

Magic Card Selling For $38K - j546
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GMTG-GEM-MINT-BGS-9-5-ALPHA-BLACK-LOTUS-MTG-MAGIC-THE-GATHERING-/390706387026

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meric
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 of 4.....Black Lotus card
is usually considered to be the most valuable non-promotional Magic card ever
printed."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Nine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Nine)

~~~
talles
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.

~~~
dagw
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.

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ericcholis
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 "GEM MINT BGS 9.5" means that a third party
has evaluated this card and assigned it a grade based on it's condition. For
BGS (Beckett Grading Services), they use a 10 point scale with half points.
9.5 is almost fresh out of pack the day it was made. There is another
reputable company called PSA that does grading as well. CGC is a big one too,
for comics.

~~~
mherdeg
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.

~~~
Kiro
Ever heard of MtGox, the bitcoin exchange? Guess what the name stands for.

~~~
n09n
thatsthejoke

~~~
Kiro
Except that it wasn't a joke.

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noonespecial
Just a nit: The _buy it now_ price is $37,888.88 on a "best offer" auction.
There have been 10 offers. All declined.

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gtirloni
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

~~~
arxanas
There are two classes of play: sanctioned and unsanctioned (or tournament and
casual). Among sanctioned play, there are several "formats", which define
which cards can and can't be used in a deck. Black Lotus is only playable in
the "Vintage" format, which is the least restricted and therefore most
powerful format. Not many people play it compared to other formats, probably
primarily because the cards in it are so expensive, and because not many
people play the format.

You could attempt to forge a copy for play in a tournament. However, such
copies are illegal in tournaments and doing this would get you banned from
sanctioned tournaments [1]; pretty much the only place where people play
Vintage is those tournaments. Furthermore, it's probably more likely that your
cards might be examined on suspicion since there are less people and the
stakes tend to be high [2]. It's also somewhat difficult to replicate well a
Magic card, so you'd probably not do well at it.

In casual play, people just print out a copy of the card and put it in front
of another card in a card sleeve. Oftentimes it's less high-tech: one might
scribble its name on a piece of paper or just write over a worthless card.
This practice is called "proxying" cards, and such a replacement is called
"proxy". You could very well just proxy it and play with your friends like
that. People don't use Black Lotus in casual play because it's fairly
overpowered and wouldn't make for fun games. (Though if the rest of the deck
is of equal card quality, and one is playing with friends with comparable deck
strength, it is still done: you would just be playing unsanctioned Vintage.)

[1]: Tournaments are sanctioned by some Wizards of the Coast organization
called the DCI. They maintain a banlist of players. Local game stores register
their tournaments through WotC, so basically you'd be banned from all places
where you could play Vintage.

[2]: I've never been to a Vintage tournament so I don't know if they check
this, or if so, how, but I'm pretty sure they'd ban you if they found a
forgery.

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jjkmk
I remember a kid in my Jr. High School had one of these (about 1996). He
bought it from the comic shop for about $50.

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joellarsson
I have a 700 cards from early packages up to 1995. Are they worth finding and
selling again?

I remember selling dual-lands for 10$ back in the days, probably got robbed by
my older friends.

~~~
GvS
[http://www.mtgprice.com/](http://www.mtgprice.com/)

~~~
buster
I am wondering why the ebay card sells for so much, then:
[http://www.mtgprice.com/sets/Unlimited/Black_Lotus](http://www.mtgprice.com/sets/Unlimited/Black_Lotus)

~~~
ericcholis
A few reasons:

1) It's from the Alpha set, the very first Magic Release. It's much rarer to
find, since it wasn't as popular.
[http://www.mtgprice.com/sets/Alpha/Black_Lotus](http://www.mtgprice.com/sets/Alpha/Black_Lotus)

2) It's graded a 9.5 out of 10 for it's condition. Practically perfect for an
item that wasn't initially sought as a collectors item

3) The card itself is considered to be one of the Power 9, or some of the most
powerful cards in the game.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Nine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Nine)

Also, the card you linked is from the Unlimited set, which would be the 3rd
printing of this card.

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binarymax
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.

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

~~~
ericcholis
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...

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scotth
But is anyone buying at $38K?

~~~
hendrik-xdest
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
before, apparently.

~~~
ericcholis
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.

