woo... hoo... I ended up getting one of these reprinted foils.
I have been saving at least 10% of my gross income since I was 17. I have been investing those savings since I was 18 because I could open my own accounts. Some would call me a value investor.
I tend to lean toward the dividend paying stocks, and just recently started to learn about the debt market with bonds and coupon payments. Suffice to say, I like the investments that are more than just hoping the go up in price. I like to get a little bit more from them. Dividend payments that I can roll into more shares using DRIPs. Tax free coupon payments from Municipal Bonds.
I have always felt the same about Magic the Gathering cards, they were not only something I could collect, but I could actually use them by playing the game. The increasing value of them was also an added bonus, where I could actually see the value of them go up over time. If someone figured out a new deck to play with, and certain cards were put in the deck that had low value, you could be sure those cards would start to increase in price the more players wanted that deck.
This is just how Magic worked. WoTC would print cards, and those cards would become more popular with the new and more powerful decks that were thought up. So obviously WoTC needed to figure out a way to reprint the cards in order to try and fulfill demand of their customers. The evolution of the game has been the reprints to exist in the sets defined for Standard play, but it has become difficult to reprint those cards because of how the Standard game gets manipulated with those powerful cards.
WoTC can only print so many special releases like From the Vault before those prices go sky high. The only thing left to do is to make reprint sets of the more powerful cards and let the players buy up those sets to fulfill demand. Makes sense.
WoTC started that with the Master series, but then morphed it into something stupid because of some reason. I don't know, they felt bad putting out a really awesome set with cards everyone needed? Anyway, it was a hit. Not like Chronicles, where it just pissed off all the collectors to the point they were going to boycott the game, no this was actually successful. The first set sold out super quick.
Not only did they release another reprint set, but the raised the price by $4. And sure enough, the player base sucked that stuff up real quick too. But with this set the player base was a bit upset, just because we had to pay a higher price, but got worse cards.
So they keep putting out reprint sets, but now they increase the number of sets.
Eternal Masters
Modern Masters 2017
Iconic Masters
Masters 25
Battlebond
Conspiracy
Conspiracy: Take the Crown
Anthology: Dual Decks
Anthology: Planechase
Anthology: Commander 1
Anthology: Commander 2
They also tried the chase card theory which failed and actually caused their sets to become less valuable.
Zendikar Expeditions
Kaladesh Inventions
Amokhet Invocations
So they stopped those, but still wanted to tap that chase card market so they came out with a new Mythic Edition serving that you can only buy from the Hasbro website.
And now they are putting Masterpiece cards in the reprint sets and increasing the price again.
All along there is still this game call Magic the Gathering that I love to play with really only three new releases a year. That means there is honestly only three sets you need to pay attention to each year. Yeah there is the Core set, but that is mostly reprints.
Everything else is noise to make WoTC more money. It is all special edition junk for those collectors to chase after. But don't get me wrong, it is a fun chase. I am just tired.
Owning this stock that used to just pay a good Dividend is now requiring me to throw in more money each quarter for the same stock that does the same thing, but it might just be shiny. I have grown tired of the chase of the chase card. I do not see the point to it. I am looking back and I see all those sports cards that mean nothing anymore.
I look at it like this. I can keep all the cards that I have now and just stop. I have everything I need to play the game with my son. I can still have fun with the cards I have, and there is no need to get that one special card with the full art and all the shiny. I do not need to have more reprints in the collection. Honestly, how many Snapcaster Mages do I really need when I already have 2 playsets of the original?
I am pretty salty with how WoTC is releasing these products. When you think you have a grip of the releases they change it up or come out with some new product that does the same thing. I just hope now with the death of the Master sets the come to the realization that the drafting sets are also a flop, and stop trying to get in on the draft market.
They tried to force Conspiracy and Battlebond on us and it failed. They tried to redo EDH into some new format called Brawl that failed. They tried to make some 1v1 EDH thing happen and it failed. They need to just make the cards and let the community create the types of games, and stop trying to control everything.
Fine, they have to reprint cards, and they want them to be available to everyone. So why keep increasing the prices of those sets, making it harder and harder to get to the players? I get it, they are just trying to make more money than the did the year before, and they are a business. I just don't want to chase anymore.
And it is not that I don't have the funds to spend on MTG cards, I am just tired of the chase of new product. Just come up with a line up and keep it. Stop trying to change everything.
So yeah rant off.
I did pick up some new cards, older booster boxes, and stamps so I can start to send out like a mad man!
This came in a while ago, but thought I would post it now. I wanted a second playset from this release because I use this in almost every EDH deck I have.
Those Core 2019 cards keep rolling in, so CardSphere is working for me.
Finishing out that second playset of Lanterns, and got my foil set of a card that I thought was awesome before I really read the card... Yeah not so good.
Woot! This closes out my Invasion block of sealed booster boxes! So happy I got this one in. There was a bit of question I had on this one. It looks like it has a new WoTC stamp on the wrapping. All the other sets from this time has a rectangle WoTC symbol and this one uses more of the WoTC flag symbol. I ended up getting some pictures from a reputable only LGS, and it showed the flag symbol, so I went through with the CardSphere trade. But it did have be very worried of a re-wrap situation. Looks like this was when they had a new wrapping printing process? No idea.
And the trilogy is complete. I now have an Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable sealed booster box in the collection. This one was pretty low on the priority list, but happy to bring it in either way.
So yeah, the plan is still to send out as much as I can until that number hits 0. Then be able to pick up only sealed product for the collection, and waiting the 2 years after rotation to pick up the playsets of any set through singles from the LGS or CardSphere. I am still only going to go for 1 of's on the reprints, and the playsets of new prints in any reprint set. And of course we are still getting our Commander sets because EDH is the only way to play.
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