Comments on: Insider: Profiting From a Thinly Traded Market – Alpha Cards and You

By: Mathieu Malecot

Mathieu Malecot — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:33:38 +0000

known print run numbers not broken down: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlimited_(Magic:_Th… unlimited 40,000,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquities_(Magic:_… antiquities 15,000,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_(Magic:_The… the dark 75,000,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Empires fallen empires 350-375 million

By: Mathieu Malecot

Mathieu Malecot — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:14:59 +0000

In reply to Ryan Seeley. biggest boost to alpha prices was making them tournament legal. a link to the card is in the article, the sale, though ebay, has a picture of the card.

By: Ryan Seeley

Ryan Seeley — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:30:25 +0000

There is nothing I love more than collecting Alpha cards. Unfortunately sometime around 5 years ago other people also found such love and prices for most Alpha rares has skyrocketed. Do a search on completed auctions for unplayable rares in Alpha: Zombie Master, Animate Wall, Deathlace. Or if you want to become thoroughly depressed search for marginally EDH playables like Forcefield.

Would you mind posting a picture somewhere on that miscut disk, I have a couple disk myself and would like to compare if its an anomaly.

By: David Schumann

David Schumann — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:32:11 +0000

Great article…I knew that the alpha run was low, but honestly not that low…now I kind of want to find an alpha rare so I can own roughly 0.1% of the total quantity on earth….

By: Mathieu Malecot

Mathieu Malecot — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:38:06 +0000

In reply to pi. greed :)

By: pi

pi — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:59:58 +0000

In reply to Mathieu Malecot. The risk is minimal, I was just saying don't let the high CCG price fool you, $300 seems a better target than $350. Situations like the Meekstone one are great. I'm always on the lookout for those.

By: Mathieu Malecot

Mathieu Malecot — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:57:28 +0000

In reply to Mathieu Malecot. you can get anything graded, but sure nm stuff will command a premium. with so few copies floating around, players that want to use these cards are gonna compromise somewhere.

By: Mathieu Malecot

Mathieu Malecot — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:55:36 +0000

In reply to pi.

while you are right about CCG pricing, using buylist prices still offers plenty of support. the disk less than 7$ at stake. considering the condtion, i’ll just park it in an EDH deack until someone gets interested.

meekstone was a no brainer. markets remain less than perfect in terms of efficiency.

until we get a rotation, and outside of shocks, i don’t see a ton of bargins – things like primordials/ firemane avenger carry more risk imo.

By: pi

pi — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:24:27 +0000

I’d fear CCGHouse is skewing your results for the Disk, they generally price cards like this way higher than any other more reasonable seller. I also had a bad experience buying from them and avoid them since then. The risk was still as minimal as you suggest, but maybe the sell target should be adjusted slightly downward.

I’ve done the same as you with the Meekstone where I had a local shop owner trade for an Alpha Chaos Orb I found in Germany. It got me a long way towards the Tabernacle I wanted and had that lined up before I bought the Orb.

By: douglaslinn

douglaslinn — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:58:46 +0000

I would have thought that Ebay defined the market for these things, so it\’s interesting to hear that there are bargains to be found on the site. I\’ve read that the market for slightly-played Alpha is nowhere near what it is for mint Alpha, because people can\’t get it graded. What are your thoughts on that?

I love how you\’ve already lined up a buyer on the Meekstone. Talk about a safe purchase! That kind of thing is only possible when you\’re a good human being to other people and don\’t screw over folks in the card shop.