The purpose of any moat is to impede attack. Some are filled with water, some with thistles. Some are filled with things best left unseen.
Before I owned any duals I was wishing for reprints. Now that I've bought quite a few over the last few months I'm glad for it, so that the hundreds of dollars I invested won't tank overnight. There's no way in hell I would've spent that kind of money if a reprint was a risk (which is why I still don't own Tarmogoyfs and don't know if I ever will).
As someone who bought duals for basically nothing (or traded rubbish for them), sold them for ~30 euro when I got out of the game and then had to rebuy them for ~80/100 when I came back to the game I still have no regrets about it and would welcome reprints. It would mean that my friends who can't afford to play Legacy could play Legacy. Since I started playing in '94 my Revised cards have always been worth less than their A/B/U conterparts and if you want to be a collector youre probably aiming to go higher than Revised anyway. The Khans fetches have *infinitely* better art than Onslaught imo and, while not the same because of reserve list obviously, I know a lot of players who would happily switch duals from Revised if the art simply looked better. Not me, admittedly, but lots would like to. And hey, if you're into drafting maybe you'll open that new hot planeswalker in foil someday and get yourself a battered old Bayou with it instead
The reserve list is the only thing keeping Wotc from printing everyone's collection of cards to oblivion. Every time they reprint a chase rare/mythic they are just stealing from you.
The only safe cards to put money in are cards on the reserved list. It looks like Oath of Druids will be reprinted in commander. So if you spent 8-9 dollars on it back in the day, I can promise you it will be worth much less by this time next year. Maybe 2-3 dollars. They just stole 3-4 dollars from you. (times 4 in many cases). See how that works.
As far as playing Legacy is concerned, people can just grab a sharpie and a few basic lands, buy the cheap cards and then sleeve them up. And what does "afford" mean. I have heard many people say, if only legacy was 300 dollars, I would play every week. But where do you stop. The next person will say 300 is too much. Vintage is for the oldest player in the 40's and 50's, Legacy is for older players usually in their 30's. Modern is for players in their early 20's or post college. Standard is for newer players or teens/young adults. There are many whining standard players who wish they could play the older formats, but they need to pay their dues. It's a collectible card game. And Magic is a really cheap game to play. One can go on Ebay and buy thousands of cards for like 30 bucks and play in school, on the kitchen table and with friends. There are too many entitled people in this world.
I am sure I pissed off many people with this post.
I admittedly only own like 8 non blue duals, but I also have various other reserve list cards and I would be ecstatic to see all of these cards reprinted to a much more affordable price. Tonight I went to one of my local stores that has had a struggling legacy scene for a few months. Tonight I came in. Bought sleeves. Built a deck. Sat there. 7:30 hit, that's when the tournament was set to begin, there was no-one else there. So I got up and quietly left on what was probably the last time that store will run a weekly legacy event. Now luckily the area has another site that consistently gets 10-20 weekly if not more, but it reminded me of another time before Team Tusk revived legacy in Atlanta when after years and years of legacy Super Games died. I remember the sadness I felt on that final night when it was just a few people there and they said they just couldn't do it anymore. I just want to see a thriving legacy scene. It is admittedly nice to know that I won't lose money on my cradle, or my sanctums, but it would be even nicer to have people to play these awesome cards with.
Solution to the reserved list:
Wotc could have a trade-in policy for reserve list cards:
Legacy player trades in Underground Sea
Wotc gives player 8 copies of Underground Sea with security features and then destroys the original.
winners -
Collectors - who wanted to keep their original cards since their would be less cards in circulation
long-time players who are rewarded for being long time players and now have more underground seas to trade/sell. They get to directly benefit from holding cards. Wizards does not
get to make money/steal from their collections
all legacy players - who now have cheaper dual lands to buy from redeemed/traded in sets
And when the supply of Underground Seas gets low, they can trade in those trade-in dual lands for new trade ins that have a new logo.
Wizards - They also win in that they can charge a fee for the trade-in program
losers - counterfeiters.
I suspect that this solution would be much better than a compromise since the collectors and "investors" would benefit. Does this abolish the reserve list? No. Does it get around it? Yes.
Now some will argue that this will be expensive. My rebuttal is that they already do this with redemption sets on MTGO and they could also charge a fee. Win Win Win for everyone.
Thanks for reading.
Counterfeiters will never lose
"Fuck you, I got mine."
Gotcha.
From the research I've done, 99% counterfeits are coming sooner rather than later. The market is just too attractive.
Ya'll will wish that the Reserve List were repealed when that happens.
Edit: To elaborate, the printing technology and layering are already there. The only thing missing, really, is the finish material (i.e. what makes the cards glossy or shiny); that's the proprietary information.
The only solution, in my eyes, to the Reserved List is to keep it to a minimum, and keep it to stuff Wizards would never reprint otherwise. P9, Time Vault, LoA, BoB, Shop. Maybe throw in Shahrazad and Chaos Orb in there too.
Happy collectors, happy players.
Abolishing the reserve list won't stop counterfeiting. It would be naive to think so. They will just counterfeit something else. Any card that sell for 5 dollars and up is a candidate to be counterfeited. It only costs them pennies to mass produce cards.
Look at the set Mirage. Because of excessive reprinting
only Lion's eye Diamond is worth more than 10 dollars. This same phenomenon is seen through most earlier sets. The Legacy players at least have the protection of the reserved list. Modern players are screwed. Wotc is going to reprint your collection to oblivion and most of you won't see it until it is too late. Look at the people who collected baseball cards in the 90's. They spent hundred, some people thousands of dollars and the company got greedy and now you can use those baseball cards as toilet paper. You would be lucky if you could get 20 bucks for 5000 cards. Why are all the people today smarter than they were in the 90's.
Why does every one pay 100 dollars for a booster box or even 16 dollars to draft cards. I mean if the cards did not have some value then, honestly Wizards could just print complete sets like the game Dominion.
Counterfeiters will destroy magic and I will not argue with you on that point. And if they had a trade in program before the counterfeits were perfect, then that would curtail but not stop counterfeiting.
With all this reprinting, booster boxes should be less than 100 dollars, a lot less, maybe 40 bucks tops.
The reserve list and being mad at it, just causes players and collectors alike to losing sight of the ball. After seeing the print runs of RTR and all new product that they are jamming down our throat, I can see the forest for the trees. Collections are going down. Only alpha, beta, AA, Anq and perhaps legends will survive.
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