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Klazam
08-09-2012, 10:22 AM
Is it worth it investing in the big vintage cards if there is no vintage scene around where I live?

Koby
08-09-2012, 11:43 AM
As a monetary investment? Not likely. You will be able to get better returns through other means of investment.

As a collection investment? Maybe. This one is completely subjective experience that varies for each individual .

As a Vintage staple? Certainly! The funny thing about having people seeing your fully powered deck is that they also get interested in what's going on, and might even start to pick up some Vintage decks as well. In turn, Vintage is re-vitalized.

Most of the Vintage staples (read: Reserve List) are at worst going to plateau in value. At best they might gain a bit of value (unfortunately, not enough to count as an investment). If you have the means to put some money into Vintage that falls into your discretionary budget then it's not a bad place to be. I don't recommend skipping meals just to have one more Mishra's Workshop tho.

aahz
08-09-2012, 11:54 AM
Only you can answer that question. I picked up nearly all of my power when I more or less had no one to actually play with (that has recently changed though). It was worth it to me because I am a collector/horder as well as a player, so I derive quite a bit of pleasure from the cards themselves even if I don't get to play much. It doesn't hurt that my wife and I have reasonable incomes and no intention of having children, making it perfectly fine to drop $$$$ on occasion for things we enjoy. I don't think of it as an investment though, but rather as an entertainment expense (like going out to the movies or a concert). I have no intention of ever selling my cards anyway.

tl;dr. If it makes you happy and you can justify the expense, do it. If not, don't.

copywriter
08-24-2012, 07:54 AM
Hi guys

I'm also interested in this question, but I have some other questions though:
(not trying to hijack the thread)

- How much would it cost me to buy into Vintage? I do like black bordered cards, but I fear that BB Power costs a lot.
- How much would beta/alpha p9 Execellent condition cost?
- Where could I buy this? Where is it safe? Where is the best price?

- Also, how much would the P9 cards from 3rd edition in NM condition be?

Thanks!


J

Jakgotbak
09-06-2012, 03:57 PM
Is it worth it investing in the big vintage cards if there is no vintage scene around where I live?
As Koby said, it's not really worth "investing" if you're looking to turn your money into more money. Most Vintage cards don't seem to be trending quickly upward, but they are pretty stable, if not trending slowly upward. This makes Vintage cards are safe places to put your money. If you decide you don't like it, and take a hit of $50 when you sell back you Lotus down the line, that's not much worse than what happens when a standard deck rotates out.

As for not having anyone to play with, let me tell you the story of how the Vintage scene has grown up in Los Angeles.

We aren't like the American North East, where there seem to be big Vintage tournaments every month, but we have a small but growing community of Vintage enthusiasts who can always be found slinging power between rounds at local Legacy tournaments. This community did not spring wholly formed one day, but grew up from 1 or 2 players having cards and wanting to game.

My friend had some money burning a whole in his pocket when a major collection came into our shop; so he bought a Beta set of P9 and built a TPS deck. Since he needed something to play against, he proxied up Tezzeret and handed it to me. I'd never played Vintage before, but I was soon hooked. I bought the Mana Drains that had been rotting in our store's singles case for ages, and built a Mono-Blue Fish deck that I would play against the TPS. Eventually, I found a Recall at a decent price, then some Moxes, a Lotus, a Walk, and now I can play basically whatever blue deck I want, unproxied. It never bothered my friend if I played with proxies, but I was excited about the format and wanted to own the cards.

And that excitement begets excitement. Every time we would play between rounds at a tournament, people loved to watch. Eventually, more players started proxying decks and then getting cards. In some cases, we would learn that people we'd known for a while already had cards, but didn't think anyone else was looking to play Vintage. Now, there are, I dunno, eight or nine guys you can count on to have a Vintage deck of some kind, looking for games at an FNM or between rounds of a Sunday Legacy event.

Tonight, a different good friend of mine is going to come over, and we're going to bash Vintage, drink beer, and probably rail against all this new "can't be countered" non-sense that's happening to our game*, and none of this would've happened if not for one guy who built a Vintage deck even though there was "no Vintage scene around where he lived."

*Seriously... I was sitting on Mana Drain against Shops at Vintage Champs when my opponent goes "Cavern of Souls, naming Construct, play Triskelion." ._.



Hi guys

I'm also interested in this question, but I have some other questions though:
(not trying to hijack the thread)

- How much would it cost me to buy into Vintage? I do like black bordered cards, but I fear that BB Power costs a lot.
- How much would beta/alpha p9 Execellent condition cost?
- Where could I buy this? Where is it safe? Where is the best price?

- Also, how much would the P9 cards from 3rd edition in NM condition be?

Thanks!


J

Black-bordered Vintage cards vary greatly based on condition, but they will not be cheap. My recommendation is to look into Unlimited until you at least have all the cards you want. A lotus looks sweet on the table, no matter what color the border is.

If you really want to go with Beta, I'd make sure to buy from someone you can find again if the cards end up being fakes. I think PayPal has some buyer protection on that case.

And the P9 weren't in 3rd Edition - just Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited.

JACO
09-06-2012, 06:15 PM
If you're not going to actually play Vintage or travel to play Vintage it's not really worth just having stuff sitting around in boxes collecting dust. While it might go up monetarily, you will probably gain much more pleasure from "investing" in something you'll actually use frequently.

xfxf
09-06-2012, 07:59 PM
I have recently got my first piece of P9 but I currently don't have a Vintage scene around and I will be relocating quite soon and as far as I know there's a weak and unenthusiastic Vintage scene where I'm going. Still, there's some satisfaction in getting Vintage staples from both a collection point of view and for having a side project going on for the card hunt while you are already playing actively with what you have. Also as someone who quit Magic a couple of times I can say that there's no such thing as cards gathering dust. They just wait there for you pick them up again, they are kind of eternal :)