Damn, am I glad I'm up to 34/40 for duals/fetches. Shit just got real.
Haha, Maze of Ith & Sol Ring. Damn it, I knew infinite Sol Rings at $2.50 was a wise investment. Good God.
They did the same thing when they announced the Open Series so I do not think this is some kind of conspiracy. Of course this will start another upward trend of card prices.
With dual lands, FOW costing so much now I think it really is the death knell of Vintage. The barrier just got even steeper even for 10 Proxy events.
-Cheers-
Lol. Vintage is the new budget eternal format. I've been recently selling and trading cards towards cards that are on the reserved list. Its the safest thing to do to make sure that I'm still invested in the game, but cant get hurt by the number of reprints WOTC is churning out. It just makes sense that WOTC reprints expensive cards that are popular in formats they plan to support (like SoFI in EDH and Legacy). It sells product.Originally Posted by (nameless one)
Besides, most of the SCG buylist hasnt changed from original buy prices. They are all almost under the EBay averages. So what if they fix a niche card like candelabra? If you were planning on following the hype and buying one, but feel it was overvalued, you just saved a bunch of money.
This is exactly what happened to me. Person X quotes values from SCG; Wastelands @ $50 vs my Plateaus (NM) @ $35.... When I ask him to not use SCG values he pulls the "but store X is buying them for this much" and "they are on the rise".
Rage.
Competitive Magic right now is at an all-time high. When you have in-print cards in Standard reaching about US$100.00 a piece, then you know things are starting to get out of hand.
Star City is the prime catalyst for this happening, without question. Don't even debate it, otherwise your face will melt off (like the "Charlie Sheen" drug). In all seriousness, the growing price on competitive staples, in addition to the growing demand for Dual Lands, has caused me to completely stop playing for the time being. Legacy is so ridiculously expensive at the moment (and I'm not talking about "Vintage" expensive; that format is well-known for its expensive prowess) that buying in with a deck like Merfolk can even cost you and potentially set you back hundreds of dollars - possibly without any Duals to being with.
Point is, cards just keep going up in value. And it seems as though this could be in some part due to the banning of Survival, as it has opened the door to new and innovate ideas that just spike the value of obscure key components when it does well on the Open Circuit. Candelabra was waiting to be broken, and it finally has. I'm not sure if this was an inevitability or not, but it seems a little coincidental that this all happened at the point of Survival's domination and into the post-Survival era. I think Star City has taken advantage of the growing popularity of the Open Circuit by driving the prices of these cards through the roof (supply and demand) while at the same time dictating the market for these cards in the United States.
I don't think anyone can fault them for engaging in their business, but I certainly can fault them for completely punishing new prospects who want to dive into the format (or even now may have to because of the Invitational's format) but cannot afford to spend a thousand dollars outright to play. I've played long enough to know the drill, but there's only so much my wallet can take before it starts burning up in flames because of the rising demand of staples.
Legacy is a format dictated by its staples and is becoming increasingly unstable as far as pricing is concerned. I liken it to being the "free-style" format of competitive Magic. What will be hot today, might not be tomorrow, but that won't stop dealers like Star City Games from placing their priced inventory of Wastelands, Dual Lands, Force of Wills, Candelabras, etc. on a space-shuttle and rocketing them into outer-space so no one can ever obtain or afford them.
If you want a really interesting read, check this out. There's a plethora of older articles which I encourage you all to read as it pertains to the Death Star City's number one icon. I honestly don't know if he is ignorant to the fact he is in large part responsible for the rising prices of Legacy staples or he is being irresponsible because he knows the value at which these cards will sell at and continues to drive the prices higher because he knows others follow in his footsteps when it comes to price-gauging. They have become so influential in the marketplace that they just don't realize when they drive the price of a card up, overnight other retailers match their prices as close as possible.
That's not necessarily anyone's fault, but that is a powerful ability to wield and I for one will not buy in to the hype anymore (not quitting, but putting my foot on the brakes).
A few of the prices on their new buy list (Diamond Valley, Sol Ring, Sensei's Divining Top, Wasteland) are extremly high/questionable, but the rest of it is totally normal for what they've been buying and selling the past few months. A few of the cards they haven't been able to pry from players from their previously lower buy prices so they're raising their buy prices to try to get at least a little more stock. There's nothing to really be alarmed by.
Find me on Twitter at @JMJACO and @EternalCentral. If you have an interest in Vintage Eldrazi, check out my book Eldrazi Meditations.
I had to kind of smirk at Diamond Valley. Since when was that card used? It's been a long time since i played it. Surprising to see it have more value than I thought it would.
A few Sourcers saw it com4ng. What about 10 bucks for a SDT? that's ridiculous
I hope this trend does not continue or this format will get more expensive then vintage. Right now you only need about 15 different staples excluding duals to play most Vintage lists. Legacy on the other hand requires ~40 staples to play most lists. Even if there is a 20-30% increase it make it impractical now for most players to play the right deck for their meta.
Actually, I saw SCG had a big buylist for old staples on their homepage again and thought "... gee, another hidden treasures promo by WoTC?"
Take it easy,
Jared
"You consider me the young apprentice,
Caught between the Scylla and Charibdes,
Hypnotized by you if I should linger,
Staring at the ring around your finger" - Sting
Ray Thiel (1964-2007) - the man who showed me more wonderful games & gaming sessions than I ever dreamed possible... you ran out of hit points too young, my friend.
They can only choose as much as the market will bear. Look at Vintage, how much have the prices of Moxes and the like went up in the last 5 years (nothing compared to cards like dual lands, and candelabra (roll eyes))? This is a game, at some point either people will cash out and/or the barrier to entry will become too high and prices will fall. Either that or stores will hold onto cards that they can't sell at price X and will be faced with the prospect of either going out of business/changing business model or making the cards cheaper to make sales.
The power that SCG has is that they actively support Legacy and then make a profit on it. If other stores/organizations would do the same then they would also be able to take advantage of the thriving Legacy scene.
So it begs the question if Ray Robillard (IamFishman) or some other trusted name in the community started hosting non-sanctioned 10 proxy events would you go? Everyone can play with $300 Tabernacles at a 10 proxy event...
Looking at Standard, the market will bear a lot.
<sarcasm>
At least this will stop the influx of clueless noobs.
</sarcasm>
Star City just basically has a stranglehold on American Legacy prices; this isn't rocket-science as they are easily the most popular business for hosting tournaments and selling cards. The problem is that while they run good events, they are still driving the prices of singles higher and higher because they are basing their market value on their own sales and inadvertently driving prices elsewhere through the roof. There is nothing wrong with this, I suppose, but when you have such a dominating market presence, you shouldn't be doing that knowing that people who want to play can't because they cannot afford it. What's the point of running these events if you're going to raise the price of a card like Wasteland to $40.00 or more, in turn forcing other businesses to raise it to that price, when it really is and should be only a $10.00 card at best?
They own American Legacy, and they will do anything in their power to make a buck or two off people who care enough to play no matter how much it hurts them financially.
I guess one of the good things about legacy is that any deck can win right now. You don't HAVE to buy new cards to make the hot new deck, because, odds are, people are gonna be prepared for that in the next tournament and your pet deck/old reliable will be just as good as any.
The "New Legacy Scene" means that your deck has as good a chance as any to win. The diversity of the metagame will reward playskill AND familiarity of the intricacies of ones deck. Theres no need for us Legacy Veterans to buy more cards to stay in the game. You just have to play the same deck, or drop a LOT more money. While I'd like to play blue more, I have the cards and the experience with junk and b/w deadguy, and those decks are as viable as ever. Wastelands may be 30$, but I already have a set and like to see that if I needed to cash out, its worth quite a bit of money.
The problem is, there will be less growth. I'm personally fine with that because I've always preferred a more intimate Legacy scene locally. This leads to the point that speculating is going to become less profitable. In reality, only people who LOVE the high tide/12 post decks should be buying candelabra right now. The decks are not overly broken to justify the $150+ price tag. And if they become broken, they get banned.
When you're talking about the sustainability of Legacy, and by extension the game of Magic, "less growth" shouldn't be strived for. Regardless of what you may think of newbies entering the Legacy scene, it's the pot monsters that keep the game (competitive, financial, etc) going, not the top 1% of players.
+1
Well, let's not make SCG into crooks just because they pushed what is most of you peoples favorite format when WotCs management of the reprint policy is the real problem here. We (as in we, the part of the community that despise the reprint policy because of situations like these) let that disucssion die way to easily. WotC just kicked the problem ahead of them, and now it is resurfacing again.
At the very least, they could reprint format staple uncommons in easily accessible products. Like how they had a couple StPs and Mishra's Factories in the Elspeth/Tez duel deck. Cards like force of will, wasteland, aether vial, and so on should really be reprinted in a widespread, relatively cheap way -- FtV sets don't really increase availability enough to effect prices. It's one thing that old reserve list rates become expensive, but it's another if format staples needed to even start building a budget deck outprice some dual lands.
EDH.
I know the Karn and Eldrazi titan general decks use it, and a lot of the decks that can generate obscene mana but need sac outlets for their general so it can be recast for CIP effects or to lock other people out of certain effects.
It's not overly popular in paper due to the cost of the card, but on MWS I've seen it a bunch and I'd assume it sees Commander play on MTGO.
Team Albany: What's Legacy?
You cannot know the sweetness of Victory, without first dwelling in the agony of Defeat.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Reply With Quote
