For those unaware, Magic: the Gathering recently banned several expensive cards ($100 and $2-300) from the game’s most popular way to play (Commander a.k.a. Elder Dragon Highlander). This is after one of those cards was put in a recent set that was a selling point for lots of people. Wizards of the Coast knew about this ban from an independent group of organizers almost a year ago, but went ahead with the printings anyway.
So now some people have cards they bought for over $100 plummet to prices below $50 (and continuing to drop) since this one type of play is the only place these cards were used. Foil versions were once going as high as $800 to $1,000 but are now dropping to $200.
The thing is, these cards were never on Magic’s “reserve list,” cards Wizards has promised to never print tournament-legal versions of. The last cards added to the list were in 1999/2000. Cards after that can be printed into the ground. Anyone who pays attention to Magic prices knows cards not on that list can have their prices gutted overnight. You shouldn’t be investing in collectables, anyway. But especially Magic cards and especially not ones that can be reprinted.
We now have this situation where capitalists do what they do and a bunch of people, including Tim Pool, are flipping the fuck out after getting scammed by Wizards of the Coast and their owner, Hasbro. Older players warn people about this all the time that WotC will print cards they know they’re going to ban, then wait until those cards have been sold off before pulling the trigger. They win either way. Whales who must always buy new thing before getting hyped to buy the next new thing fork over their money trying to get ahead of everyone else. Players wanting a balanced and fair game are happy because the problem cards are gone (and thus not quitting).
“”“”“Investors”“”“” have been a blight on TCGs from the get-go. A lot of Magic’s recent problems have been from the feedback loop created by Commander/EDH (a whole other can of worms I’m not getting into in this post). So it’s doubly hilarious when the overlap of EDH players who treat their decks like an investment get burnt. Especially since their format isn’t a tournament-oriented one so you can just use proxy/fake versions of cards and anyone who cares is someone you can ignore.
Vintage and Cube players continue to win bigly since we own these cards because we actually play with them, so their value is irrelevant.
Imagine “investing” in cardboard that it’s availability is limited by a private company
Right? There’s been rumors for decades WotC higher ups have personal collections of expensive cards they plan to sell off as a retirement package. And when they do, WotC will finally reprint those cards. They’ll make sure they’re all cashed out and everyone else is holding the bag. It’s a complete black hole. A total void where there’s zero government regulations or rules.
The fact this is even possible should steer anyone away from investing. Even if the above isn’t true, do you really want to risk losing thousands of dollars on a children’s toy when you could buy literally anything else?
The fact that its a commodity that can be mass manufactured at will should steer anyone from engaging in speculation lol, funko pops, sports cards, shoes, etc… Its all insanely stupid.
like do westerners forget these things are made by people? The avg westerner is so distanced from production that its legit concerning how stupid they are