Ajani. Probably Mentor of Heroes, because Selesnya loves "+1: draw a creature card". If I were going to swap out Daretti, I'd probably trade him for Ajani Vengeant. And I'd probably also swap Vraska for either Relic Seeker or The Unseen.
Those are my thoughts. What are your thoughts?
Hi there SovereignMaster, and welcome to MTGS!
Normally I ask about use cases, but one of these cards deserves special mention: Watery Grave. Shocks are pretty low right now, and they're used in Standard, Modern, and EDH. I'd keep that card regardless. It will be useful forever.
NOW I'll ask about your use case. What kind of Magic do you play? Do you see yourself sleeving up any of those cards in the near future? Venerated Loxodon looks cool for Standard. Pelt Collector has potential Modern and EDH uses. Trostani seems EDH-only, although she does put 5 power on the board for 5 mana so she might show up in Standard. None of these cards are long-term holds, but if you want to use them, don't sell them. Otherwise, go for it. Pelt Collector seems like the one that's going to crash if you don't move it fast - it's selling for a little under $10, but with the amount that this set will be opened that seems high. But as I said, if you think you may want to sleeve it up, hang on to it - the price likely won't fluctuate more than $5, and transactional costs will wipe out any profit that you make if you end up wanting to rebuy.
Check your order history.