6 ms·

I don't think it's too surprising - cards from this era are primarily collector items, so among equal rarity cards, the most "iconic" ones are the ones that dem

I don't think it's too surprising - cards from this era are primarily collector items, so among equal rarity cards, the most "iconic" ones are the ones that demand the highest price. Charizard had a pre-existing (and continued) level of popularity that made it the obvious most desirable card, even if it's not particularly playable. MTG didn't have the existing IP, so the cards that became iconic are more based around their playability, rarity, and associated mythos. Not too many people are dropping $20,000+ for a lotus to play it in vintage, but the prices continue to rise because of increasing collectibility. For what it's worth, Ancestral Recall is arguably a stronger card of equal rarity, but it's worth substantially less on the basis of being less iconic (if only slightly).

germinalphrase 5y ago
Is there a standard list of highly valuable MTG cards? I have a couple thousand cards from the mid-90s and while I’m sure they are probably worthless, I can’t bring myself to just dump them even though I haven’t played in 20 years.
- 16mb 5y ago
  You can check mtggoldfish https://www.mtggoldfish.com/index/vintage#paper https://www.mtggoldfish.com/index/vintage#paper
- rogerdb 5y ago
  Depends on your definition of "highly valuable" - from that time period, there's a very short list of cards worth >$1000, quite a few in the $100-$999 range, and a ton in the >$10 bracket. What they're actually worth depends a lot on the particular printing and what condition they're in. If you wanted a starting point, Scryfall is a useful tool for looking up cards (though they're missing pricing data for some early cards, presumably due to scarcity of transaction data). Here's something to get you started (cards printed before 2000, sorted by price, displayed as a price list): https://scryfall.com/search?q=unique%3Aprints+sort%3Ausd+date%3C2000+display%3Alist https://scryfall.com/search?q=unique%3Aprints+sort%3Ausd+dat...
- hsndmoose 5y ago
  https://www.mtgstocks.com/lists https://www.mtgstocks.com/lists IMO you'd get a lot of mileage from the "Reserved List" or "Vintage Staples" but site is decent for a general price lookup as well. Feel free to shoot follow-up questions. There are a few cards that went from trash to treasure since you've been out of the game. Lion's Eye Diamond probably the most extreme example, but basically anything on the Reserved List has gone insane in the past few years.
  - herodoturtle 5y ago
    Heya, mind if I jump in here - this comment has piqued my interest. I've got an old collection from the early 90s as mentioned in my comment further up. Are my black bordered cards indeed Beta? I'm going through this list you shared for the Beta edition cards and some of these prices are ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I'm misinterpreting something.
    - aardvark179 5y ago
      Your cards are almost certainly worth a lot less. Maybe they are beta, but they probably aren’t nearly as good condition as you would like to think.
      - herodoturtle 5y ago
        I'm sure you're right. I played these cards to death and didn't really care for their condition aside from just sticking them in plastic sleeves. Anyway this was a fun little trip down memory lane. Maybe they'll be worth something in another 20 years?
        hsndmoose 5y ago
        Even "pretty bad" condition Beta is still worth a pretty penny. Lots of people just want to have complete sets, or play "1994" League which allows only cards from that era. There will definitely be a market if you do indeed have Beta :)
    - 5y ago
- herodoturtle 5y ago
  I'm chuckling to myself because we're literally in the same boat. I still have my collection from the 90s, which I obsessed over as a kid. I just used the fellow HN user's link in this thread to check the value of some of my cards. Turns out my black and white vampire angel deck is worth a chunk of change! And at the time I remember being teased for using outdated Beta cards because I was too poor to buy newer packs. Thanks for the trip down memory lane ^_^
- fencepost 5y ago
  You could do worse than taking a look at relevant videos here (https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCTp-iVOtTrKau0skmfZlo5Q https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCTp-iVOtTrKau0skmfZlo5Q). A lot of it will come down to the value of your time. You can sell directly yourself but deal with headaches and scammers, or you can sell to someone like Rudy for what will likely be ~50% of prices you'll see online. Part of that is that most of your cards will probably be considered in "played" condition, either light or heavy.
- deleted 5y ago
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- deleted 5y ago
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GuB-42 5y ago
Even though the Black Lotus value is mostly as a collector's item, in game, it has the advantage of being extremely versatile. As someone said, all decks are better with a Black Lotus. It is the most expensive because everyone wants it in their deck, no exception, and more than a one if it wasn't restricted (initially, it wasn't). Ancestral Recall may be more powerful but it requires blue mana, which may be an issue in a non-blue deck, of course you can use a Black Lotus for that...
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > As someone said, all decks are better with a Black Lotus. It is the most expensive because everyone wants it in their deck, no exception, and more than a one if it wasn't restricted (initially, it wasn't). > Ancestral Recall may be more powerful but it requires blue mana, which may be an issue in a non-blue deck, of course you can use a Black Lotus for that... It's true that everyone wants it with no exceptions. That's not good enough to make it the most expensive card, though; that's due to prestige. If you look at the decklists for a recent Vintage event (here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/vintage-challenge-2021-05-17#decklists https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings... ), you can see the top 16 decks play 16 Black Lotuses, just 11 Ancestral Recalls... and 16 Mishra's Workshops, which accounts for 80% of the decks that aren't playing Ancestral Recall. There's no such thing as a "non-blue deck" in Vintage. Even the Mishra's Workshop decks can easily generate blue mana. (The Bazaar of Baghdad deck in 15th place can't, but its whole strategy revolves around not needing to generate mana at all.)
  - YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago
    You mean the noprops deck? Curious - I can't make head or tails of it. Can you explain its plan?
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      I haven't played with or against the deck. So this is a purely theoretical discussion that is likely to miss something important. But here goes: - The deck's plan is to attack for damage. It will do this by getting creatures onto the field without paying for them. - There are 9 cards in the deck which require mana to play: the 4 Deathrite Shamans, the 4 Sticher's Suppliers, and the 1 Swords to Plowshares. The Shamans can produce mana and the Suppliers serve the important role of getting cards into the graveyard. But mostly, this deck seeks to avoid playing mana-producing lands, and therefore also won't play cards that cost mana. - Bazaar of Baghdad is the center of the deck; every turn it will allow you to draw two cards (good!) and also discard three cards (great!) - After that, it's just a matter of getting creatures into play. Basking Rootwalla can be played for free whenever you discard it. (Which you can do via the Bazaar.) Bloodghast will come out of your graveyard whenever you play a land. Hollow One can be played for free as long as you've discarded 3 cards. (Luckily, that's the exact amount of discarding provided by the Bazaar.) Hogaak can be played out of your graveyard as long as you have two creatures already in play. And Vengevine, which is probably most of the damage, will come out of your graveyard whenever you play a second creature in one turn. (You have to play them, so Bloodghast won't count, but Basking Rootwalla, Hollow One, and Hogaak all will. If you can play a Deathrite Shaman or a Stitcher's Supplier, those will count too, but this is not a necessary part of the plan.) - Vengevine has haste, so whenever you do manage to get one out, it can attack immediately. It has been the core threat of various decks in the past. - If you can get 3 Bloodghasts and 2 Hogaaks into your graveyard, you can recur all of your Vengevines just by playing a land. This deck has a tremendous capacity to bounce back from creature removal. (Graveyard removal will hurt more.)

germinalphrase 5y ago

Is there a standard list of highly valuable MTG cards? I have a couple thousand cards from the mid-90s and while I’m sure they are probably worthless, I can’t bring myself to just dump them even though I haven’t played in 20 years.

16mb 5y ago
You can check mtggoldfish https://www.mtggoldfish.com/index/vintage#paper https://www.mtggoldfish.com/index/vintage#paper
rogerdb 5y ago
Depends on your definition of "highly valuable" - from that time period, there's a very short list of cards worth >$1000, quite a few in the $100-$999 range, and a ton in the >$10 bracket. What they're actually worth depends a lot on the particular printing and what condition they're in. If you wanted a starting point, Scryfall is a useful tool for looking up cards (though they're missing pricing data for some early cards, presumably due to scarcity of transaction data). Here's something to get you started (cards printed before 2000, sorted by price, displayed as a price list): https://scryfall.com/search?q=unique%3Aprints+sort%3Ausd+date%3C2000+display%3Alist https://scryfall.com/search?q=unique%3Aprints+sort%3Ausd+dat...
hsndmoose 5y ago
https://www.mtgstocks.com/lists https://www.mtgstocks.com/lists IMO you'd get a lot of mileage from the "Reserved List" or "Vintage Staples" but site is decent for a general price lookup as well. Feel free to shoot follow-up questions. There are a few cards that went from trash to treasure since you've been out of the game. Lion's Eye Diamond probably the most extreme example, but basically anything on the Reserved List has gone insane in the past few years.
- herodoturtle 5y ago
  Heya, mind if I jump in here - this comment has piqued my interest. I've got an old collection from the early 90s as mentioned in my comment further up. Are my black bordered cards indeed Beta? I'm going through this list you shared for the Beta edition cards and some of these prices are ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I'm misinterpreting something.
  - aardvark179 5y ago
    Your cards are almost certainly worth a lot less. Maybe they are beta, but they probably aren’t nearly as good condition as you would like to think.
    - herodoturtle 5y ago
      I'm sure you're right. I played these cards to death and didn't really care for their condition aside from just sticking them in plastic sleeves. Anyway this was a fun little trip down memory lane. Maybe they'll be worth something in another 20 years?
      - hsndmoose 5y ago
        Even "pretty bad" condition Beta is still worth a pretty penny. Lots of people just want to have complete sets, or play "1994" League which allows only cards from that era. There will definitely be a market if you do indeed have Beta :)
  - 5y ago
herodoturtle 5y ago
I'm chuckling to myself because we're literally in the same boat. I still have my collection from the 90s, which I obsessed over as a kid. I just used the fellow HN user's link in this thread to check the value of some of my cards. Turns out my black and white vampire angel deck is worth a chunk of change! And at the time I remember being teased for using outdated Beta cards because I was too poor to buy newer packs. Thanks for the trip down memory lane ^_^
fencepost 5y ago
You could do worse than taking a look at relevant videos here (https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCTp-iVOtTrKau0skmfZlo5Q https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCTp-iVOtTrKau0skmfZlo5Q). A lot of it will come down to the value of your time. You can sell directly yourself but deal with headaches and scammers, or you can sell to someone like Rudy for what will likely be ~50% of prices you'll see online. Part of that is that most of your cards will probably be considered in "played" condition, either light or heavy.
deleted 5y ago
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deleted 5y ago
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GuB-42 5y ago

Even though the Black Lotus value is mostly as a collector's item, in game, it has the advantage of being extremely versatile. As someone said, all decks are better with a Black Lotus. It is the most expensive because everyone wants it in their deck, no exception, and more than a one if it wasn't restricted (initially, it wasn't). Ancestral Recall may be more powerful but it requires blue mana, which may be an issue in a non-blue deck, of course you can use a Black Lotus for that...

thaumasiotes 5y ago
> As someone said, all decks are better with a Black Lotus. It is the most expensive because everyone wants it in their deck, no exception, and more than a one if it wasn't restricted (initially, it wasn't). > Ancestral Recall may be more powerful but it requires blue mana, which may be an issue in a non-blue deck, of course you can use a Black Lotus for that... It's true that everyone wants it with no exceptions. That's not good enough to make it the most expensive card, though; that's due to prestige. If you look at the decklists for a recent Vintage event (here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/vintage-challenge-2021-05-17#decklists https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings... ), you can see the top 16 decks play 16 Black Lotuses, just 11 Ancestral Recalls... and 16 Mishra's Workshops, which accounts for 80% of the decks that aren't playing Ancestral Recall. There's no such thing as a "non-blue deck" in Vintage. Even the Mishra's Workshop decks can easily generate blue mana. (The Bazaar of Baghdad deck in 15th place can't, but its whole strategy revolves around not needing to generate mana at all.)
- YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago
  You mean the noprops deck? Curious - I can't make head or tails of it. Can you explain its plan?
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    I haven't played with or against the deck. So this is a purely theoretical discussion that is likely to miss something important. But here goes: - The deck's plan is to attack for damage. It will do this by getting creatures onto the field without paying for them. - There are 9 cards in the deck which require mana to play: the 4 Deathrite Shamans, the 4 Sticher's Suppliers, and the 1 Swords to Plowshares. The Shamans can produce mana and the Suppliers serve the important role of getting cards into the graveyard. But mostly, this deck seeks to avoid playing mana-producing lands, and therefore also won't play cards that cost mana. - Bazaar of Baghdad is the center of the deck; every turn it will allow you to draw two cards (good!) and also discard three cards (great!) - After that, it's just a matter of getting creatures into play. Basking Rootwalla can be played for free whenever you discard it. (Which you can do via the Bazaar.) Bloodghast will come out of your graveyard whenever you play a land. Hollow One can be played for free as long as you've discarded 3 cards. (Luckily, that's the exact amount of discarding provided by the Bazaar.) Hogaak can be played out of your graveyard as long as you have two creatures already in play. And Vengevine, which is probably most of the damage, will come out of your graveyard whenever you play a second creature in one turn. (You have to play them, so Bloodghast won't count, but Basking Rootwalla, Hollow One, and Hogaak all will. If you can play a Deathrite Shaman or a Stitcher's Supplier, those will count too, but this is not a necessary part of the plan.) - Vengevine has haste, so whenever you do manage to get one out, it can attack immediately. It has been the core threat of various decks in the past. - If you can get 3 Bloodghasts and 2 Hogaaks into your graveyard, you can recur all of your Vengevines just by playing a land. This deck has a tremendous capacity to bounce back from creature removal. (Graveyard removal will hurt more.)