By: Sigmund Ausfresser
@sigfig8
Did anybody catch the most recent banned and restricted changes? I’m not talking about the latest Modern banning of Eye of Ugin and unbanning of Ancestral Vision and Thopter Foundry. I’m talking about the change that caused this:
Bet no one saw this coming – Fork was unrestricted in Old School MTG. While I’m fairly confident that one copy for over thirty grand won’t sell, the price chart is entirely accurate. Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited copies of this format staple are significantly more in-demand now than they were a couple weeks ago.
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I recently became part of one of those legends you hear where “my friend’s brother’s aunt’s roomate played magic at the start and found his, old cards and asked someone how much they are worth” and they ended up being quite a bit. I’m going to be helping selling them for this person’s kids college funds (and a small commission for myself). I want to avoid ebay and sites,that have fees to help maximize profit. I’ve been feeling the local pulse and I can move duals and Library of Alexandria easily there isn’t much interest in 93/94 where I could move a playset of Beta Black Knights nevermind the true bulk (beta unlimited chaff but still bulk). We are in no rush to move everything but how would you recommend moving beta earth elements and such without selling as bulk? Repacks? Do you know an online buyer?
Wow…first off, congratulations on the find! I love these stories. You’re right, you’re officially a legend now 🙂
Have you checked out the Old School groups on Facebook? There are a handful you could sell cards through. Admittedly, many participants are in Europe so that could get awkward, but if people are buying enough quantity it still could be worthwhile.
As a last resort, check buy lists. Star City Games pays at least $4-$5 on any NM Alpha Uncommon. They have minimal payments for Beta stuff as well, so you may be surprised at how much you can get for seemingly bulk cards. If you Tweet out and reach out to smaller retailers, you may also drum up interest.
I’d avoid repacks unless you don’t care about your eBay feedback.
Best of luck to you! If you’re going to be in Columbus for GP Columbus I’d love to see what you have from this collection!
TCG is the easiest by far. by FAR.
But youd need to slowly build up sales to list the more expensive stuff
Is Europe where old school is most popular?
Europe is where Old School began. So it definitely has deeper roots there. Though interest in the U.S. is growing and I know there’s also a sizable community in Canada as well. It’s becoming rather global.
Just snagged 2 copies of Unlimited Fork off the oft forgotten CardShark for $8 each (though MP condition)
Good play. I got 3 from Card Shark myself (they were $13ish after shipping but they were also in better condition). That’ll give me a set. Now I just have to decide if I want to test them in my R/G deck or not!
One consideration for Antiquities Triskelion is the amount of play he is seeing in Vintage Workshop decks. I know its slightly more popular than old school and players have a wider range of playable options but I would hold this until the Aggro version of shops starts to decline.
On a side note, I wonder how much of your fondness for old school impacted your decision to hold longer than you should have. Did you see yourself playing with these cards and held on for those reasons or the ones listed above?
I didn’t know Triskelion was played in Vintage. If that’s the case, there’s a more compelling reason to hold. Of course, there are far cheaper copies out there that do the same thing as the Antiquities version… 🙂
My fondness for Old School absolutely tainted my decision making when it came to the cards I mentioned above. I became emotional – in most cases I wasn’t even using the cards! I liked the idea of having them on hand in case I wanted to play with them, but I never really did. In hindsight, the use of the cards was definitely NOT worth the missed gains had I sold into the hype. This is my concession to emotions and hype, but I hope to be smarter next time.
Im holding some major value in cards i use/can use in decks, but dont know whether i should hold them thru the eternal masters spoiling.
Eg: Crucible of Worlds: a single in a deck, which i love, but dont have up to scratch for competition yet.
If reprinted we will see much of the “fat” cut off its price…..but if not……it could explode again.
Simple case of measuring potential loss vs potential further gain? Im not sure.
A bunch of inflated modern staples make me think its better to ship them all out via Puca and either hold the points or use them immediately on legacy/OSM staples…..hell, maybe just ship my entire life out and maybe get a HP blue dual land 🙂
Thoughts?
Some cards you own for investment, others you own for play value. There’s always bleed between the two categories, but you need to know for each card where it stands. Do you pick up that Crucible because it was cheap and you knew it would rise, and you’re playing with it because you have it, or did you pick it up because you needed it for your deck and now it happens to be expensive? Answering that question will tell you what to do with any given card.
My entire EDH binder, for instance, is hands-off no sales.
I’m getting to where my EDH binder is hands off too… Looks good for the long term value of hard to find EDH staples and foils. At least cards that are hard to reprint that is… We shall see how many “Commander” cards get thrown into Eternal Masters and if Conspiracy 2 has any major staples.
Travis has it spot-on. You could also think about the enjoyment you get out of that Crucible and weigh it against the value. When Ancestral Vision spiked, I immediately took it out of my EDH deck to sell. Did it make my EDH deck worse? Slightly. But was I getting $30+ of enjoyment out of the card? No way…I barely ever play EDH as it is.
That kind of thought process helped me a lot.