The Right and the Wrong of the Past Year

By: Cliff Daigle

Last week, I went over five of my best articles of the past year. Today, I’d like to go over some assorted statements I got right and wrong, and perhaps why.

The bad news first.

Planning Ahead for Commander 2013

I made two specific predictions in here. One, that the Zendikar fetches would be reprinted in these decks. Oops. But then again, we’re going to predict those reprints over and over again until they happen, because everyone wants them to happen.

I also said that the foil versions of Command Tower would be breaking $20 when these decks came out, and they have actually ticked downward. I still like picking these up in foil, as there’s been only two ways to get it in foil, and neither of which is easy to find in trade. As soon as someone trades for it, it goes into a deck.

Cents and Sensibility

While I firmly believe that Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is a plant for the coming block, it’s getting difficult to stomach trading for something at $10 and seeing it dip to the nearly $5 it’s at now.

I’m only in for a dozen copies, so if it doesn’t pan out, I’m not too deeply in the red, but it’ll sting. I’d be likely to just sit on them and wait for the casual appeal to tick it back upward,

To happier subjects! Meaning, what have I been right about?

Where’s the Price Drop?

I stand by this, not in a financial sense but in a self-assessment sort of way. It’s important both professionally and personally that when you make a mistake, you look at why you made that error and how you can avoid it.

I think my biggest error there was overestimating how much M14 was opened. Several rares and mythics from that set have kept a high price despite seeing low numbers in play. All of M14 is about to rotate, and people have started to move on.

Side note: Garruk, Caller of Beasts has a Fair Trade price under $10. I’m trying hard to get these because they are just outstanding in any casual format. A plus ability that digs deep? Sold.

Are You a Collector?

You need to know this. Everything’s a reprint! Everything! This is sound financial advice, especially as we see Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Chord of Calling as incoming reprints. I believe that the originals will take a hit but they needed to. They didn’t see enough tournament play for their prices.

Don’t trade or buy cards that can be reprinted based on their scarcity. Pick them up based on how well they would survive a reprint.

Neat Tricks with MTGPrice

This is the first article I refer people to. There are a lot of features built into this site and you should take advantage. Prices, ProTrader, and more. I use these constantly and you should too.

I’m going to link to another article but it’s not yet time for me to evaluate how well I did:

October Price Rotation Targets

In a couple of months, I’ll be able to give that the right amount of time to see how well I did. Some I was right, some I was wrong. That’s one I’m looking forward to, mostly. Some things, I’m dreading.

Join me next week when we go over some Magic 2015 cards!