Oh yes it definitely can, and even way more than that. Before I explain let me briefly tell you about a game called Magic the Gathering.
In 1993 Richard Garfield created Magic the Gathering and it was published by Wizards of the Coast. It is referred either as Collectible Card Game or Trading Card Game, and to this day it is still very popular and every year new cards are released. Typically it is played as one vs one with pre-build decks consisting of 60 cards, but there are more different formats that people can play. For example Commander format uses 100 card decks, which include special Commander card that the deck should be revolved around and it is played by more than two players where every player is looking for himself. In this article I won’t be explaining the rules since it would take a bit too much, but if you were interested to know how to play it, I recommend having a look at the official basic guide at https://magic.wizards.com/en/magic-gameplay, and trying playing it online for free: https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena or visiting one of the official local game shops.
Here is a small MTG skit followed by its Pro Tour report:
Magic the Gathering is not only a community of collectors and players who love the game, there is also a group of investors so to say, who try to predict card prices. Some of them buy sealed products wait until they are no longer printed, and resale for more. There are also brave enough people who try to manipulate the market, by buying the whole supply of certain cards.
I guess you might already have an idea why cardboard can be more expensive than gold. Typical card weights around: 1.8 grams and 1.8 gram of gold as of Today is worth: 74,80$, so as long as a card is worth more than that it will be worth more than its gold equivalent, and let me tell you, there are loads of cards worth more than that.
Card prices fluctuate a lot. Cards that are often used in many decks and haven’t been reprinted for a while tend to either keep their prices high or even slowly go up. For example Scalding Tarn hasn’t been reprinted for a while and is played a lot. Currently its average price is 99.74$.
Other than that prices can be affected by content creators who mention that certain card is very powerful. That’s what happened with Paradox Engine, right after one of the popular Youtube channels released a video where they talked about it, it spiked to 49$:
Whole different sums of money are in Vintage Magic. First ever printed set called Alpha had a very limited print run, and created one of the most iconic card: Black Lotus. The oldest cards that aren’t played, but instead bought by collectors, are often graded by certified companies. Grading depends on a few factors like no scratches cards, no edges damaged etc. Recently on eBay Black Lotus graded 9.5 out of 10 was sold for 166,100.00$, which is currently the record. Interestingly just 7 month ago the same grade Black Lotus was sold for “only” 87,100.00$.
If you are interested in Magic the Gathering don’t get scared off by those prices. As I mentioned at the beginning there are many different formats in MtG, meaning some cards are legal in certain formats and some aren’t. For example, Black Lotus is legal only in the Vintage format, which is probably the most expensive format to play. Also the expensive cards are mostly used in a competitive environment, for a casual play you don’t really need those.
Questions:
Questions:
- Have you ever heard about Magic the Gathering before? If not, would you be interested in trying it?
- Does those prices seem crazy to you or are they justifiable?
- Have you ever collected anything or had a hobby that can get expensive?
Sources:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/80kc1f/til_any_magic_card_worth_more_than_about_77_is/
- https://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Zendikar/Scalding+Tarn#paper
- https://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Aether+Revolt/Paradox+Engine#paper
- https://www.ebay.com/itm/1993-Magic-The-Gathering-MTG-Alpha-Black-Lotus-R-A-BGS-9-5-GEM-MINT-PWCC-/143136537077?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true
No, I've never heard about it before. I think it's completely not my topic, so it's really hard for me to write about it. Due to the fact that I have never been interested in it, actually these prices seem crazy to me.
ReplyDeleteBut I realize that you can have a hobby that not everyone needs to understand. I think that my cars are such an investment in my case. They are already at such a stage that they only gain in value. 😉
Yea MTG is definitely not for everyone ;) Some people don't like the rule complexity, some think it's too pricy, and others just don't like table top games in general, even if someone likes table top games, might not be into card games. I like it for a lot of different factors, collecting (I love the art on the cards), deck building, competitiveness, and social aspect.
DeleteSpeaking about prices, yea I admit it can get crazy, but as I mentioned in the article, it's also possible to play on a budget with a more casual cards, which can cost less than few cents.
Now you got me interested what type of car you are driving, would you mind sharing more details? ;)
I'm completely in love with Mercedes. I am currently the owner of w202 c280 and w124 e400. I think SEC500 will be my next baby :)
DeleteNice! I'm not big into cars, but SEC 500 looks amazing! I hope you will find a good deal for it ;)
Delete1.Have you ever heard about Magic the Gathering before? If not, would you be interested in trying it?
ReplyDeleteYes I have hear of it but I never played it. The only card game that I used to play was Hearthstone. I don't play it anymore but it was really fun game. I think that Magic would be as much interesting and fun to play.
2. Does those prices seem crazy to you or are they justifiable?
these prices are extremally crazy but they are so high just because people are willing to pay that much.
I don't mind them being that high at all. If someone wants to play and pay for these cards thats their own free will and money :)
3. Have you ever collected anything or had a hobby that can get expensive?
I used to collect rare stones (gems) when I was a kid but unfortunately I never found any rare one but I have asmall collection of very beautifull agates and rhinestone's.
I also played Hearthstone, it was fun, but I missed cool interactions that MTG offers has. Since you liked Hearthstone if you have time I would highly recommend you trying the MTG Arena online ;)
DeleteWell said, as long as there is a demand the prices will be going up. I was lucky enough that most of the cards I bought either maintain their value, or gained value.
Having gems from your childhood is a cool memento to have ;)
So what kinds of interactions does MTG offers over Hearthstone?
DeleteOh there is quite a lot ;) I won't get into detail, but generally speaking you can play certain spells/use creature abilities during opponent turn, there is whole concept of "Stack" because of that, which means that all triggers/abilities/spells go on the stack, you can interact with it, and once player don't have any more responses it will start resolving from the top.
DeleteOther than that there are a lot more card types: creatures, sorceries, instants, enhancements, lands, sagas, planeswalkers, artifacts etc all of them are different from each other, and behave differently. There is a ton more mechanics on cards, and I think I still don't know most of them ;) And since MTG is 26 years old there is over 15k unique cards, and every year new cards are coming out (this weekend there is a prerelease for new set), each of this cards have some interesting interactions etc
I’m not interested in playing such games, but I find your article very interesting. Sometimes we can read or hear that something seemingly worthless is very valuable, but for me it’s stupidity. I understand that playing is interesting and nice entertainment, I also understand that people may engage in it more than is sensible, but to pay so much money for a card? I’m curious if buyers are rich people with more money than they can spend, if yes, prices are not so astonishing. If you have millions 100 000$ more or less is not a difference and having such fortune you can even say that it was cheap.
ReplyDeleteGenerally I don’t collect things. When I was about 10 or 12 years old I collected little calendars but I threw them away without any sorrow.
I'm glad you found it interesting ;)
DeleteActually I might have missed important detail in the article, once the card is graded people no longer play with this card because its in chunky protective box, so it becomes collector only item. I also wonder what type of people buy those cards. I think some of them are bought as investment, since the prices for those are only going higher.
Also in my opinion the price is justifiable, because as with any other collectible items its value depends on rarity and popularity, the bigger the community of collectors for certain item is, the prices will be higher too.
I have heard about Magic the Gathering, I have 2 colleagues at my work who challange each other sometimes. They have a passion for it, I must admit. It is fun to listen to them talking about the game. I used to play some card games when I was a child, but I can't even remember if they had a name and what they were about ;) Those prices are indeed justifiable, take skins from some online games as an example, the rare, the more expensive. Obviously more factors indicate their prices, but I am sure you can imagine. I am not a collector anymore. I had some collections of cards, legos, binder with funny pages and so on and so forth when I had less than 10 years.
ReplyDeleteHaha I think a lot of people who grew up in 90s to early 00s remembers the "binder pages", I also had some, and my friends where crazy about them ;)
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ReplyDelete1. I hear about it for the first time. Unfortunately, I am not interested in buying or collecting such cards.
ReplyDelete2. On the one hand, they may seem crazy, on the other hand, there are always collectors who willingly spend any amount on the card they don't have in their collection. Collecting will always be in the price unless we collect packs of matches :)
3. I used to collect telephone cards, basically just because my mother had quite a big access to them because of her profession.
I don't have a tendency to collect the most expensive items, it seems to me it's redundant and even ridiculous.
However, I think that if someone can afford it and it gives him pleasure. Why would they not do this?
Exactly, as long as there is demand the prices will be going up ;) It still shocks me, how people are actually buying cards as investment instead for playing the game. It's almost like a stock market at times.
Delete1. I have heard about these cards only because of prices. I once read about this article but it seemed strange to me. Rather, I would never play this card, but each card game I played was GWENT. I liked it because of the gameplay and artistic setting because I love making animations and illustrations myself. However, after a large number of updates, he lost a lot for me and I resigned from the further game.
ReplyDelete2. These prices are crazy, I would never spend such sums on the card. You must be a fanatic. However, always occasional items will have a high price.
3. I used to be a fan of collecting figures from the Lord of the rings, peoples were using for the game, but I collected them only for collector's purposes. Today I know that prices are also huge for such figurines also.
If you are not interested in the game at all, but you are really into art in general, I highly recommend checking out the artists that create art for the MTG cards. Three of my favorites are John Avon, Noah Bradley and Terese Nielsen, but there is a ton more artists I can't remember that also create amazing art.
DeleteThe prices might seem crazy, but in the end since the prices are purely driven by community its based on demand and rarity of the card, don't you think in this case it would be justifiable?
Figurine collecting is also really interesting. Did you also paint them, or were they already prepainted?
I have heard about Magic The Gathering, even yesterday I met my colleague from high school who is playing this game, he told me about event in Warsaw which will have place this weekend and about hundreds of fans of this game. But, I've never played Magic before and to be honest I'm not into playing this type of games so I'm not interested in trying. The crazy prices of items at auctions have stopped scaring me long time ago. I think that when you are crazy about something, the price does not matter to you. In my life, I was only collecting boxes of games and books, but I don't think that expensive hobby so the answer is no, I haven't :)
ReplyDeleteYes I’ve heard but I not too much really. I’ve played some game called Hearthstone and that’s my only connection with card games. I was also a fan of a Yu-Gi-Oh and I remember we were playing it with friends.
ReplyDelete1. I have never heard about this game before. I could give it a try if of course it's not that expensive as you mentioned.
ReplyDelete2. They are insane. How a normal person can spend that massive amount of money on the piece of laminated paper for short period of entertainment? That's crazy for me and stupid even if you say it's worth it.
3. I am not a collector and can't be as I am moving quite often between places. The only expensive hobby I have is gaming. Games are quite expansive but if you have the physical console version then you can always resale it to someone else and have part of the money back. I am not a fan f having expensive hobby like those cards or golf or anything that requires loads of equipment to get started.
I've heard about this game before from friends but I've never got interested in this topic, but I've had some time spent with heartstone which really got me into. Prices for such cards are understadable. In almost every field of life, especially when this can be someone's hobby there is place for collectibles and rare items for wealthy people and investors. You wouldn't believe what people can collect and pay such big sums for it. On my own I'm raising money for some time for my first drift machine, someone call this hobby pretty dangerous but for now I can say only that is expensive and has very high entry point because of costs that You have to deal on the beginning of Your journey. Maybe in year or two I'll also be able to begin practicing my hobby.
ReplyDelete1. Yes, I heard about it, but it's completely not my story. This game does not make me laugh at all and I'm not interested. Boredom.
ReplyDelete2. I think the prices are exaggerated. This game is for kids, and it's really stupid.
3. Yes, my hobby is photography. Lenses are really expensive.
1. Yes, some of my friends collect Magic the Gathering. However games that require constant financial investments are not my cup of tea so I would not be interested in trying it.
ReplyDelete2. Unique collectible items tends to have crazy prices. Is it worth it? For most of us, no. But for MTG fans it might be.
3. I used to collect Pokemon cards as a kid. Nowadays I don't have space for such things and I keep only useful items.
Have you ever heard about Magic the Gathering before? If not, would you be interested in trying it?
ReplyDeleteYes, had some friends playing Magic the Gathering. But personally, I am not interested at all in trying it. I don't like card games, they have too much randomness in them. I don't like random events in my games, and I hate the idea of buying cards to keep up with the other people, that's just plain stupid to me. I like games where everything relies on my own performance and skills and time I put into mastering them, not spending money.
Does those prices seem crazy to you or are they justifiable?
I can see how the prices can reach such values. That's how it works when there is need for something that's rare and needed :) But as I stated before, I would never spend my money on that.
Have you ever collected anything or had a hobby that can get expensive? No, I am against collecting, prefer to keep my hobbies minimal and rely on experiences rather than gathering stuff. My music hobby is expensive, because DJ equipment is expensive, but I am not collecting it in larger amounts that is really necessary :)
Actually I’ve never heard of Magic the Gathering before. While watching the attached video I was surprised how big community this game has. It seems like even Richard Garfield, the creator, didn’t expect such huge interest when he was creating this game. I like the world of fantasy so I guess I could really like this game. I think I need to give it a try. As to prices, it all depends on how much the other side is willing to pay for specific good. If there are buyers of these items price is justified. You cannot deceive the law of demand and supply. I don’t have a tendency to collect specific items and to be honest I didn’t had a hobby that required collecting significant number of things. Perhaps it’s good because sometimes people are ready to pay astronomical amount of money for things they are obsessed with.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've heard about Magic the Gathering before, because I used to be casual Duel Masters player, which is loosely based on MtG. I've never played it live but I tried PC game some time ago and it seemed good.
ReplyDeleteI think it's perfectly fine. Most of us buy pretty useless things for a lot of money and nobody cares so I don't see anything strange in someone willing to pay a lot of money for exceptional card.
I don't collect anything but I'm PC gamer and it's quite expensive hobby, since price of some periferals tend to be strangely high.
I’ve seen people playing this game, apparently there is a big community of fans. However I don’t even know the rules, I guess the cards have different functions and strength. I’ve seen people collecting different fantasy franchises like Warhammer. From my childhood I remember Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards, that boys would collect and exchange. It’s not a very appealing idea to pay thousands for a piece of card.
ReplyDeleteI've never been interested in card games. I will be happy to learn the rules of Magic the Gathering (if only I find a free moment). The price for any good results from the consensus of buyers and sellers. If someone is willing to pay a piece of paper for an astronomical amount - apparently it is worth so much.
ReplyDeleteAs a child, I started collecting stamps, but soon lost my enthusiasm. Maybe my humble collection will once be of great value, so I do not get rid of it.
Have you ever heard about Magic the Gathering before? If not, would you be interested in trying it?
ReplyDeleteYes, I played Magic The Gathering when I was in middle school. It was quite fun, I remember me and my friends trying to beat each other on breaks. I had quite a deck I have to say.
Does those prices seem crazy to you or are they justifiable?
They seem crazy, it's so much money, but hobby costs sometimes and I understand that one can spend so much on cards. But I didn't know that there are people who want to spend so much on a game. That's interesting.
Have you ever collected anything or had a hobby that can get expensive?
Yeah, I collected MTG cards, some music equipment which is my expensive hobby, computer games. I like to have something for me only, so that's the moment when I can satisfy myself.
I've never heard of this game before. It seems very interesting and I want to try. Even out of curiosity. They seem crazy but justified. If someone is interested in a given field and wants to develop it, it is most reasonable. No less, the prices are high. My hobby has never been expensive. If it does, I think it could cost a lot. If it would please me, the price does not matter.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard about this game before and I'm not fan of such games. I always prefered video games and activities outsite. I think that prices are justifiable. I've always though about games in general like about art (such art yuo can play around). Some modern works of art cost more and it is standard to value them such high prices.
ReplyDeleteI had hobby of riding bike. It is really expensive hobby. The more you sink in, the more money you spend on it.
I have never heard about this game before and I'm not fan of such games. I always prefered video games and activities outsite. I think that prices are justifiable. I've always though about games in general like about art (such art yuo can play around). Some modern works of art cost more and it is standard to value them such high prices.
ReplyDeleteI had hobby of riding bike. It is really expensive hobby. The more you sink in, the more money you spend on it.
Have you ever heard about Magic the Gathering before? If not, would you be interested in trying it?
ReplyDeleteI don't heard about Magic the Gathering before and from what I read it's quite demanding game so I don't think that in the near future I would like to git it a try because I guess it needs a lot of time and effort to be joyful.
Does those prices seem crazy to you or are they justifiable?
Prices are set by the market so I'm not surprised. As long as someone is willing to pay such amount of money- let people invest!
Have you ever collected anything or had a hobby that can get expensive?
Back in the days, before it become so 'popular' I used to collect sneakers and few of them because of rarity, increase their values 10 or even 15 times according to retail price. Still, I know people who are making a living from it.
Have you ever heard about Magic the Gathering before? If not, would you be interested in trying it?
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard about that but I was playing Yugi-Oh and Hearthstone card games long time ago. Generally I really enjoyed that time but still, I have an irresistible impression that the main problem here is "pay-to-win", as it's really hard to defeat other player when he has cards worth a lot of money.
Does those prices seem crazy to you or are they justifiable?
For me buying cards is not crazy but paying thousands of dollars for them it totally ridiculous. Similar mechanism works also for example in FIFA FUT system, when each football player is represented by a card. Then if some Youtube channel will test it, prices are growing. Of course, prices are too high, but their real value is how much someone will pay for them. I can say that people who buy all cards from the market only for selling can irritate but it's not just a game but business also.
As a child I was collecting Pokemon cards. It's hard to estimate them but now they're priceless for me, because of their sentimental value :D
Ah, I did spend quite a bit of money for GTM cards :) especially to set up my commander decks. GTM is a really nice card game but it have tough learning curve and even if you are familiar with your how your current deck plays, you may still have to learn yet again if you change a deck.
ReplyDeleteI can't say its justifiable for the card prices to reach such levels, but also not to many of them cost that much, its usually monster cards that tend to bring death and destruction to the table.
I do have a hobby that is quite costly indeed. This evil things are hand watches, even if you don't buy those absurdly expensive ones its still quite high-priced.
1. Have you ever heard about Magic the Gathering before? If not, would you be interested in trying it?
ReplyDelete2. Does those prices seem crazy to you or are they justifiable?
3. Have you ever collected anything or had a hobby that can get expensive?
1. I haven't. Maybe I would, in some more free time.
2. It is relative. Such prices are common in games world, in computer games too. People can pay much money for things worthless for other people, only because they like them a lot. People have free will and can spend their hard earn money in way they want, so why it wouldn't be justifiable?
3. I assume, beside the hobbies, you are talking about material things. In this case I think not in some dangerous level for my wallet. But I spent money in a past in different, not necessarily wise and of first need, way :P I think we all did in some level.
No, I've never heard of this game before. I play this type of game once in a while (usually quite long while), during meetings with friends. It's people and their interest in different things is what determines prices in the world. This is why the football players earn such unimaginable money. The prices of the cards mentioned in the post are very high, but there is nothing crazy about it, people make them what they are. Ss a child I was collecting phone cards, but unfortunately, I see no chance that they would start to gain any serious value. I would like to make expensive cars my hobby, but for now it's not going to happen ☹
ReplyDeleteI have never heard about it, but I am not flabbergasted. It is the people that assign value to assets, free market, it is perfectly natural behaviour. I am not interested in buying those cards, maybe if I treated it as an investment, but at the moment I have one expensive hobby, my beloved BMW beater - I spend on it A LOT of money!
ReplyDeleteNo, I've never heard about Magic and Gatherig :) Now I prefer some party games like "Tajniacy" or "Podaj dalej", but playing in kind of strategic games can be also interesting (I used to play Warhammer).
ReplyDeletePrices of all games are too high, and that’s why there are not so popular.
Basketball and judo are my hobbies, they are not so expensive as this card game.
I've never heard of Magic the Gathering before. I like card games and board games, so I'm happy to play every "new" game.
ReplyDeletePrices may be high for such cards, but in reality everything has a value. For me such prices are high, but for a collector prices do not matter and he would be able to pay for such a card much more. Moreover, everything that rarely appears in the world is expensive and everyone wants to "have" it.
I used to collect phone cards that had magnetic stripes. I don't know if they're expensive. Maybe you want to buy them? In my family home I should still have them :)
Magic is definitely one of the best card games I've played or the most enjoyable. In my case the most valuable part is very exceptional artwork that every set has. I also admire hand painted cards that some people create which made them even more unique. To be honest high prices don't stun me anymore. People tend to value a lot of things that for me are completely useless or rather I should say incomprehensible but I also have such things so no judgment here. I'm not really into collecting things but maybe in a future I will give it a try.
ReplyDeleteI have heard about Magic the Gathering - and even played for a while in its computer game variation, I never had any cards from this universum. However, as a kid, I was passionate about other cards games – such as Yugioh - I was saving up money just to buy new cards (back then, in 2005, spending 100 zlotys on the set of card, might be considered outrageous, considering huge unemployment rate I also find Gwint (the card game from Witcher 3) extremely enjoyable - I spent a lot of time with my friends playing this game. This kind of entertainment (optional part of Witcher 3) became so popular that CD Project decided to create a separate game, entirely about Gwint (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwent:_The_Witcher_Card_Game).
ReplyDelete