We’ve been quiet for a while now but we’d like to stress that this isn’t because we’ve stopped working – quite the opposite! Instead, we have been working on new features for out January 1st 2012 launch.

Today was the first day that we rolled out the new features to our closed beta users. (A “closed beta” is simply a beta test with a few hand-selected users who are happy to use a site full of bugs.)

This is a fairly significant milestone in terms of the site – our “core launch” features are actually live and running right now and it looks like we will be “feature complete” (that is, only working on bugfixes) by the 23rd of December. This is the day that we will open up our public beta to those users who signed up (link is on the http://mtgprice.com front page).

The initial features are fairly simple – users are able to track their own collections along with trades and new additions and to see the price of their collections over time.

In addition, users can see how things like the 2011 World championships affected the price of single cards or their entire collection.

Additionally, users will be able to create decklists and share them with anyone interested, and again, these lists will show historical prices over time so you can see how different events impacted the price of various cards.

The decklists will show users who are logged in the cards they are mising and we have set up one-click ordering of only the cards that you still need to finish your deck at the lowest prices around.

We also allow users to log trades via the wizard that we released earlier (it now has a new look) – this will let you determine if you consistently make good trades over time and should let you keep your collection up to date more easily.

Lots of cleanup has also been added, including (finally!) access to foil card prices. We’ve always been gathering these prices, so you should have several months of data to peruse when the feature goes live on January 1st.

Alerts have also been added. These alerts are user-configurable and can be set up to tell you if any card is selling below a specific threshold price, a percentage below the “Fair Trade Price” or is significantly trending up or down. It’s also possible to view lists of cards sorted by recent gains and losses and those cards that are selling significantly below their typical price at a specific vendor.

The features above, while fun, are just the beginning – we’ll be rolling out at least one significant new feature every 2 weeks for the forseeable future. Our goal is, and always has been, to build a site with the fastest, most reliable MTG card prices around and to give players the tools to use this data effectively.

Look for more blog posts with further details and sign up for the beta if you haven’t already!