Live data from Hacker News

Magic Card Selling For $38K

ebay.com

21–30 of 32 posts

Re: Magic Card Selling For $38K

#22
An old chess playing friend of mine had one of these. We used to play with card names written on proxy mana cards with sharpies, and our real deck in plastic in a binder next to the game. I gave all mine to my cousin when I went off to college, and he has them in storage some where - I had some decent cards, but I hope my old friend, wherever he is, held on to his lotus.

Re: Magic Card Selling For $38K

#23
post #14

Here's some context from wikipedia for non MTG fans: "Former Pro player and Magic writer Zvi Mowshowitz has declared Black Lotus as the best artifact of all time, claiming every deck in the history of the game is better with a Black Lotus in it.[7] As such, it has since been banned from all official tournament styles save for Vintage, but even there, it is limited to 1 copy per deck, compared to the normal allowance…

OT, but I find random promotional mentions of random people on Wikipedia to be pretty unfortunate.

Blacker Lotus and Mox Lotus are both part of a joke set.

Re: Magic Card Selling For $38K

#24
I don't play Magic/RPG/whatever so excuse my ignorance, but what prevents me and my friends from printing this card outselves (or at an expensive graphic shop) and using it to play? I really don't understand how this works and it seems crazy to me. So I'd appreciate some enlightenment from HN's RPG players. Really honest question. Flames > /dev/null

Re: Magic Card Selling For $38K

#25
post #14

Here's some context from wikipedia for non MTG fans: "Former Pro player and Magic writer Zvi Mowshowitz has declared Black Lotus as the best artifact of all time, claiming every deck in the history of the game is better with a Black Lotus in it.[7] As such, it has since been banned from all official tournament styles save for Vintage, but even there, it is limited to 1 copy per deck, compared to the normal allowance…

So the guy is selling the card for 38k and the card can't even be used in tournaments?

Seriously, I'm sorry for who really likes this game (I'm not one), but 38k for a card is inhumane and irresponsible.

Re: Magic Card Selling For $38K

#26
post #25
post #14

Here's some context from wikipedia for non MTG fans: "Former Pro player and Magic writer Zvi Mowshowitz has declared Black Lotus as the best artifact of all time, claiming every deck in the history of the game is better with a Black Lotus in it.[7] As such, it has since been banned from all official tournament styles save for Vintage, but even there, it is limited to 1 copy per deck, compared to the normal allowance…

So the guy is selling the card for 38k and the card can't even be used in tournaments? Seriously, I'm sorry for who really likes this game (I'm not one), but 38k for a card is inhumane and irresponsible.

Baseball cards regularly sell for well over $100k and on a few occasions for over $1 million. Even if he gets $38K for it, it isn't that much as far as trading cards go.

Re: Magic Card Selling For $38K

#27
post #9

I work in this industry. We recently listed a set of Magic the Gathering Alpha on eBay, all in excellent condition. No takers, but it was impressive nonetheless. There is quite a bit of money to be made in "vintage" Magic cards. Also, I can't remember the last time that a new Magic the Gathering product was released and it didn't go up in value well beyond the suggested retail price. Side Note, for those unfamiliar "…

Sounds like there's plenty of value to be extracted here! If only there were some kind of niche market where people could trade just these items, perhaps some kind of Magic: the Gathering Online Exchange.

Hey @mherdeg. I thought this was a really good idea.

I just checked to see if the domain name was available mtgox.com, but some weird fake money site is using it for what looks like a pyramid scheme.

Considering these pyramid schemes always come crashing down at some point, maybe we can grab the domain after them?

Re: Magic Card Selling For $38K

#28
post #21

Wouldn't it be trivial to forge one of these cards?

Actually, it wouldn't be trivial, especially since this is graded and certified by a third party. I've seen quite a few attempts at fake trading cards. All are noticeable to the trained eye.

There's a lot that would be required to accurately recreate any collectible like this. Paper stock, size, printing process, etc...

Re: Magic Card Selling For $38K

#29
post #7

But is anyone buying at $38K?

I thought the MTG hype ended when I stopped playing in the 90s. It has taken a kind of revival in recent years due to popularity of online card games. With one coming from Blizzard next year, this buy could be worthwhile if you sell it again by the end of next year. I don't think you will get any value from it if you keep it locked up in a bank vault for centuries, though. At least, I don't see it - but I was wrong b…

Actually, Magic is one of the only games that never lost popularity. Being part of the industry, I've seen a few dozen games that were billed as the "next game to kill Magic". All of them have faded into obscurity.

Blizzard had a Trading Card Game for quite some time, first produced by Upper Deck and later by Cryptozoic. It was popular for a time, mostly due to in-game redemptions for World of Warcraft. It has been set aside for their online game; Hearthstone.

In the case of this item, it's become more like a baseball collectible; a part of the history of the game. Also, these items pop up from time to time, but the market for such an expensive card is very limited.

My company recently had a full set of Alpha in excellent condition. We listed it for auction and it failed to meet reserve. We are likely to break it up for the individual cards.

Re: Magic Card Selling For $38K

#30

I don't play Magic/RPG/whatever so excuse my ignorance, but what prevents me and my friends from printing this card outselves (or at an expensive graphic shop) and using it to play? I really don't understand how this works and it seems crazy to me. So I'd appreciate some enlightenment from HN's RPG players. Really honest question. Flames > /dev/null

You certainly could do that among your friends. Heck, there are a number of resources for magic card databases with high resolution scans.

However, it would be very frowned upon in public play and downright "illegal" in tournaments.

Post reply on HN