Starter 2000

Phase 2 Card Count: 16

The question today is, Can you tell if the 6th Edition cards from Starter 2000 are really from the set?  Or are they just 6th Edition cards?

So yeah, the story about Starter 2000 was a release in 2000 with all reprints.  This product was released in a Starter package with a CD ROM that taught you how to play Magic.  During the process of trying to get a complete set of this release I have found a bunch about what is in the set.  So much that I decided to just purchase 2 sealed learning kits off eBay.

Supposedly what is coming in the mail is that wonderful CD to teach me how to play Magic, and 3 packs.  These three packs are going to have all the cards in the set.  The total of the set consists 52 different cards, 10 different basic lands, along with a Rhox foil promo.  Most of these cards are reprints from Portal and Starter 1999, but it also has pretty much exact copies of some 6th Edition cards.

Over the weekend I went out and bought a Starter 2000 Shock, and the seller ended up contacting me with a lot of information I was not expecting.  It ends up, the 6th Edition reprints have a small difference in printing in the rosette that was used for the Starter 2000 cards.

So here are the two examples.

6th Edition Rosette

As you can see there is a black dot surrounded by more lighter print.

Starter 2000

And from what I have been told that they Starter 2000 rosette, there was a light dot surrouned by darker print.

You can only really see the difference when using a Loupe to see the actual rosette.

Now I was a bit hesitant hearing this news from the seller, since it was him that was trying to sell me a $0.22 card for around $4.  So you can see where you might not believe someone, and there is nothing online about the differences.  You will only find that the 6th Edition cards were just exact reprints that were thrown into these packs.  The Portal and Starter 1999 cards were the only ones you could tell were from the set because of the missing set symbol.

Me being me, decided to go in and check the 6th Edition cards to see if I could find these differences.  Low and behold, I could see a difference in most of the cards that were filed as 6th Edition cards.  There were two different rosettes, and you really could assume there were two printings.

This really pulled me into a gully, so I went out to try and find some of these Starter 2000 packs.  I was lucky enough to find a seller on eBay that had 2 learning packages for a really good price of $19.99, so I picked up the 2 sealed packs.  This is going to allow me to open up one pack, knowing that I have all the Starter 2000 cards, but then I can also verify what I have been told and can actually split up my cards under Starter 2000 and 6th Edition.

Basically I am going to look at all the 6th Edition cards under a loupe to see if I can find that same rosette pattern.  If it is a mix of rosettes, then I know that the 6th Edition cards are just that, 6th Edition and the only important cards from the set are the Portal and Stater 1999 reprints without the set symbol.

If this is correct information, then I am down to needing 1 single card left for the set.  After going through all my 6th Edition cards, these are what I found for the set!  Of course I am going to be able to replace them all with the actual Starter 2000 cards, but lets hope these are extra cards I can trade!

Big one here if I am right, that Obsianus Golem is worth $50.00!  I have no idea why it is that price, but someone has it at that price.

So yeah, look out for an update in the next week or so with what I find!